Chris Butler is Tulsi Gabbard's guru and the founder of the religious group the Science of Identity Foundation. He controlled every detail of her political career: her public statements, her votes, her legislation, even her questions to the House Armed Services Committee. He also has decades-long close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a regime that has taken a hardline, repressive stance against its own Muslims.

Butler's directives for Tulsi to spout anti-Muslim rhetoric are an alarming parallel. To be clear about the scale: the CCP acts on its hostility toward Muslims through internment camps and what the U.S. State Department calls genocide. Butler acted on the same instinct through rhetoric, policy, and a willing political protégée. The scale is not equal. The instinct is. And the transcripts show Butler scripted it.

Butler scripted the "Islamic extremism" attack on Obama

Between 2014 and 2016, Tulsi Gabbard became the most prominent Democrat in America attacking President Barack Obama for refusing to say "Islamic extremism." It set her apart from every other member of her party and made her a fixture on Fox News.

The transcripts show that Chris Butler, head of the Science of Identity Foundation and Gabbard's spiritual leader since childhood, repeatedly directed her to use this exact framing across multiple recorded conversations. He scripted the argument, specified the language, and corrected her when she failed to deliver his talking points precisely. ¹ This was not a one-time suggestion. It was a sustained directive delivered across many recordings.

What Tulsi said in public

Compare Butler's directives to Gabbard's public statements during the same period.

In January 2015, Gabbard told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "the administration is misidentifying the enemy and their motivation," calling the president's emphasis on the economic roots of terrorism a "diversion." ⁸ In February 2015 she told Fox News that "unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy." ⁸ The Washington Times reported that the "rising Democratic star" had committed "a mortal sin" by ripping Obama on the Islamic State issue. ¹⁰

After the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were murdered, Gabbard went on Fox News to again insist on the term "radical Islamic terrorism," saying, "It's important that you identify your enemy." ¹³

The "destroy" directive: choosing her exact word

One of the most specific language directives in the transcript corpus comes from August 7, 2014:

Butler specified the verb. Not "stop." Not "defeat." Not "counter." "Destroy."

On September 17, 2014, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said: "We must focus on one mission: to destroy ISIL and other Islamic extremists who've declared war on us." That same day she voted against a provision in the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act authorizing $500 million to train and arm Syrian rebels. Butler had drafted her voting statement the day before. ¹¹ The word "destroy," rather than "stop," "defeat," or "counter," became her signature framing across dozens of TV appearances from 2014 through 2016.

When she got it wrong, Butler scolded her

After a CNN interview on Ebola in October 2014, Butler criticized her in a recorded session for not following his preparation:

He even corrected her vocabulary, noting she "kept using the word 'incubation'" when she meant "quarantine." This is the level of control Butler exercised over a sitting member of Congress. ¹²

According to PolitiFact's 2019 review, Gabbard "first became an in-demand Fox News guest in 2015 after she criticized Barack Obama's unwillingness to use the label 'radical Islamic terrorism.'" ⁹ Conservative outlets amplified her: National Review profiled her in May 2015, ¹⁴ and Breitbart and The Daily Caller gave her favorable coverage. ¹⁵ The media narrative was that Gabbard was a Democrat breaking from her party on principle. The transcripts show Butler directing the framing.

Butler ordered the targeting of Muslim Americans

Butler's directives went beyond rhetoric about a foreign enemy. In recorded political sessions in June 2014, he instructed Tulsi's team to treat Muslim Americans as suspects to be watched.

In the same period, Butler directed her broader Middle East framing, including how the United States should treat Sunni and Shia Muslims:

He directed her anti-Pakistan messaging ("America should end all aid to and all friendly relations with Pakistan") ¹⁸ and coached her on how to present her guru ties to the public:

In the same transcript, Butler directed her team to "take the offensive" against anyone who questioned her guru ties, the playbook for dismissing scrutiny of his network. ¹⁹

The same message, now from the nation's top intelligence official

Butler in 2014: "Watch the Muslim-Americans." Tulsi in 2025: naming specific Muslim-majority American cities from the podium of the nation's top intelligence official. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called her remarks "delusional and disqualifying." ²¹

Used, then discarded: the Muslim supporters

While Butler scripted the anti-Muslim messaging, the campaign was simultaneously using Muslim supporters for fundraising and cover, then discarding them. The internal emails tell the story.

One supporter had built the "Muslims for Tulsi" social media campaign, organized meetings with Muslim leaders, and spent his own time and money defending her. As Tulsi's anti-Muslim language escalated, he watched his work unravel.

The Kashmir fundraising scheme

At the same time, the campaign was packaging the Kashmir conflict, a flashpoint between nuclear-armed nations, as a fundraising tool aimed at Indian American donors.

HAF pressured me to remove "Standing Against Islamophobia"

In October 2018, Tulsi asked me to run her campaign website as the focal point for her 2020 presidential launch. I created a section called "Standing Against Islamophobia," based on Tulsi's own previous statements, votes, and public record. Sunil Khemaney's contacts at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) asked me to take it down.

Why this matters now

Tulsi Gabbard served as Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 18 intelligence agencies and holding the highest security clearances in the United States government.

The "Islamic extremism" critique that launched her national profile appears in Butler's transcripts as a directive before it appeared in Gabbard's public statements. The man who scripted it has spent decades close to the Chinese Communist Party, a regime that treats its own Muslims as a threat to be erased. The scale is not the same. The instinct is.