US President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Democratic representative-turned-Republican Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence. In the wake of the nomination, several headlines across the world focussed on her Hindu faith, sparking interest in her ancestry.
Tulsi Gabbard, who was elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat in 2012, representing Hawaii’s Second District, is a practicing Hindu, a religion widely followed in India. She was also the first Hindu ever elected to Congress.
Her nomination for Director of National Intelligence created a stir across the world with several media outlets' headlines focussing on her Hindu faith. She was even described as a Hindu-American. Tulsi Gabbard’s faith has raised questions about her ethnicity, with many people wondering if she is of Indian origin.
However, Tulsi Gabbard is not of Indian origin. Gabbard, who is frequently mistaken for being Indian due to her faith, clarified the same on X in 2012. At the time, she wrote:
“I am not of Indian origin.”
According to Geneastar, a website that details famous genealogies, Gabbard, who was born in Leloaloa, Maoputasi County, on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila, is of Samoan ancestry. This is native to Hawaii. The Somoans are Indigenous Polynesians who originate from the Somoan Island.
Gabbard’s father, Mike Gabbard, is of Samoan and European ancestry and a practicing Catholic. Meanwhile, her mother, Carol, is of German descent and is a practicing Hindu. Tulsi reportedly chose Hinduism as her religion when she was a teenager.
“She’s a Russian” trends online after Tulsi Gabbard's Director of National Intelligence nomination
Shortly after Tulsi Gabbard was nominated to oversee 18 spy agencies in the United States, the phrase "She’s a Russian" began to trend online. The phrase was about Hilary Clinton accusing Gabbard of amplifying Russian propaganda.
In 2022, Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District from 2013 to 2021, announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, denouncing it as an "elitist cabal of warmongers.” The exit came two years after running an unsuccessful bid for the party's presidential nomination. Since then, Gabbard has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
In 2021, Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq with a medical unit, was accused of spreading Russian propaganda after she posted a video on social media asserting that US-funded Biolabs in Ukraine “would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world" if breached. Shortly after, the American and Ukrainian governments accused Gabbard of spreading disinformation that originated from Moscow.
In 2019, Hillary Clinton, on a podcast hosted by the former Barack Obama adviser David Plouffe, accused Republicans of grooming Gabbard as a third-party candidate to siphon votes from the Democratic candidate in key states. Clinton added:
“She is a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.”
Clinton then went on to accuse independent candidate Jill Stein of being a "Russian asset." Clinton continued:
“That’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset. Totally. And so they know they can’t win without a third-party candidate. I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I will guarantee they’ll have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most need it” (via Guardian)
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After Gabbard lost her presidential bid in 2020, she blamed Clinton for sabotaging her candidacy by accusing her of being a “Russian Asset.” Gabbard even sued Clinton for $50 million over the “Russian Asset” remark.
However, the lawsuit was dismissed since Clinton did not accuse Gabbard of being a “Russian Asset.” She only claimed Gabbard was a "favorite" of Russians.
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