Hindu American organizations praised the appointment and congratulated the former congresswoman from Hawaii on her achievement as the White House’s top Hindu American.
Tulsi Gabbard has been appointed as the director of national intelligence by President-elect Donald J. Trump. She would be in charge of 18 spy agencies, prepare the President’s Daily Brief, and work with John Ratcliffe, the recently appointed head of the Central Intelligence Agency, as a top intelligence adviser to the White House.
One of Trump’s most ardent supporters was Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and the first Hindu American to hold a congressional seat. She has long been a critic of the foreign policy establishment and was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who served in Iraq. She will be the first cabinet member to identify as Hindu if it is confirmed.
Gabbard’s nomination is “another sign that Trump intends to give top foreign policy jobs to supporters who are deeply skeptical of the effectiveness of U.S. military intervention abroad,” in the words of the New York Times.
Trump commended Gabbard and said he is confident she “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through” in a statement announcing the appointment. He added that Gabbard was “a former Democrat who had joined the Republican Party because of President Trump’s leadership and how he has been able to transform the Republican Party, bringing it back to the party of the people and the party of peace.”
Gabbard was appointed honorary co-chair of Trump’s transition team after he endorsed him in August. She was assisting Donald Trump in getting ready for his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and was briefly regarded as his running mate. In 2021, she resigned from the Democratic Party, claiming that it was “run by an elitist cabal of woke cowards who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism.”
However, the Associated Press claims that she has “long signaled some level of support for Trump, even while she sat in the U.S. House as a Democrat.” A vocal opponent of U.S. military interventions abroad and aid to Ukraine, he has “often shared Trump’s approach to the world in his post-presidency,” according to The Washington Post. When the House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2019 over his actions in Ukraine, she was the only member to vote “present.”
Gabbard, a supporter of Modi, had publicly denounced Washington’s decision to deny Modi a visa because of his alleged role in the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. She also expressed her disapproval of House Resolution 417, which condemned India for not defending the liberties and rights of religious minorities, in December 2013.
She said in a statement following her 2019 meeting with Modi in New York that they had “a productive conversation about the importance of the U.S.-India relationship.” A a former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, she further noted that the discussions included “the need to continue to work together to address the pressing issues that impact us and the world — like combating climate change and protecting our environment, improving the economic well-being of our people, increasing trade, counterterrorism efforts, and preventing nuclear war and nuclear proliferation. “
Gabbard claimed that certain media outlets were slandering her and calling her supporters Hindu nationalists after she declared her intention to run for president. She brought up the charge that she was a Hindu nationalist in an opinion piece published in January 2019 for the Religious News Services. “Even though President [Barack] Obama, Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, President [Donald] Trump, and numerous members of my congressional colleagues have met and collaborated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s democratically elected leader, my meetings with him have been emphasized as ‘proof’ of this and presented as somehow unusual or suspicious.”
The Hindu American Foundation and other American Hindu nationalist groups have given Gabbard a lot of support. One Republican, Ohio State Sen. Niran Antani, congratulated Gabbard on her appointment and said she was “the highest ranking Hindu Americans in the White House in American history.”
Gabbard, “a prominent Hindu American political leader, was the first congressional candidate ever endorsed by HAPAC in 2012,” was also praised by the Hindu American PAC on X. The Hindu American Foundation shared the PAC’s post and commented, “great choice.”
