Headline Roundup • June 22nd, 2026
WaPo Report Suggests Tulsi Gabbard Relied Heavily on Mentors, Outside Messaging; Gabbard's Team Pushes Back
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Hundreds of memos obtained by Washington Post (Lean Left bias) reporter Jon Swaine "appeared to document directives and advice for [National Intelligence Director Tulsi] Gabbard from her time in Congress" between 2011 and 2017, including legislation, rhetoric and body language.
RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard Resigns as Director of National Intelligence | AllSides
The Memos: Leaked by one of Gabbard's former digital strategists, Rebecca Saltzburg, the memos "compiled advice for Gabbard on dozens of topics – from taxes to the mysterious disappearance that year of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and more." Their content reportedly exhibits "unmistakable parallels" to Gabbard's political conduct. Swaine said, "With Post colleague Aaron Schaffer, I compared Gabbard's remarks in 32 TV interviews between 2014 and 2016 with the talking-points memos intended for them. On 24 occasions, Gabbard used language in the memos almost verbatim. In the eight other instances, Gabbard used different words but promoted some of the same ideas."
Swaine highlighted "echoes of years-old guidance in [Gabbard's] more recent remarks," though he noted that because the memos obtained are limited to 2011 to 2017, they cannot prove whether the guidance continued throughout Gabbard's more recent political career and time with the Trump administration (Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an Independent; she then joined the Republican Party in 2024).
Swaine also highlighted coordinated efforts "to inflate the appearance of public support for Gabbard on social media and in the comments sections of news websites," some of which used anonymous or fake profiles. Though Gabbard reportedly conducted what some comments should say in the Skype group, it is unclear whether she was aware of the falsifications used.
Who Is Chris Butler? Chris Butler, 78, is a religious leader and founder of the Hindu-linked group, Science of Identity Foundation (SIF). Gabbard, who once called Butler her "guru," grew up in SIF, where her parents held leadership positions. Butler's teachings, according to Swaine, "belonged to no political tribe: He inveighed against Muslims, homosexuality, gun control and public schools, but also promoted environmentalism and anti-capitalism."
Some former members reportedly called the group a cult and described Butler as controlling and secretive, suggesting he had a hand in Gabbard's political successes. According to the memos, his office's email domain, NineIsles.com, was used to direct Gabbard and her affiliates on political tactics and policies. Though Butler was not explicitly named as the sender of most emails (only religiously-focused ones), Swaine's analysis indicates he operated under pseudonyms to carry out political direction.
The Responses: Gabbard told the Washington Post in 2019 that Butler had not mentored her politically. One SIF spokesperson reportedly called Swaine's article "anti-Hindu religious bigotry," criticizing, "When a Hindu public figure has a spiritual teacher or shares views with a Hindu religious figure, that alone is somehow evidence of sinister control." Gabbard's chief of staff similarly said, "The attacks on Director Gabbard's faith and loyalty are not only false – they are a blatant example of anti-Hindu bigotry."
Additional Coverage: Coverage was sparse across the political spectrum. AllSides did not find any major outlets on the right that covered this story, though Richard Hanania (Lean Right) criticized Gabbard as a "puppet for a Hindu cult" in an X post. Both Raw Story (Left) and Mediaite (Lean Left) highlighted comments that affirmed the report. Newsweek (Center) reported on Gabbard's ties to SIF in 2014.
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Featured Coverage of this Story
A trove of confidential memos has thrust the question of who really directed Tulsi Gabbard into the open, with a former follower alleging that a secretive Hawaii guru scripted her politics for the best part of a decade.
The Washington Post investigation, published on 21 June 2026 by reporter Jon Swaine, draws on hundreds of memos said to detail policy and political guidance for Gabbard during her years in Congress.
The newspaper alleges the instructions trace back to Chris Butler, the reclusive leader of the Science of Identity Foundation, the...
Illustration by Emma Kumer/The Washington Post; Maansi Srivastava/For The Washington Post; Honolulu Star-Advertiser; iStock
The first time I spoke with Rebecca Saltzburg, she told me Tulsi Gabbard was a freethinker who took orders from no one.
"I didn't always agree with Tulsi on everything," Saltzburg, who worked on digital strategy for several of Gabbard's congressional campaigns, said in November 2024. "But as for the core of her life and political path? I can vouch 100 percent, that is her own."
Saltzburg had heard I'd been asking people about Chris Butler, the eccentric religious leader Gabbard once described as her guru. Gabbard grew up in...
The Washington Post obtained over 25,000 memos and documents revealing former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's political actions were directed by Chris Butler of the Science of Identity Foundation.
The documents show Butler provided directives on legislation, policy positions, and television conduct, with memos instructing what bills Gabbard should propose, according to the report published Sunday.
"They had an air of authority," wrote The Post, adding, "A memo about a proposal to partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it was 'time for TG...
