Gabbard endorsing Trump is not surprising. She has been moving away from the left for a while now. The important part of this, as she has articulated and now will continue to do so, is the reason WHY she has moved away from the left.
She has seen how the Dems have increasingly become the party of government control as opposed to personal freedom. The DNC did its best to paint themselves as the party of freedom during their recent convention, mainly using abortion as the example of how they say they are more about freedom than the Republicans.
It behooves the Republicans and Trump, therefore, to continually get the message out to the American people that the home of freedom is with the conservatives, and that Dems will take away freedom. There are plenty of example to latch onto for this message, and I'm hoping that people like Gabbard become strong spokesmen for it.