Tulsi Gabbard’s abrupt departure as Director of National Intelligence came days after an investigation resurfaced claims about her longtime ties to a breakaway Hare Krishna group led by Chris Butler, and documents allegedly described her receiving specific dir
Tulsi Gabbard’s story has always moved fast—political pivots. ideological rebrands. and the kind of ambition that leaves people trying to catch up. But the pace seemed to hit a wall when a new investigation pulled her longtime links to a secretive religious group back into the open—and then. two days after she learned the resulting article would be punished. she stepped down from the job she held at the top of America’s intelligence apparatus.
Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence on the grounds that her husband had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. The timing. though. was the part that made the moment feel like a turn: just as a detailed exposé about her relationship to the group resurfaced. she left the role.
The investigation described a religious group characterized as a “breakaway Hare Krishna group” led by a guru identified as Chris Butler. The piece said Butler “controlled his followers’ major life decisions” and “demanded total obedience and secrecy. ” with those claims presented as having “major sway over her political career and positions.” Before that reporting. it had been described as “well known for years” that Gabbard grew up in a cult in Hawaii and remained affiliated with it.
Gabbard and her family. according to the account. portrayed the group as a benign Hindu sect that believed in peaceful coexistence and love. Her political path. described as “very unusual. ” included repeated moments where she was questioned about the group’s leader. Chris Butler. But the article says those concerns “never really stuck to her. ” and that each time her ideology shifted. she “side-stepped any concerns” about a possible hidden agenda.
The exposé built its case around secrecy and documents that were described as coming from a whistleblower. It said the reporter reached “a brick wall” while investigating the cult—dubbed the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF)—until a whistleblower produced “a cache of documents.” Those documents. the piece says. indicated that Gabbard had been taking “specific. explicit direction for years” from Butler.
Butler. the reporting depicts. began building a following as early as when “even as a young man. ” and the article ties his interest in politics to the 1970s. including a time when he formed a group that (unsuccessfully) ran candidates for office. It also describes Butler and his apostles moving through different ideologies. discarding some as time changed and “power beckoned.” The investigation says Butler “inveighed against Muslims. homosexuality. gun control and public schools. ” while also promoting environmentalism and anti-capitalism.
The article connects that shifting ideology to Gabbard’s own political shape-changing. It says Gabbard and her family were Republicans at the beginning, described as “ultra-social conservatives” whose main platform included homophobia. It then says they later “morphed into progressive Democrats. ” with Gabbard moving through a series of national-profile transformations—going from conservative Democrat to Democratic socialist to a MAGA apostle in the span of a decade. The piece depicts that arc as culminating in her role running “the most powerful spy apparatus in world history.”.
Even amid those dramatic shifts, the investigation claims there is little clarity about what Butler’s larger agenda might be. It says Gabbard had been shown “sucking up to murderous dictators” while she was supposedly one of the leading anti-war figures in Congress. It also frames another turn as dizzying: her movement from supporting Bernie Sanders to “riding the Trump train.”.
By the end of the account, the uncertainty remains—what, exactly, Butler and Gabbard were pursuing. The article says “we may never know” what they were after. Still. it argues that Gabbard’s life has been shaped by her relationship with her “guru” in pursuit of political power. and it leaves readers with the question of what might come next.
The piece closes by pointing to a mental-health organization description of cult characteristics from VeryWell Mind. It lists a charismatic. authoritarian leader; demand for total loyalty; coercion and control of followers; exploitation by the leader to advance an agenda; a requirement to sever ties with people outside the group; and an “us vs. them” mentality. The account says those traits “would certainly describe Gabbard’s cult.” It then uses the same list to argue that another. larger and more powerful cult exists as well—one it says is exerting influence across the country and world.
The final paragraph treats that question—whether MAGA is an actual cult or a cult of personality—as “irrelevant” to the core claim being made: “It’s a cult.” The piece links that conclusion to other historical examples. naming Joseph Stalin. Chairman Mao. and Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan. describing Niyazov’s gold statue that rotated with the sun and the renaming of the months of the year after himself.
On that reading. Butler’s ability to maneuver an acolyte into a high-profile role cannot compare with what the article frames as the power of a cult leader at the very top of a country it describes as holding followers in the tens of millions. Gabbard’s resignation. then. lands not as the end of her political story. but as another moment in an ongoing relationship the article says has been built to reach power—however—and whenever it is available.
Tulsi Gabbard Director of National Intelligence DNI resignation Chris Butler Science of Identity Foundation Hare Krishna breakaway group SIF cult allegations Bernie Sanders MAGA Hawaii