138 Facts About Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and military officer serving since 2025 as the 8th director of national intelligence.

Tulsi Gabbard has held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve since 2021, and previously served as US representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021.

Tulsi Gabbard joined the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, where she served as a specialist with the medical unit, and received the Combat Medical Badge.

In 2007, Tulsi Gabbard completed the officer training program at the Alabama Military Academy.

Tulsi Gabbard went to Kuwait in 2008 as an Army Military Police officer.

In 2015, while serving in Congress, Tulsi Gabbard became a major with the Hawaii Army National Guard.

In 2012, Tulsi Gabbard was elected to the US House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district.

Tulsi Gabbard became the first Samoan American and Hindu American member of US Congress.

Tulsi Gabbard supported the military campaign to defeat Islamic extremism but opposed the US intervention in the Syrian civil war.

Tulsi Gabbard launched her 2020 presidential campaign running on an anti-interventionist and populist platform but dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden in March 2020.

In 2024, Tulsi Gabbard endorsed Donald Trump for the presidential election and joined the Republican Party later that year.

Many veterans and Republicans defended Tulsi Gabbard's record, noting her military service and Congressional experience.

Tulsi Gabbard is the youngest person to serve as DNI and the first millennial to hold the office.

Tulsi Gabbard was the fourth of five children born to Mike Gabbard and his wife Carol.

In 1983, when Tulsi Gabbard was two years old, her family moved back to Hawaii, where they had lived in the late 1970s.

Tulsi Gabbard's mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan, and her father, who is of Samoan and European ancestry, was born in American Samoa and grew up in Hawaii and Florida.

Tulsi Gabbard was mostly home schooled, except for two years at a girls' school in the Philippines.

Tulsi Gabbard learned spiritual principles, such as karma, from the ancient Indian text Bhagavad Gita.

Tulsi Gabbard was associated with her father's The Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, an anti-gay marriage political action committee.

Tulsi Gabbard worked briefly as an educator for the Healthy Hawai'i Coalition, which promoted protection of Hawaii's natural environment.

In 2002, when she was 21, Tulsi Gabbard dropped out of Leeward Community College, where she had been studying television production, to run for election to the Hawaii state legislature, and she became the youngest woman ever elected as a US state representative.

In 2009, Tulsi Gabbard graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in international business.

In Iraq, Tulsi Gabbard served at Logistical Support Area Anaconda, completing her tour in 2005.

Tulsi Gabbard received the German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency.

Tulsi Gabbard was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader.

Tulsi Gabbard was one of the first women to enter a Kuwaiti military facility, as well as the first woman to receive an award of appreciation from the Kuwait National Guard.

Tulsi Gabbard continued to serve as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard until her transfer to the 351st Civil Affairs Command, a California-based United States Army Reserve unit assigned to the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, in June 2020.

On July 4,2021, Tulsi Gabbard was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, while she was deployed to the Horn of Africa working as a civil affairs officer in support of a special operations mission.

Subsequently, Tulsi Gabbard was given the command of the 1st Battalion, 354th Regiment, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

At the age of 21, Tulsi Gabbard became the youngest legislator ever elected in Hawaii's history, and was at the time the youngest woman ever elected to a US state legislature.

In 2004, Tulsi Gabbard filed for reelection but then volunteered for Army National Guard service in Iraq.

Rida Cabanilla, who filed to run against her, called on Tulsi Gabbard to resign because she would not be able to represent her district from Iraq.

Tulsi Gabbard introduced a measure to help food truck vendors by loosening parking restrictions.

Tulsi Gabbard introduced Bill 54, a measure that authorized city workers to confiscate personal belongings stored on public property with 24 hours notice to its owner.

In May 2011, Tulsi Gabbard declared her candidacy for the open House seat.

In December 2012, Tulsi Gabbard applied for appointment to the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Daniel Inouye.

Tulsi Gabbard introduced the House version of the Military Justice Improvement Act.

Tulsi Gabbard co-sponsored a bill with Senator Hirono to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino and Filipino American veterans of World War II.

In November 2015, Tulsi Gabbard introduced Talia's Law, aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect on military bases.

On October 25,2019, Tulsi Gabbard announced she would not seek reelection in 2020, citing her presidential campaign.

Smith was placed on paid leave, and Tulsi Gabbard continued to support her until she was reinstated in November 2020.

Tulsi Gabbard introduced a similar bill with Representative Thomas Massie advocating for Julian Assange's release from prison in the United Kingdom.

On January 22,2013, Tulsi Gabbard was unanimously elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Tulsi Gabbard later accused Wasserman Schultz of favoring Hillary Clinton in the primary and resigned as DNC vice chair on February 28,2016, to endorse Bernie Sanders.

Tulsi Gabbard appeared on Meet the Press to discuss her resignation and later launched a petition to eliminate superdelegate in the Democratic nomination process.

In February 2019, Tulsi Gabbard officially launched her 2020 presidential campaign.

Tulsi Gabbard was the first female combat veteran to run for president.

Tulsi Gabbard was the most frequently Googled candidate after the first, second, and fourth 2020 Democratic primary debates.

In July 2019, Tulsi Gabbard was the only 2020 presidential candidate to visit Puerto Rico and join protests urging Governor Ricardo Rossello to resign.

Ball noted that Tulsi Gabbard had been "dismissed and otherized" by the media, with her campaign scrutinized for alleged Russian ties, citing as examples: NBC News suggestion that her campaign was enhanced by Russian bots, based on a group that had in another instance been revealed for fabricating such claims; and The Daily Beast's accusation she was being supported by "Putin apologists," citing a small percentage of her donors.

In October 2019, former secretary of state and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton suggested that Tulsi Gabbard was a "Russian asset".

Tulsi Gabbard was defended by fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, who rejected Clinton's suggestion that Tulsi Gabbard was a Russian asset.

However, Tulsi Gabbard had repeatedly said she would not run as a third-party candidate in 2020 and did not do so.

In January 2020, Tulsi Gabbard filed a legal defamation lawsuit against Clinton over the 'Russian asset' assertion as indicated in the complaint; but dropped it five months later with her lawyers stating the legal merit was valid but, living in a "post-Covid world", they could better focus their attention elsewhere.

Tulsi Gabbard saw the Clinton-Gabbard feud as part of "a long campaign of vilification against critics of the Russia consensus" by Clinton and "her allies in the media ".

On March 3,2020, Tulsi Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent, earned two delegates in American Samoa, making her the second woman of color and the first Asian-American and Pacific-Islander presidential candidate to earn primary delegates.

Tulsi Gabbard was the only candidate with primary delegates to not be invited to the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Tulsi Gabbard made several appearances on Fox News programs since leaving Congress, where she criticized figures such as House speaker Nancy Pelosi and US representative Adam Schiff, calling the latter a "domestic terrorist" for what she deemed as his attempt to "undermin[e] our constitution by trying to take away our civil liberties and rights" in the aftermath of the 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

On October 11,2022, Tulsi Gabbard announced on Twitter that she was leaving the Democratic Party, accusing its leadership of "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, [being] hostile to people of faith and spirituality, and dragging us closer to nuclear war".

On January 27,2025, former intelligence and national security officials expressed support for Tulsi Gabbard, asserting she would help depoliticize intelligence agencies.

Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 30,2025.

Tulsi Gabbard pledged to separate her political views from her official duties.

Tulsi Gabbard denied knowing Edward Snowden while he worked in Hawaii's NSA facility, and defended her past advocacy for reforming the Espionage Act, including a House resolution she introduced with Representative Matt Gaetz.

Tulsi Gabbard acknowledged Snowden had broken the law by releasing information that caused harm, though she highlighted the exposure of illegal surveillance practices.

Tulsi Gabbard confirmed she would not, as DNI, advocate for Snowden's pardon or clemency.

Tulsi Gabbard clarified her position, defending the necessity of 702 for national security while stressing the need for reforms to protect civil liberties, particularly advocating for warrants in certain US person queries.

Tulsi Gabbard clarified that her trip had been cleared by House Ethics and that she informed the Trump administration upon her return.

Tulsi Gabbard assured Senator Todd Young that she would not protect those who disclosed classified intelligence programs improperly.

Senator Susan Collins supported her nomination after Tulsi Gabbard clarified her stance on Snowden and reducing the size of the DNI office.

Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as the 8th director of national intelligence on February 12,2025, by Attorney General Pam Bondi, taking the position responsible for leading 18 US intelligence agencies and assuming the role of president's top intelligence adviser.

Immediately after being sworn in, Tulsi Gabbard made her first international trip as DNI to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference.

When questioned by Congress, Tulsi Gabbard admitted sharing the information with Goldberg was a "mistake", but claimed none of the information shared was classified.

In 2020, Tulsi Gabbard introduced a bill to ban trans women from female sports, and supports that women sports should be for biological females, a position popular with conservatives.

Tulsi Gabbard has been a frequent critic of the Biden administration.

Tulsi Gabbard has said that as president she would "end the failed war on drugs, legalize marijuana, end cash bail, and ban private prisons".

In January 2020, in response to a question from a voter, Tulsi Gabbard called for legalizing and regulating all drugs, citing Portugal's model for drug decriminalization.

In June 2020, Tulsi Gabbard introduced an amendment to the House version of the 2021 NDAA to allow members of Armed Services to use products containing CBD and other hemp derivatives.

At that time, Tulsi Gabbard called for halting the visa waiver program after mass numbers of Syrian immigrants entered Germany, until the threat of terrorist attacks was resolved.

However, between 2013 and 2021, Tulsi Gabbard had expressed support for an easier path to citizenship for immigrants without legal status, increasing skilled immigration, and granting work visas to immigrants.

Tulsi Gabbard has often supported the causes of Native Americans and tribal lands, such as her support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016, wherein she co-signed a letter requesting the Obama administration to address the tribal concerns about the project.

Tulsi Gabbard successfully passed an amendment to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Department of Energy to reexamine the safety of the Runit Dome, a leaking Cold War era nuclear waste site in the Marshall Islands.

Tulsi Gabbard later called for "fresh eyes" to ensure a more independent assessment of the waste site's safety.

Tulsi Gabbard has spoken in favor of a Green New Deal but expressed concerns about vagueness in some proposed versions of the legislation and its inclusion of nuclear energy.

Tulsi Gabbard advocated her own "Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act" as legislation to transition the United States to renewable energy.

Tulsi Gabbard supported a national healthcare insurance program to cover uninsured, as well as under-insured people, and allowed supplemental but not duplicative private insurance.

Tulsi Gabbard has since advocated for a two-tier universal health care plan that she calls "Single Payer Plus", loosely modeled after Australia's system and allowing for both supplementary and duplicative private insurance.

Tulsi Gabbard pushed to reinstate Medicaid eligibility for people from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau working and living in the United States.

Tulsi Gabbard called for addressing the national nursing shortage and supported clear GMO labeling, voting in 2016 against a GMO-labeling bill she said was too weak.

Tulsi Gabbard voted "present" when the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump in December 2019.

In 1998, when she was 17 years old, Tulsi Gabbard supported her father's successful campaign to amend the Constitution of Hawaii to give lawmakers the power to "reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples".

Tulsi Gabbard favored the Federal Marriage Amendment that would prevent overriding state law with regard to same-sex marriage.

In 2012, Tulsi Gabbard apologized for her "anti-gay advocacy" and said she would "fight for the repeal" of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Tulsi Gabbard was a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.

Tulsi Gabbard suggested that the bill should apply to all grades.

Tulsi Gabbard has been a strong supporter of the US military offensive to defeat ISIS.

In 2016, Tulsi Gabbard described herself as a hawk "when it comes to the war against terrorists", but a dove "when it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change".

Tulsi Gabbard has called for reducing military interventionism by the United States.

Tulsi Gabbard criticizes the neocon war machine for US involvement in "wasteful regime change wars" that do not make America any safer.

Tulsi Gabbard has called pro-Palestine protesters in the US "puppets of a radical Islamist organization".

Tulsi Gabbard expressed reservations about the US involvement in Syrian civil war, and said that "We must end our war to overthrow the Syrian government and focus our attention on defeating al-Qaeda and ISIS".

In 2015, Tulsi Gabbard met with Egyptian dictator 'Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

Tulsi Gabbard was critical of the US military's 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, which targeted and killed high-level Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, as an act of war by US president Donald Trump and a violation of the US Constitution, arguing that Trump did not have congressional authorization for this act.

Tulsi Gabbard's visit to Assad was generally criticized by both sides of the political spectrum for giving Assad credibility despite the civilian deaths under his regime.

Tulsi Gabbard drew parallels to the Iraq War, warning against repeating "a counterproductive regime war" without clear evidence and congressional consent.

Tulsi Gabbard further clarified that her initial skepticism was specifically around incidents in 2017, which were used as an excuse to launch a US military attack in Syria.

In 2019, Tulsi Gabbard affirmed on MSNBC's Morning Joe that she views Putin as a US adversary.

Tulsi Gabbard expressed skepticism about the motives behind not resolving the issue, blaming "warmongers on both sides in Washington" and suggesting the US might want Russia to invade in order to impose "draconian sanctions" and cement a new Cold War.

Tulsi Gabbard criticized this as benefiting "the Military-Industrial Complex that controls so many of our politicians" at the expense of American, Ukrainian, and Russian citizens.

Some lawmakers have accused Tulsi Gabbard of taking foreign policy positions they saw as sympathetic to Russia, and these positions have often resulted in praise from Russian media.

Tulsi Gabbard reiterated the urgency, noting that "According to the US government, these biolabs are conducting research on dangerous pathogens".

That same day, Newsweek noted that "Tulsi Gabbard had asserted, accurately, that the US funds bio labs in Ukraine, not bio weapons labs", but that a number of people had criticized Tulsi Gabbard for, in their view, appearing to echo falsehoods being peddled by Russia.

The Washington Post said Tulsi Gabbard had "come under scrutiny for propagating [the false claim of] alleged presence of 25 or more US-funded biolabs in Ukraine with the potential to spread deadly pathogens".

Tulsi Gabbard stated her belief that the trade war has made it more difficult to secure Chinese support over a nuclear deal with North Korea; she said America should work with China on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Tulsi Gabbard has often expressed her support for the ethnic Armenian population in the conflict with Azerbaijan.

In 2017, Tulsi Gabbard was part of a team of US lawmakers that visited Armenia and the then-disputed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was later reclaimed by Azerbaijan; she was thus blacklisted by Azerbaijan.

In 2019, Tulsi Gabbard was a co-sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, along with several other US senators and US representatives, to lock in official US recognition and permanent remembrance of the Armenian genocide.

Tulsi Gabbard lived in Hawaii for most of her early childhood and has been a lifelong surfer.

Tulsi Gabbard has mentioned being a vegetarian, though some sources have reported her as a vegan.

Tulsi Gabbard follows the Vaishnava tradition of the Hindu faith, and values as her spiritual guide the Bhagavad Gita.

Tulsi Gabbard has described herself as a Karma Yogi.

Tulsi Gabbard took the oath of office in 2013 with her personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita.

Tulsi Gabbard has worked on several efforts for military veterans, and noted being inspired by President John F Kennedy.

When Tulsi Gabbard's parents moved to Hawaii, they had joined the circle of disciples around the founder of the SIF connected with International Society for Krishna Consciousness, She described the SIF's leader, Chris Butler, as a guide and "essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor" during her early years.

In 2024, the Trump transition team stated that Tulsi Gabbard has "no affiliation" with the SIF.

Briefly, from 1988 to 1992, Tulsi Gabbard's parents owned a small vegetarian restaurant, The Natural Deli in Moiliili, Hawaii.

Tulsi Gabbard's mother became Hindu and gave Sanskrit names to all her children.

Tulsi Gabbard has often mentioned that the teachings of selfless action from the Bhagavad Gita motivated her towards social work.

Tulsi Gabbard supported the efforts of Modi for declaration of an International Yoga Day by the United Nations.

At the age of 21, in 2002, Tulsi Gabbard married Eduardo Tamayo.

Tulsi Gabbard was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, serving with the National Guard.

Tulsi Gabbard divorced in 2006, citing "the stresses war places on military spouses and families" as a reason for the divorce.

In 2015, Tulsi Gabbard married freelance cinematographer and editor Abraham Williams, a Hindu of European and Samoan ancestry and son of her Honolulu office manager, in a traditional Vedic Hindu wedding.

Tulsi Gabbard has been a presenter at iHeartRadio Honolulu's virtual festival, Island Music Awards 2020.

On November 25,2013, Gabbard received the John F Kennedy New Frontier Award at a ceremony at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government for her efforts on behalf of veterans.

On February 26,2015, Tulsi Gabbard received the National Association of Counties County Alumni Award for her "steadfast commitment to the nation's counties".

On July 15,2015, Tulsi Gabbard received the Friend of the National Parks Award from the National Parks Conservation Association.

On September 30,2018, Tulsi Gabbard received the Ho'ola Na Pua Advocacy Award for "her dedication to serving and empowering human trafficking survivors in Hawaii" at their annual Pearl Gala.

On October 16,2018, Gabbard was honored as Hawaii Pacific University's 2018 Paul T C Loo Distinguished Alumni.