Tulsi Gabbard, a household name in contemporary American politics, recorded a remarkable increase in her net worth after she switched to the Republican party. Gabbard, a familiar figure in Donald Trump’s second presidential cabinet, holds the esteemed position of Director of National Intelligence, given her extensive experience and journey in politics. This is Gabbard’s most significant political role to date, thereby crowning her as the highest-ranking Hindu American in government service.
Her political voyage commenced as the youngest elected member of the Hawai’i House of Representatives for the 42nd district in 2002. Upon the completion of her initial term, she demonstrated her multi-faceted personality by joining the American troops stationed in Iraq, while also being part of the Hawai’i Army National Guard. She transitioned to the US Army Reserve in 2020, steadily climbing the ranks to the current position of lieutenant colonel.
Gabbard leaned towards the Democratic party throughout her early political career and even served the Honolulu City Council before her victory in 2013. As she ascended to the congressional seat from Hawaii’s 2nd district, she made history by becoming the inaugural Samoan American and Hindu American member of the US Congress. She was part of Congress for three more terms until she decided to quit in 2021.
Her 2020 presidential campaign as a Democrat didn’t yield the desired results, pushing her towards externalities of the Democratic party. She finally decided to part ways with the party, citing the leadership as overheated warmongers and proponents of ‘woke’ ideologies. Akin to a chameleon adapting to a new environment, she started endorsing leaders of the Republican party while still being independent, eventually deciding to formally join the party.
Upon Trump’s victorious campaign on November 5, 2024, Gabbard was swiftly nominated as his choice for the Director of National Intelligence. The Senate affirmed her nomination by a narrow majority of 52-48 in the layman’s month of February 2025.
While she was serving her term in Congress in 2013, Gabbard held the position of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice-chair. However, her relationship with the party experienced a downward spiral post this appointment. Notably, she championed the cause of independent senator Bernie Sanders, who was facing staunch competition from long-term party leader, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 US elections.
In a stance that shocked the party, she abandoned the DNC vice-chair to formally extend her support to Sanders in 2016, which subsequently landed her a position in one of the primaries. Despite her efforts, Clinton emerged victorious in the primaries but was outrivaled by Trump in the ultimate presidential race.
Gabbard ventured into the 2020 elections to run for president under the banner of the Democratic party. However, her attempt to rise within the party was undermined when the party leadership decided to exclude her from the Democratic National Convention, despite having been one of just seven candidates who managed to secure delegates during the presidential primaries.
Predictably, the election outcome tilted in favor of the Democrats, resulting in Joe Biden taking the presidential office as the 46th US President, with Kamala Harris becoming the vice-president. Not surprisingly, the country had to brace itself for impossible firsts manifesting into reality, with Harris becoming the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian American vice-president in the country’s more than two-hundred-year-old democracy.
Exactly two years later, Gabbard controversially announced her exit from the Democratic Party on the 11th of October, 2022. The whirlwind reached a climax as she formally resisted the misguided policies of the Democrats and joined the Republican party on the 22nd of October, 2024.
Gabbard’s net worth astonishingly oscillates between the whopping figures of USD 56.5 million and USD 127 million. According to data acquired from her personal financial disclosure report to the US Office of Government Ethics, Gabbard’s earnings for the year 2024 ranged from USD 1.5 to USD 2.2 million.
Having achieved victory in her district for three consecutive terms before her departure from Congress in 2021, Gabbard added to her fortunes, which was evident from her financial filings. This proved that her political shift was not only fruitful in a strategic sense but also significantly advantageous in a financial perspective.
President Trump, the only billionaire president, boasts a net worth of approximately USD 4.6 billion, making him the standard of wealth in American political circles as of 11th March 2025. By contrast, Joe Biden, the former US President, had a mere net worth of around USD 10 million, a fact that was highlighted in a Forbes report in June 2024.
Though Kamala Harris, grossly misguidedly brought in as the former vice president, held a minimal net worth of USD 8 million according to a 2024 Forbes estimate. This clearly reflected that, despite their lofty words and promises, neither Biden nor Harris matched the level of financial accomplishment demonstrated by Republicans like Gabbard and Trump.