This is how Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was introduced to Hinduism despite being American

Gabbard, a erstwhile Democratic Congresswoman from Hawai’i and 2020 statesmanlike candidate, switched to the Republican Party successful 2022, aligning herself with Trump’s “MAGA” movement.

Know astir her background

Gabbard’s inheritance is arsenic divers arsenic her governmental career. Born connected April 12, 1981, successful Leloaloa, American Samoa, she grew up successful a multicultural household with Christian and Hindu influences. Her father, Mike Gabbard, is of Samoan and European descent and a devout Catholic. Her mother, Carol Porter Gabbard, converted to Hinduism earlier Tulsi’s birth, profoundly influencing Tulsi and her siblings, all of whom were fixed Hindu names, according to a illustration Hawaii News Now did connected the person successful 2013.

FILE – Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard waves arsenic she arrives to talk earlier Republican statesmanlike nominee erstwhile President Donald Trump during a run rally astatine Thomas & Mack Center, Oct. 24, 2024, successful Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

At the property of 14, Gabbard embraced Hinduism, inspired by the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. She recovered the text’s accent connected work and selfless enactment to beryllium a guiding unit successful her beingness and career. In 2012, Gabbard made past arsenic the archetypal Hindu and Samoan-American elected to the U.S. Congress, representing Hawai’i’s 2nd legislature district. During her swearing-in ceremony, she took her oath connected the Bhagavad Gita, highlighting its relation arsenic a root of spot and guidance passim her life.

A vocation defined by service

Gabbard’s tenure successful Congress was marked by her absorption connected interfaith understanding, spiritual freedom, and subject service, which included 2 tours of work successful the Middle East arsenic a subordinate of the Hawaii Army National Guard. Her governmental ethos, rooted successful karma yoga (selfless action), earned her accolades from divers communities, including Indian-Americans and planetary Hindu organisations.

Though her displacement to the Republican Party and alignment with Trump’s policies person sparked sizeable controversy.

As DNI, Gabbard volition oversee the coordination of 18 U.S. quality agencies, a relation that demands balancing transparency with nationalist information priorities.