Trump's MAGA machine mobilizes to boost Gabbard

• "We feel OK about Tulsi's chances," one senior White House official told Axios. "But we want to feel better."

State of play: Trump plans to start making calls to Republican senators on the Intelligence Committee, where Gabbard faced tough questions Thursday about her past views questioning surveillance tactics and defending Edward Snowden.

• Losing just one GOP vote on the committee — which includes nine Republicans and eight Democrats — could sink her confirmation.
• Gabbard refused to call Snowden a "traitor" for leaking secret intelligence documents before ending up in Russia. That appeared to bother Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), whom Trump's team is most worried about.
• But Gabbard seemed to please another swing-vote Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, by saying she wouldn't ask Trump to pardon Snowden. Collins' reaction was a relief to Trump's team because of her penchant for bucking the president more than most other GOP senators.

If that sounded like a deal in the making, Trump's team wasn't ruling it out.

• "The president isn't really talking about pardoning Snowden, but if that's a guarantee they want to get Tulsi confirmed, the president will have those conversations," the White House adviser said.

Catch up quick: Trump has been in a feud with the U.S. intelligence community since his first administration. He sees Gabbard — a former Democratic House member from Hawaii with similar disdain for the so-called "Deep State" — as a disruptor and change agent.

• Trump's Day 1 executive order, "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government" specifically calls on the director of national intelligence to "review the activities of the intelligence community over the last 4 years and identify any instances" of political prosecutions and investigations.

Zoom in: Vance and his team worked closely with Gabbard on her presentation to the committee. And Vance, a former Ohio senator, has been Trump's go-to representative to the Senate for all of his prominent nominees.

• Cotton, the Arkansas senator who chairs the intelligence panel, committed to getting Gabbard the votes she needed. The two are friends from their days serving in the House.
• The Senate Republican Conference, also led by Cotton, has turned its X page into a pro-Gabbard "war room," an operative involved in the process noted.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said it's unlikely Gabbard would get a full vote by the Senate if she doesn't win a majority of the votes on the Intelligence Committee.

Zoom in: Many MAGA diehards outside of the administration also are pushing for Gabbard because they see her — and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's Health and Human Services nominee and another former Democrat — as representing how Trump is growing his coalition beyond the GOP.

• Gabbard and Kennedy were dubbed "Blue MAGA" in Trump world because of the key roles they played on the campaign trail, touring the country on Trump's behalf.

Donald Trump Jr. also has been involved in touting the pair. He told Axios in a written statement that both are "highly qualified" and are "also vital to the GOP's new governing coalition."

• "Unfortunately, there are still a few establishment Republicans in the Beltway who don't seem to get that," he said. "I think they are severely underestimating the backlash that would occur from our voters if either of them were blocked from being confirmed."

Tucker Carlson, Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton, Turning Point Action's Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon with his "War Room" also pushing Gabbard on podcasts and social media.

• "We are 100% serious," Turning Point Action spokesman Andrew Kolvet said in a statement. "GOP senators in red states will open themselves up to well-funded, well-organized primary challenges if they stand in the way of confirming the Cabinet the president wants and the American people voted for."