Tulsi Gabbard Denies Being in a Cult, but Some Former Members Allege It Was an Abusive Environment

In October 2017, The New Yorker profiled then-Democratic House of Representatives member Tulsi Gabbard. In 2012, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was so impressed by Tulsi that she described her as an emerging star in the Democratic party, which was capped off by Tulsi clinching the election that November. Tulsi then rose through the ranks of the liberal-leaning party until she left in 2022. Her reason, to put it simply, was the Democratic party had become "too woke," per ABC News.

Tulsi then went to a rally for President Donald Trump where she announced she was officially switching to the Republican party. In 2024, President Trump was elected a second time and quickly declared he was nominating Tulsi to be his director of national intelligence. This was almost immediately met with criticism, though no one could have predicted she would be accused of being in a cult.

Tulsi was raised in Hawaii by her Indiana-born mother and half-Samoan father. When she was young, the family moved back to Hawaii from Tutuila, American Samoa, which is where Tulsi was raised. Her multi-cultural background was marked by differing religious beliefs in their household. Mike Gabbard was Catholic while Tulsi's mother, Carol Gabbard, was a practicing Hindu. When she was a teenager, Tulsi found her way to the Hindu faith alongside her mother.

However, according to reporting by the Honolulu Civil Beat, Tulsi spent 15 years of her life in a fringe organization that defectors claim is a cult. Anita van Duyn sent letters to Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez alleging that Tulsi had deep ties to the "Science of Identity Foundation, a fringe offshoot of Hare Krishna that was formed in the 1970s." Hare Krishna is an offshoot of Hinduism, so it wouldn't be an unrealistic leap.

Not only does Anita claim that Tulsi was a member of the Science of Identity Foundation, but she also says the congresswoman still has a close relationship with the group's founder. Chris Butler still lives in a multimillion-dollar beachfront home in Kailua and allegedly has "long-standing political ambitions," which include promoting his own ideologies.

In a 2015 video, Tulsi spoke of Chris and referred to him as her "guru dev" which roughly translates to spiritual master, per The New Yorker. Tulsi's family became members of the Science of Identity Foundation when they moved to Hawaii in 1983. She even spent two years in a boarding school in the Philippines run by Chris's followers. While Tulsi has fond memories of her childhood, Chris's defectors tell a different story of their time with the guru.

These former members told stories of eating food with Chris's toenail clippings in them or spoonfuls of sand he had walked on. They alleged he wouldn't let them attend secular schools, and they were not allowed to speak publicly about the group. This was an abusive environment, according to them. When asked about this, Tulsi said this was not her experience. She said, "I’ve never heard him say anything hateful or say anything mean about anybody."