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Analysts react to Tulsi Gabbard's ties to 'guru' Chris Butler

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The Washington Post obtained over 25,000 memos and documents revealing former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's political actions were directed by Chris Butler of the Science of Identity Foundation.The documents show Butler provided directives on legislation, policy positions, and television conduct, with memos instructing what bills Gabbard should propose, according to the report published Sunday. "They had an air of authority," wrote The Post, adding, "A memo about a proposal to partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it was 'time for TG to come up with this idea'."The report also includes Butler's criticisms of Gabbard, calling her mealymouthed in response to a bill she introduced. Political analysts expressed shock at the revelations. "It’s kind of a relief that all her insane policy positions came from a Hindu cult leader and not from [Vladimir] Putin," Sir William Browder, who leads the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, posted on X."Hillary was right about her," Jen Monroe, host of the "Ambitious Crossover Attempt" podcast, posted on X."Strong test of the Unitary Executive Theory," James Goodwin, policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, posted on Bluesky.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.

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'Big trouble': Analyst flags 'severe cracks' in key bloc over Trump's broken promises

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'Big trouble': Analyst flags 'severe cracks' in key bloc over Trump's broken promises

Republicans have signs of trouble ahead of the midterm elections after President Donald Trump has "failed to deliver on his economic promises," an analyst argued on Monday. In a column for The Guardian, journalist and author Steven Greenhouse pointed out how the GOP will have to face this growing problem among white, blue-collar voters in the fall."If any demographic group was key to Donald Trump’s election victories in 2016 and 2024, it was white, blue-collar voters," Greenhouse wrote. "But in perhaps perilous news for Republicans, Trump’s support from that group has plummeted – as many white, working-class voters have grown upset about everything from increased inflation and gas prices to Trump’s war against Iran. These glaring cracks in Trump’s blue-collar base point to big trouble for Republicans in this November’s midterm elections."The disappointment among GOP voters is "bad news" for Republicans, Greenhouse argued. And polls point to that mounting dissatisfaction — a new CBS poll revealed that 54 percent of white voters without a college degree disapprove of Trump's performance as president. Trump won 66 percent of white voters without a four-year degree in the 2024 presidential election."This shows severe cracks in Trump’s white, blue-collar base, a group that candidate Trump wooed by promising to crack down on immigration, to reduce prices on day one, to bring back manufacturing jobs and to not start new foreign wars," Greenhouse wrote. "Many blue-collar voters see that Trump has failed to deliver on any of these promises except for his massive crackdown on immigrants – that crackdown has grown unpopular, however, after Trump’s masked agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis."Democratic candidates in states with a large population of blue-collar, white workers could benefit in midterms from voters turning on Trump, especially in states such as Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas."To increase their chances of taking back the House and Senate, Democrats need to tap into the growing blue-collar disenchantment with Trump and Republicans," Greenhouse wrote. "And let’s not forget that it’s not just white, blue-collar voters who have turned against Trump – many working-class African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans are also upset that Trump plunged the US into war and that gas prices have soared and that tomato prices are up 32% over the past year, coffee prices up 17% and beef up 13%."

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Analysts react to Trump's inspection of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

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Analysts react to Trump's inspection of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social Sunday he inspected the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and consequently blamed its seriously vandalized conditions on sick, deranged people. He also announced work would immediately begin to fix it. Trump's renovation project, allegedly aimed at restoring Washington, D.C., exceeded its proposed $14.2 million budget and was criticized by historians. In addition, days after its initial blue paint application, algae reappeared across the pool. Trump ended his post by saying, "We will fix it?" As Trump posted his inspection, MeidasTouch reported a dead duckling was found floating in the Reflecting Pool. Political analysts reacted with skepticism on social media. Conservation biologist Marcelo Lima posted on Bluesky, "bonkers." Historian T.J. Stiles noted on Bluesky, "As someone said, Trump claims he made Washington the safest city in America, but now says he was unable to protect a national monument, despite constant work and attention on site," adding, "Faced with a choice of claiming incompetence in redecorating or in public safety, he went with the latter.""Someone just told him that the murder of a duckling just took this feckless, incompetent disaster to another level," Said Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.

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'Your cuts did this': Elon Musk skewered over deaths tied to DOGE

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'Your cuts did this': Elon Musk skewered over deaths tied to DOGE

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) unloaded on trillionaire Elon Musk Monday morning over his tenure in the Trump administration – namely, his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the initiative’s federal spending cuts that are projected to cause millions of preventable deaths.Khanna recently appeared on the progressive podcast “I’ve Had it” with host Jennifer Welch, during which he noted that a one-time 5% tax on Musk’s wealth would generate enough revenue to fund “universal child care for every family” in the United States. Musk responded to a clip of Khanna’s appearance posted on social media Sunday night, calling the California Democrat “such an evil liar.”The next morning, Khanna fired back, sharing research suggesting that the spending cuts enacted under Musk’s leadership at DOGE may cause 14 million preventable deaths by 2030.“Elon, how about just paying the 5% instead of hurling random insults?” Khanna wrote. “And here are the facts, man. Your [United States Agency for International Development] cuts did this.”Khanna shared a report from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health citing a peer-reviewed study that found as many as 4.5 million children under the age of five may perish due to the recent U.S. foreign aid cuts spearheaded by Musk.Over the past 20 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is estimated to have “helped save 91 million lives,” per the report, with USAID-supported programs “associated with a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 32% reduction in mortality among children under five.”During his time leading DOGE, Musk oversaw around $60 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid, leaving “few surviving USAID projects” after he departed from the Trump administration last year amid controversy.Elon, how about just paying the 5% instead of hurling random insults?And here are the facts, man. Your USAID cuts did this: https://t.co/OPROIIve0Q https://t.co/7JBavqE7qn— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) June 22, 2026

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Majority of Republicans think Trump failed with his latest attempt to save face: data guru

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Majority of Republicans think Trump failed with his latest attempt to save face: data guru

A majority of Americans – including Republicans – believe that President Donald Trump was desperate to end his war in Iran regardless of whether his goals were accomplished.The president signed a memorandum of understanding last week to negotiate an end to the war he launched Feb. 28, and CNN's Harry Enten presented polling data that showed public opinion had remained solidly against Trump all along."You know, they disapproved of him a month ago, they disapproved of him two months ago, and they still disapprove of him," Enten said. "I mean, the polling is quite steady."Enten encountered some technical difficulties that prevented him from displaying the polling data onscreen, but he pressed on and recited the numbers from memory."Look, people disapproved of Trump two months ago," he said. "His disapproval rating was 64 percent, last month it was 66 percent, and this month it is the same – 64 percent. So what we're talking about is that Americans, you can pay attention to me here. Americans still disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing on Iran, and 75 percent of independents disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing on Iran. So regardless of any deal that was made, the American people still disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing on Iran, despite whatever he's doing.""The bottom line is this," he added. "No matter what deal has been made, the clear majority, two-thirds of Americans, still disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing when it comes to that conflict."Enten found similar support for the president's agreement to end the war."So why did Trump agree to the deal?" Enten said. "Well, it's simply this: Why Trump agreed to the Iran deal, wants the war to end or think the U.S. met its war goals. Look at this, 66 percent of Americans simply think he wanted to end the war, and even among Republicans, his own party, don't think that, in fact, the Trump administration met its war goals. In fact, they think he wants to just end the war.""So this idea, hey, we won, we won, everyone, we won – the American people don't think that is exactly what happened," he added. "What they think happened was Iran was fighting back, America looked at the chance of victory in terms of what Trump initially laid out as the chance of victory. They did not think that that was possibly going to be accomplished. We're talking about two-thirds of Americans and even a majority of Republicans did." - YouTube youtu.be

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'There's a problem here': MS NOW hosts flabbergasted by Trump official's 'cult' ties

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21 hours ago

'There's a problem here': MS NOW hosts flabbergasted by Trump official's 'cult' ties

MS NOW's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski expressed shock over a new report exposing the decades-long influence of Tulsi Gabbard's religious mentor over her political career.Gabbard recently stepped down as President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence after serving as a Democratic congresswoman, but the Washington Post reported over the weekend that that she has been guided every step of the way by eccentric religious leader Chris Butler, head of a Hare Krishna breakaway group called the Science of Identity Foundation."Some people call it a cult," Scarborough said.A former member of the group provided Post reporter Jonathan Swaine with thousands of emails and documents that revealed Butler's advisory role to Gabbard, who had been asked about her relationship with the guru during her confirmation hearings."Dozens of attached memos appeared to document directives and advice for Gabbard from her time in Congress," Swaine reported. "Some contained instructions on what legislation she should propose, which policies she should embrace, and how she should conduct herself on television. They had an air of authority."The reporter compared Gabbard's remarks in 32 television interviews between 2014 and 2016 and found she used language that was nearly verbatim to Butler's talking points memos, and Scarborough was stunned."It is a Hare Krishna-styled group that many people have compared to a cult," he said. "People don't suggest that being in a Hare Krishna group is the same as being in a cult, but in this case, when you have something that may be a spinoff of that and a cult-like leader advising members of Congress how to speak, how to, how to put forward legislation, how how to style their hair. There's a problem here."Swaine spent a year digging into the documents and reporting on their significance, and "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire said the findings raised important questions."The endgame of these instructions not quite clear, but Tulsi Gabbard has always been sort of a mysterious figure," Lemire said. "Her politics have sort of been – she's been a shapeshifter. She ran for president as a Democrat not that long ago, and now, of course, she serves, you know, up until Friday, in the Trump administration, and certainly she had fallen out of favor with Trump and, you know, we certainly wish her and her family well. Her husband is battling cancer, it's a pretty devastating diagnosis.""But we also know from reporting that the Trump administration was looking to move on from her soon anyway," Lemire added, "and why reading this here, and especially with you mentioned, Mika, read the piece about the her words being almost verbatim from these instructions that the this leader Butler often spoke to her really tough language, sometimes like very demeaning sort of rhetoric to her, a member of Congress. Yeah, it raises all sorts of questions as to her background and to what actually was the goal here, you know, in this relationship.""Yeah," Brzezinski agreed, "very concerning." - YouTube youtu.be

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Trump 'embarrassed' as his Iran deal becomes the 'joke in Washington': analyst

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21 hours ago

Trump 'embarrassed' as his Iran deal becomes the 'joke in Washington': analyst

The deal President Donald Trump's administration struck with the Iranian regime has become a joke in Washington, D.C., and it's left the president embarrassed and flailing for an answer, according to one analyst. Last week, the Trump administration and the Iranian regime agreed to a deal that would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that accounts for roughly 20% of the world's energy trade, and postpone more substantive talks until later in the week in Switzerland. Those talks were scheduled to take place on Friday, but were delayed until Saturday due to ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranian regime also announced on Saturday that it was going to shut the Strait of Hormuz again.Joe Cirincione, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, told MS NOW's Alex Witt on "Alex Witt Reports" that the negotiations have soured to the point where Trump has resorted to his "Tony Soprano" negotiation tactics by threatening the Iranians with violence. That has only seemed to further deteriorate the talks, even though Trump is telling "This is what happens when he doesn't have any cards to play," Cirincione said. "He's in a weak position, and now he's embarrassed by this deal. His base is revolting against it. If he were to force this deal to be presented to the United States Congress, I don't think it would pass, and that's not something I would have said just a week ago.""So, he's frustrated. He's lashing out. He's acting irrationally, as he often does, and basically lying about what's going on," Cirincione added. "The joke in Washington, D.C., is that Trump told us this war was going to end with unconditional surrender. He didn't tell us it was going to be our unconditional surrender," he continued.

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Report exposing ex-Trump cabinet member's 'guru' shocks analysts: 'Hillary was right'

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22 hours ago

Report exposing ex-Trump cabinet member's 'guru' shocks analysts: 'Hillary was right'

Political analysts and observers were shocked on Sunday by a new report revealing that former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's actions throughout her more than two decades in office appeared to have been "guided" by Chris Butler of the Science of Identity Foundation, which several ex-members have described as a "cult."The Washington Post obtained more than 25,000 memos and other documents exchanged between Gabbard and Butler that appeared to reveal instances in which Butler gave Gabbard direction on several issues, according to the report. There were other instances in which Butler sharply criticized the former Representative from Hawaii as "mealymouthed" over one bill she introduced. "Dozens of attached memos appeared to document directives and advice for Gabbard from her time in Congress," the report reads in part. "Some contained instructions on what legislation she should propose, which policies she should embrace, and how she should conduct herself on television. They had an air of authority. A memo about a proposal to partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it was 'time for TG to come up with this idea.'"Political analysts and observers reacted to the report on social media. "Hillary was right about her," Jen Monroe, host of the "Ambitious Crossover Attempt" podcast, posted on X. "It’s kind of a relief that all her insane policy positions came from a Hindu cult leader and not from [Vladimir] Putin," Sir William Browder, who leads the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, posted on X. "Tulsi Gabbard as the Manchurian Candidate but for cult kook," Dan Immergluk, professor emeritus of urban studies at Georgia State University, posted on Bluesky. "Sure, make her national security chief, why not? This would have been such a wild story in the before times. Just everyday insanity now.""Strong test of the Unitary Executive Theory," James Goodwin, policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, posted on Bluesky.

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Tulsi Gabbard’s rise to power potentially guided by ‘controlling cult’ leader: report

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22 hours ago

Tulsi Gabbard’s rise to power potentially guided by ‘controlling cult’ leader: report

Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard may have been “guided” throughout her more than 24 years in politics by Chris Butler, the leader of a group countless ex-members have described as a “cult,” an extensive report from The Washington Post revealed Sunday.Gabbard began her career in politics as a Hawaii state House representative in 2002, climbing the ranks over decades before being appointed as Director of National Intelligence last year, a position she resigned from last Friday citing her husband’s deteriorating health. However, after obtaining “hundreds of confidential memos,” the Post revealed that much of her decision making over the past two decades – from what she should say to what bills she should introduce – may have been “guided” by Butler, who founded the Science of Identity Foundation, a new religious movement that began in the 1970s, which some scholars have called a “cult.”“Former devotees had been telling me for weeks that Butler controlled his followers’ major life decisions and demanded total obedience and secrecy,” the Post’s Jon Swaine wrote. “They said he spent years working to extend his reach into politics – and they suspected Gabbard’s rise in Washington was the culmination of that effort.The memos, Swaine revealed, included specific guidance and direction on a number of different topics.“Dozens of attached memos appeared to document directives and advice for Gabbard from her time in Congress,” Swaine wrote.“Some contained instructions on what legislation she should propose, which policies she should embrace and how she should conduct herself on television. They had an air of authority. A memo about a proposal to partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it was ‘time for TG to come up with this idea.’”Other memos obtained by Swaine included “harshly critical” language, he wrote, flagging one from January of 2015 that contained a “derisive assessment” of Gabbard’s response to an annual address delivered by former President Barack Obama.“In the first place, nobody gives a s--- what you think about his State of the Union speech, unless you’re going to say something of interest,” the memo read. “You’re not even trying. You’ve become really intellectually lazy.”Swaine continued, “In another, Gabbard was described as ‘chickens---’ and “mealymouthed” for her comments on a policy proposal.”

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