Dubbed by ABC News in 2015 as a “political rising star,” Tulsi Gabbard was making news as a Hawaii Democrat unafraid of criticizing President Barack Obama.

Gabbard complained in a CNN report back then that the Obama administration “refuses to recognize who our enemy is.”

“My concern however is that the Administration still has not accurately identified our enemy, nor have they clearly articulated what the strategy will be to defeat this enemy. The reality of war is that if you don’t know and understand your enemy, you cannot defeat them,” Gabbard said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Gabbard met with Donald Trump right after he won the 2016 election. She added in a statement: “I felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government.”

A review of Gabbard political support shows that it frequently changes. She resigned her position as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to support U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.

And then in dramatic fashion, she left the Democratic Party in October of 2022, saying, “They demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans. The Democrats of today believe in open borders and weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents. Above all else, the Democrats of today are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.”

This was two years after she ran for president as a Democrat.

But, Gabbard then said the Democratic Party stands for a government of, by and for the “powerful elite,” and she called on her fellow “independent-minded Democrats” to leave the party, as well.

At the same time, if Gabbard was finding it difficult to support Democrats, she was finding more reason to back Trump.

In 2019, Gabbard, then in Congress, voted merely “present” to two articles of impeachment charging then-President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“After doing my due diligence in reviewing the 658-page impeachment report, I came to the conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no,” she said at the time.

By this year, Gabbard was able to say “yes” to the Republicans, lacking only a signed party card.

In closing the door on the Democrats, Gabbard last week endorsed Trump for president in his reelection bid.

Gabbard praised him for “having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.”

As Gabbard becomes a politician of many things, switching roles doesn’t seem to bother her. Going from campaigning for president as a Democrat to announcing her support for Donald Trump’s GOP campaign for president makes the 43-year-old former Hawaii legislator, Honolulu City Council member and Hawaii Army National Guard veteran a politician of many faces.

For the voters, deciding exactly what a vote for Gabbard means is becoming more of an open question.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.