Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard will be tested immediately on how she will handle threats to national security and U.S. troops as America’s new director of national intelligence.

“That test is coming, and it’s coming like a runaway freight train,” said former U.S. Rep. and Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who spent 20 years on the House Armed Services Committee reviewing chilling threats to the country, its citizens and troops.

He said U.S. presidents have a history of ignoring intelligence that does not fit their narratives or political ideologies, including threats to hijack passenger jets and crash them into buildings that became reality on Sept. 11, 2001, or ignoring CIA reports that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which President George W. Bush discarded to make the case for a U.S. invasion that killed and maimed thousands of American troops.

Asked what he thought Gabbard will do about briefing Trump on the never­-ending threats against U.S. interests, Abercrombie told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser that Gabbard was already receiving classified intelligence after being sworn in Wednesday.

“The answer will be coming right away, right away,” Abercrombie said.

Gabbard’s meteoric rise from local politics in Hawaii to a Cabinet-level position in the second Trump administration was on the minds of island politicians of all stripes, although many Democrats — her former party — either declined to comment for this story or would offer comments only if their names were not used.

Republican state Rep. Diamond Garcia, however, celebrated Gabbard’s swearing in Wednesday as the nation’s top intelligence official.

“I’m even more comfortable here in America with Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our national intelligence because Tulsi’s not loyal to a particular person or party,” said Garcia, who represents Ewa-Kapolei. “It’s evident that Tulsi follows the truth. She’s honest, she has integrity and her utmost loyalty is to the U.S. Constitution, not to President Donald J. Trump.”

Garcia was endorsed by Gabbard and serves in the Legislature with her father, Democrat state Sen. Mike Gabbard, who also represent districts in West Oahu.

“She served the country. She knows what the cost of war is,” Garcia said. “She’ll definitely make the right decisions. I have no doubt that she will relay to the president every piece of information that would harm our country, and they will take immediate actions to mitigate the harm.”

Gabbard’s position has little influence over the federal budget, and she probably won’t have much effect on the flow of federal dollars to Hawaii, either negatively or positively. But her role in Trump’s Cabinet could lead to broader federal attention and help for Hawaii, Garcia said.

And Garcia feels confident that he and other Republicans can contact Gabbard on a range of issues affecting Hawaii that Trump can follow through on.

“She is a great benefit for us,” Garcia said.

One prominent Hawaii Democrat, who requested anonymity, agrees that Gabbard’s background in Hawaii could convince Trump to improve U.S. aid and support throughout the Pacific region in the face of Chinese aggression.

Gabbard can emphasize the need for federal assistance in “the place that started off her political career, Hawaii, and the place of her birth, Samoa,” the Democrat said. “She obviously has access to the president. He’s obviously very fond of her, so she should really look for opportunities to help Hawaii, American Samoa and the Pacific. That’s where she’s from.

“If she can do that, then some of the negativism that people feel about her … could maybe make people think twice about having so much animosity toward her. … Who’s the best agent for America in the Pacific? It’s Hawaii. If she wants to be a statesperson, a diplomat, that’s what she should do.”

Gabbard joins a short list of Hawaii residents who ascended to Cabinet-level positions in the U.S. government, including Eric Shinseki, a retired Army general who served as secretary of veterans affairs under Bill Clinton; and former Republican U.S. Rep. Patricia Saiki, who served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration under President George H.W. Bush.

Saiki helped coordinate relief efforts for Kauai after Hurricane Iniki struck in 1992.

Gabbard served in the Middle East as a captain in the Hawaii National Guard and can speak the language of military brass handling intelligence information coming into Camp H.M. Smith in Halawa, said Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii and serves as associate professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.

And she won’t have to be educated on how security concerns affect the wider Indo-Pacific region, Moore said.

One Democrat who worked with — and supported — Gabbard during her rise as the youngest member of the state House onto the Honolulu City Council, Congress and a 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidacy, said that she will seamlessly step into her role understanding threats and risks to Hawaii and across the Indo-Pacific.

“It would be positive,” said the Democrat, who also requested anonymity. “She’s someone who has an understanding and appreciation for defense issues in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Especially with Gabbard’s Samoan heritage, the person said, “You’re not going to have to get out a map and show her where Asia is, because she has an appreciation for the Pacific islands. She knows where Samoa and Guam are when relating to the Pacific theater.”

After she returned from her first deployment to Afghanistan, Gabbard began to separate herself from her family’s more socially conservative values — especially toward gays and lesbians, the person said.

“She had moved philosophically to the left,” the Democrat said. “My view was she had been influenced heavily by her deployment. It had an impact on her social views and making sure veterans were taken care of.”

But Gabbard had hardly turned into a progressive Democrat. “I considered her to be a fairly mainstream Hawaii moderate Democrat,” the person said. “I would not say she was a progressive.”

So the person was “not surprised” that Gabbard launched a long-shot campaign to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee in 2019 and 2020 that ended with her suspending the campaign in 2020. “She is a fairly ambitious person, and I certainly saw that ambition play itself out in a number of ways. She had it in her mind that she was going to be a national figure.”

Now she is.

As for why Democratic officials are reluctant to speak about Gabbard, the Democrat said, “For a lot of the local leaders, it’s personal. A lot of them feel really betrayed. There’s not a whole lot of upside to throwing rocks and talking stink about her. But there is profound disappointment and sadness about her. She was a bright star with a bright future in the Democratic Party.”

Political analyst Neal Milner agreed, saying “her (Democratic) legacy was over when she started talking stink against the Democrats.”

Moore said he believes that Gabbard’s transition from Democratic rising star to Trump loyalist and Cabinet member won’t be replicated by other Hawaii Democrats.

“If you’re a local Democrat, I don’t see why you would think changing parties is a path to success, because Tulsi Gabbard is a singular figure,” Moore said. “Gabbard’s rise is due to her personal charisma and national profile. I don’t see local politicians seeing this as an act they can repeat.”