Tulsi
Gabbard reportedly took political orders from her 'guru.' Here's what we know
Joey
Esposito
Wed, June
24, 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT+28 min read
A rumor
circulated online alleging that former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was
influenced by a "guru" during her time in Congress, with thousands of
alleged memos directing her on TV appearances and legislation.
In June
2026, a rumor circulated online alleging that former Congresswoman Tulsi
Gabbard, who resigned from her post as national intelligence director in May
2026, had been operating under the influence of a "guru" during her
time in Congress.
The rumor
stems from a June 21, 2026, report by Jon Swaine in The Washington Post, in
which he wrote about thousands of alleged memos from the religious leader in
question — Chris Butler of the Science of Identity Foundation — directing
Gabbard on what to say during TV appearances and what kind of legislation to
champion.
The
Washington Post article provided some of the alleged memos for viewing and
outlined conspicuous parallels between the purported messages from Butler and
public statements made by Gabbard.
As of this writing, Snopes was unable to
independently verify the report's claims by obtaining documents or speaking to
people with direct knowledge about the situation. We contacted Gabbard, the SIF
and Swaine for further comment and to request evidence supporting or denying
the report's claims. We will update this article if we receive responses.
In June
2026, a rumor circulated online alleging that former Congresswoman Tulsi
Gabbard, who resigned from her post as national intelligence director in May
2026, had been operating under the influence of a "guru" during her
time in Congress.
Social
media users sharing the claim suggested that this person was behind Gabbard's
policies, public remarks and posts.
The claim
originated with reporting by Jon Swaine at The Washington Post, who published a
piece (archived) titled "Tulsi Gabbard, her guru and the mysterious
messages that helped shape her political career" on June 21, 2026. As of
this writing, Snopes was unable to independently verify the report's claims by
obtaining documents or speaking to people with direct knowledge of the
situation.
Swaine
reportedly obtained thousands of memos from a former secretary of the guru in
question — a man named Chris Butler — who leads the Science of Identity
Foundation (SIF), an offshoot of the Hindu religious organization International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (also known as the Hare Krishna Movement).
Gabbard was raised in the SIF and identifies as a practicing Hindu.
Snopes
contacted Gabbard, the SIF and Swaine for further comment and to request
evidence supporting or denying the Washington Post report's claims. We will
update this article if they respond.
The
connection was first brought to the national stage in October 2017 when The New
Yorker published a piece detailing the history of Gabbard's family with
Butler's group.
"When
the Gabbards moved to Hawaii, in 1983, they joined the circle of disciples
around Butler," the New Yorker article said. It also included claims from
former SIF members describing an "authoritarian atmosphere,"
including "devotees lying prostrate whenever he entered the room, or
adding bits of his nail clippings to their food, or eating spoonfuls of sand
that he had walked upon."
Gabbard
denied the claims and told the New Yorker, "I can speak to my own personal
experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him, for the gift of this wonderful
spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people."
In a 2019
interview with the Washington Post, available to view on YouTube around the
one-hour mark, Gabbard called the New Yorker piece a "smear article"
and said of Butler, "He's one of my spiritual teachers. One who provides
spiritual guidance." When asked if she received political mentorship from
Butler, Gabbard said, "No, no, not at all."
The 2026
Washington Post piece effectively aimed to challenge the veracity of Gabbard's
emphatic denial of Butler's political influence.
Swaine
wrote that he had acquired thousands of memos from a former SIF secretary named
Rebecca Saltzburg who "had worked for Butler as a secretary in the 1990s,
and lived for a time with Gabbard's parents and other devotees in a rented
property."
The
documents from Saltzburg reportedly included "25,000 pages, including
hundreds of memos reflecting guidance for Gabbard between 2011 and 2017, most
from her first two terms in Congress."
Swaine
wrote:
Dozens of
attached memos appeared to document directives and advice for Gabbard from her
time in Congress. Some contained instructions on what legislation she should
propose, which policies she should embrace and how she should conduct herself
on television. They had an air of authority. A memo about a proposal to
partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it
was "time for TG to come up with this idea."
Swaine
reported that he and a colleague "compared Gabbard's remarks in 32 TV
interviews between 2014 and 2016 with the talking-points memos intended for
them" and found that in 24 of those interviews, she used the wording in
the memos "almost verbatim." In the eight other interviews, she used
different phrasing but still promoted the same ideas, according to Swaine's
report.
Other
examples included the introduction of legislation that matched up with the
timeline of memos suggesting the idea and copy for a tweet that was sent via
email to Gabbard, which she then posted the following day at the time
instructed.
The
Washington Post published one 2015 memo containing alleged comments Gabbard was
directed to make in response to former President Barack Obama's State of the
Union address at the time.
The
statements in the memo lack direct attribution. However, Saltzburg reportedly
told Swaine that "the memos were unattributed precisely to mask Butler's
identity if they ever became public."
Swaine
reported that Butler did not use computers, and delivered all messages verbally
or transcribed through his secretaries discreetly.
The
article also included allegations of online campaigns orchestrated by SIF, who
created fake accounts online to champion Gabbard in comments posted on the
internet.
Crucially,
Swaine also noted that "Saltzburg's history with SIF would be messier than
it first appeared." He wrote:
She said
she had recently fallen out with the leaders of SIF, who she believed were
mishandling allegations of physical and sexual abuse by some members of the
organization. A few months earlier, she said, she had been arrested for briefly
housing a teenage runaway who alleged abuse by a parent associated with the
group. Saltzburg claimed SIF members had engineered her arrest.
A
representative for SIF claimed she tried to extort $250,000 from the
organization or suffer "reputational damage" and called her a
"malicious liar." Salzburg claimed it was to cover damages to her
family as a result of the arrest she attributed to SIF.
For
further reading, we investigated a claim that Gabbard confirmed in an interview
that "Operation Mockingbird," an alleged CIA campaign to manipulate
the domestic press, never ended.
Sources:
"2020
Candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Martha McSally Discuss Efforts to Safeguard
Today's Troops." Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQpHIjtfOrw.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
"About
Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)."
Scienceofidentity.org, 2026, scienceofidentity.org/about_jagad_guru. Accessed
23 June 2026.
Grube,
Nick. "Senators Urged to Examine Gabbard's "Deep and Intense"
Ties to Hawaiʻi Sect." Honolulu Civil Beat, 10 Dec. 2024,
civilbeat.org/2024/12/senators-urged-to-examine-gabbards-deep-and-intense-ties-to-hawaii-sect/.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
Houghtaling,
Ellie Quinlan. "Tulsi Gabbard Abruptly Quits after Increased Scrutiny over
Iran." The New Republic, 22 May 2026,
newrepublic.com/post/210860/tulsi-gabbard-quits-iran-2020-election. Accessed 23
June 2026.
Kahn,
Rachel. "Team Trump Quiet over Explosive Tulsi Gabbard Cult
Revelations." The New Republic, 22 June 2026,
newrepublic.com/post/212148/team-trump-explosive-tulsi-gabbard-cult-revelations-washington-post-chris-butler.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
Kelefa
Sanneh. "What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe?" The New Yorker, 30 Oct.
2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/what-does-tulsi-gabbard-believe.
Kinnard,
Meg, et al. "Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
Resigns." AP News, 22 May 2026,
apnews.com/article/trump-tulsi-gabbard-director-national-intelligence-iran-788f1f14259d72bd7936fa2e83149efa.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
Swaine,
Jon. "Tulsi Gabbard, Her Guru and the Mysterious Messages That Helped
Shape Her Political Career." The Washington Post, 21 June 2026,
www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/06/21/tulsi-gabbard-her-guru-mysterious-messages-that-helped-shape-her-political-career/.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
The.
"Tulsi Gabbard Thinks We're Doomed." Archive.org, 2 Aug. 2019,
web.archive.org/web/20190802203429/www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/us/politics/tulsi-gabbard-2020-presidential-race.html.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
"Tulsi
Gabbard Cult Hawaii Money Laundering." MEANWHILE in HAWAI'I, 2017,
www.meanwhileinhawaii.org/home/butlersweb. Accessed 23 June 2026.
"Tulsi
Gabbard's Run for Congress Carries with It Many Hindu Hearts." Indo
American News, 2026,
web.archive.org/web/20121105052532/www.indoamerican-news.com/archives/12109.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
"WaPo
Reveals Secret Memos between Tulsi Gabbard and Guru Who Helped Shape Her
Political Career." MS NOW, 22 June 2026,
www.ms.now/ms-now/watch/wapo-reveals-secret-memos-between-tulsi-gabbard-and-guru-who-helped-shape-her-political-career-2504361539573.
Accessed 23 June 2026.
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