On February 3, 2019, Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaiian Congresswoman, stood on stage in Honolulu weeks after she announced her bid for the US presidency. She invoked the spirit of “aloha” and called for unity in a divided nation. (For Hawaiians, aloha denotes a unifying force and carries great cultural and spiritual significance.)
“Growing up here in Hawaii, I loved swimming, surfing, and having fun in this paradise that we are so fortunate to call home,” she told a cheering crowd. She criticised the then President Donald Trump for fostering “hatred, bigotry, and fear”, positioning herself as a progressive champion.
Fast forward to 2025, and Gabbard is set to take on the powerful role of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the second Trump administration. The DNI serves as executive head of the US’ intelligence community and oversees all 18 intelligence agencies that are part of the network, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Agency (NSA).
DNI nomination and criticism
Her nomination has sparked a wide range of criticism given her lack of experience in intelligence as well as accusations that she amplified Russian propaganda in the past and was sceptical of US allegations on the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, seen as a key Russian ally.
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Nikki Haley, a prominent Republican of Indian origin, said that Gabbard had not changed her stances on foreign affairs and warned that her rhetoric could be dangerous if she led the country’s intelligence efforts. “This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, or Chinese sympathiser,” she said, adding that the position of DNI was one that “has to analyse real threats”.
Abigail Spanberger, Democratic Virginia Congresswoman and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on X: “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin.”
Tulsi Gabbard’s political transformation from a progressive Democrat to a key figure in Trump’s Cabinet has left both parties baffled. Gabbard’s ideological journey, marked by contradictions and controversies, has propelled her from a Bernie Sanders supporter once to one of the most polarising figures in modern US politics.
Many within the Democratic Party view her as a political turncoat and opportunist. Soon after her appointment as DNI was announced, a video of hers from 2019 calling Trump “unfit to be our commander-in-chief” resurfaced on X.com. “He’s essentially pimping out our men and women in uniform to a foreign power who’s the highest bidder... He is unfit to be our commander-in-chief,” she had said then.
Fascinating oddball
Whether driven by ideology or opportunism, Gabbard’s ability to navigate and capitalise on the polarised political landscape in the US appears undeniable.
Gabbard’s views during her time in the US Congress ranged from being pro-Sanders and anti-war to being non-invasionist and wanting to end dependency on fossil fuels—most of it a stark contrast to Trump’s policies.
But even otherwise, as a vegetarian, practising Hindu—the first Hindu ever elected to Congress—lifelong surfer, and athlete, Gabbard remains a fascinating oddball in the US political landscape.
US Representative Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard on September 10. In October 2020, Gabbard and Gaetz introduced a Bill to drop charges against Edward Snowden, the whistleblower. | Photo Credit: AFP
In the early days of her national career, she came across as a party rebel critical of former President Barack Obama and speaking against the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and was considered a favourite among Sanders-like progressives who wanted to reshape the party.
In a podcast video on her YouTube channel, posted on November 19 this year, she said: “People ask me all the time: how did you get from endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2016 to writing a book on everything that’s wrong with the Democrat elite today and why you left the Democratic Party.” She responded by saying that that the reason she backed Sanders was because Hillary Clinton as commander-in-chief would be “the most dangerous thing for the country”.
That Tulsi Gabbard has no Indian lineage is a fact that is well established, but often misunderstood in India, where she is often incorrectly (and possibly deliberately) referred to as Indian-American, which has even forced her to deny it publicly. But her close political ties with the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and other linked organisations in the US, are another story altogether.
Early years
To understand Tulsi’s dramatic political career, which has always been replete with contradictory ideologies and statements, a look at her early days as councilwoman in Hawaii becomes important.
Born in American Samoa, Tulsi Gabbard moved to Hawaii at the age of two. Her father, Mike Gabbard, of European and Samoan descent, is a State senator (since 2006) and staunch social conservative who once led campaigns against same-sex marriage. Gabbard’s mother, Carol Gabbard, born in Indiana, introduced the family to Hinduism through the Science of Identity Foundation, an ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) splinter group.
At 21, Gabbard became the youngest person to be elected to the Hawaii State Legislature. In 2003, she joined the Hawaii Army National Guard and served two tours in West Asia, including in Iraq and Kuwait. Her military service, combined with her charisma and backing from a political family, helped her secure a seat in Congress in 2012, when she first defeated Honolulu’s former mayor Mufi Hannemann in a surprising upset in the primary, and then defeated David Crowley, the Republican nominee.
Colin Moore, associate professor of political science and director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said that her career came into prominence locally after she defeated Hannemann, who was touted as the best-known candidate in the six-way primary. Gabbard won by over 62,000 votes.
“She was considered a controversial figure because she had spoken out against some LGBT issues, mainly due to the influence of her father… I think her big breakout was to win the House of Representatives and that is really when a lot of people started to pay attention to Gabbard. I don’t think anyone expected her to win and it showed she was a strong, charismatic campaigner and a gifted communicator. And that’s really when, I think, people really began to see that she was a rising star politically.”
Moore also noted that Gabbard’s rise was unusual for Hawaii’s political landscape. “She broke the mould of waiting her turn and toeing the party line. Early on, she built a strong emotional connection with voters.”
Controversial stances
Gabbard began her national career while being perceived as somewhat of a progressive Democrat. She was vice-chair of the DNC but resigned in 2016 to endorse Sanders. Her policies included opposition to regime-change wars, support for renewable energy, and criticism of US interventions in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. She also co-sponsored the Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act, which aimed for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035.
At the same time, some of her stances, such as her views against recognising same-sex marriage, made her controversial. In other words, she managed to come into the radar of everyone. Conservatives admired her military background as an Iraq war veteran and her critique of Obama’s foreign policy, while liberals appreciated her anti-war rhetoric.
Gabbard has largely taken an anti-interventionist stance, advocating for the US to stay uninvolved when it comes to conflicts around the world.
In October 2020, Tulsi Gabbard, alongside Matt Gaetz, introduced a Bill to drop charges against Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, and, with Thomas Massie, proposed legislation advocating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s release from detention in the UK amid US extradition proceedings.
Tulsi Gabbard greets Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a garland during a meeting in New York in 2014. | Photo Credit: PTI
Moore said: “I don’t think her contradictory ideology drew people to her….she is a complex political figure that I don’t think anyone fully understands. She’s a politician who has refused to be put in any sort of a box ideologically.”
He added: “Even in terms of her party, she went from being somewhat conservative to a liberal who backed Bernie Sanders to criticising Obama to having these really iconoclastic views on American foreign policy. I don’t think it’s so much the contradiction that has attracted people.”
Rise and decline in Hawaii
Moore instead attributed her initial appeal to Hawaii’s unique political environment, dominated by Democrats. “Her early success came from being a charismatic figure in a State with few standout politicians. However, her national ambitions and divisive views alienated local voters. By 2020, her popularity in Hawaii had plummeted, leading her to forgo re-election.”
Her contradictions would soon become too glaring. For instance, Gabbard drew criticism for her defence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom she met in 2018. She described the meeting as a “fact-finding mission”.
The controversies around Gabbard catapulted her to national media headlines, with the The Atlantic calling her a “rising star” of the Democratic Party in 2015. Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, called her an “emerging star—while signalling that as a newcomer she has something to prove”, in Vogue in 2013.
But her meeting with Assad in 2018 and opposition to US strikes in Syria drew accusations of her being a sympathiser of authoritarian regimes. Nikki Haley criticised her for defending Russia, Iran, and China, and called her a “Russian asset”. Gabbard dismissed the allegations and asserted her commitment to anti-interventionism.
Despite her anti-war rhetoric, Gabbard has described herself as both a “hawk” and a “dove” on foreign policy: “When it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.”
Ties to BJP, RSS
A significant point of contention has been Gabbard’s ties to India’s Hindu nationalist organisations. Although she is not of Indian descent, Gabbard has received substantial support from the Indian diaspora and affiliates of the RSS.
In April 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Katrina Lantos, vice chairperson of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, testified before the US Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, claiming that a Modi victory could harm the basic rights of India’s religious minorities. Gabbard swiftly criticised the timing of the hearing, telling US media that she believed it was no coincidence, given that India’s election was under way, and expressed concern that the hearing aimed to influence the outcome, something she deemed inappropriate for the US Congress.
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The mounting allegations of her ties with the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates also link her political ascent to donations from senior members of RSS-linked organisations in the US.
Pieter Friedrich, an activist and journalist, who has investigated Gabbard’s alleged ties with the RSS, claimed that she owes her early political success to donations from RSS-linked sources. He said: “In the first three to four years of her career in Congress, she was getting, at least that I’ve documented, 20-25 per cent of her campaign funding from these sources.” He has since started an online petition to block her nomination as DNI.
In 2019, The Intercept news website found that Gabbard’s House campaigns had received donations from more than 100 individuals associated with the BJP and the RSS. Her participation in events hosted by Sangh affiliates and her meetings with Prime Minister Modi fuelled criticism that she was aligned with Hindu nationalist interests, but Tulsi has dismissed these allegations.
Rebuttal
In an op-ed that appeared in Religion News Service in January 2019, she wrote: “Some media outlets have chosen to craft a false narrative of intrigue by profiling and targeting all my donors who have names of Hindu origin and accusing them of being ‘Hindu nationalists’. I too have been accused of being a ‘Hindu nationalist’.”
She added: “My meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s democratically elected leader, have been highlighted as ‘proof’ of this and portrayed as somehow being out of the ordinary or somehow suspect, even though President Obama, Secretary Clinton, President Trump, and many of my colleagues in Congress have met with and worked with him. India is one of America’s closest allies in Asia and is a country of growing importance in a critical region of the world.”
Tulsi Gabbard with Donald Trump during a campaign event in North Carolina on October 22. | Photo Credit: Bloomberg
Gabbard’s nomination as DNI comes after the Joe Biden government unsealed an indictment against former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav, alleging his involvement in a 2023 plot to assassinate Indian-American Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The investigation into the foiled plot was carried out by US law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Shift to right
On October 11, 2022, Gabbard announced that she was leaving the Democratic Party, which she denounced as an “elitist cabal of warmongers”, and called upon other “common sense independent-minded Democrats” to exit with her.
According to Moore, by then in Hawaii, much of her support had eroded. “Her controversial views allowed her to have more of a national profile, but I don’t think that helped her locally. And so, I think that’s ultimately why or at least one of the reasons why she decided not to run for Congress again.”
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Gabbard’s shift to the right became evident when she endorsed Trump’s populist rhetoric and echoed Republican critiques of the Democratic establishment. Her transformation from a Sanders supporter to a Trump ally is now seen by many in Hawaii as opportunistic.
Moore said: “There was a lot of frustration locally that Tulsi Gabbard was being this ‘unusual but national’ political figure and not concentrating enough on delivering for the second congressional district in Hawaii… There was concern that she had taken these unpopular views that would hurt Hawaii. It’s an interesting situation, I think, to have a national figure who is not particularly well liked in the place that allowed her to have a political career.”
However, Moore said, her appointment gives some hope to the people of Hawaii of representation in the Cabinet. “There’s a lot of people in Hawaii who do not think that Tulsi Gabbard is qualified for that position. But there are some conservatives who think, because we are so connected to the American defence establishment, that at the very least, there will be someone at the table who knows Hawaii and its concerns.”
Anisha Dutta is a New York-based investigative journalist from India specialising in the interplay between politics and policy.
