For most of this election season, Vivek Ramaswamy appears to have been making a play to be Donald Trump’s VP pick.
That all ended, however, after Trump slammed Ramaswamy, with Trump more or less calling him a con artist on Truth Social.
Talking Points…
- Trump attacks Ramaswamy
- Ramaswamy responds
- Analysis
Ramaswamy has been sucking up to Trump from the very outset of this election, and he quickly became the second favorite choice of MAGA after the first GOP debate. It seemed clear that he was making a play to be a member of Trump’s cabinet, even getting a glowing review from Trump after the first debate.
The lovefest, however, has ended, with Trump going nuclear on Ramaswamy on Truth Social only days before the Iowa caucus, with Trump clearly worried about Ramaswamy possibly siphoning votes away from his campaign. Trump posted:
“Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, ‘the best President in generations,’ etc. Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks. Very sly, but a vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side’ — don’t get duped by this.”
Trump further stated that Ramaswamy is “not MAGA,” and called him “a fraud.” Funny thing is that I had said this right out of the gate.
Vivek Ramaswamy had only recently written an amicus brief to support Donald Trump in the ballot case to have him removed, and as we noted above, he has gushed over Trump from the outset, so this attack clearly had to catch him by surprise. Even so, Vivek refused to return fire, stating:
“Yes, I saw President Trump’s Truth Social post. It’s an unfortunate move by his campaign advisors, I don’t think friendly fire is helpful. Donald Trump was the greatest President of the 21st century, and I’m not going to criticize him in response to this late attack.”
After the exchange, top Trump adviser Jason Miller was asked if Vivek was still in the running for Trump’s VP, and he dismissed the idea, stating:
“Pretty safe to say it won’t be Vivek.”
The attack against Vivek only makes sense if Trump is really worried about how Iowa is going to play out, and he clearly is. This is not a good look for Trump, however, especially since he always touts loyalty.
While I called Ramaswamy out for being a fraud from day one, he has only been complimentary to Trump and has stuck up for him at every turn. And, as noted above, he had just written an amicus brief, but yet Trump trashed him out of nowhere, clearly worried about some MAGA supporters voting for Vivek.
From my perspective, this attack seems a bit panicky, especially when you consider how low Vivek is polling. I don’t want to speculate too much on this, as we will have the caucus results soon enough, which should explain everything.
