“Capitalist and citizen on a mission to revitalize excellence in American life” – the politician advertises with this slogan on his official website. That sounds a little less strident than former US President Trump’s election slogan (“Make America Great Again”), but Ramaswamy has talked about “America First 2.0” on social media. In February, he told Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador about drug trafficking to the United States: “There’s a new daddy in town.”
Your campaign tour continues in this key. The son of Indian immigrants, who sees himself as Trump’s heir, locates a divided country undergoing a major identity crisis. On various forums, Ramaswamy repeats his mantra: people turn to “racist vigil” and a “radical gender ideology” to fill an inner void. It is the job of Republicans to fill that void. Ramaswamy looks askance at the culture war that Trump has already stoked.
In the right footsteps of Trump
The Ohio-born politician studied law at Yale University and, after graduating, founded several start-ups under the name Roivant Sciences. After leaving the holding company in 2021, he created the investment company Strive Asset Management. He is backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel. With Strive Asset Management, Ramaswamy is taking action against sustainability goals in financial investments. In addition, the Republican is opposed to financial and military support for Ukraine in the fight against Russia. Instead, you should help Taiwan against China, according to Ramaswamy.
AP/Charlie Neibergall Ramaswamy has been touring the country since February
The republican’s specialty, however, is the Kulturkampf. He dedicates himself to this not only in lectures and interviews, but also in books. Titled “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” and “Nation of Victims”, it urges readers to “strive for excellence” and “reject victim culture”. In several interviews he speaks of “wokeness”, transgenderism, “climatism” and “Covid-ism”, symptoms of a “national identity crisis”.
debate
Where is the US going?
Ramaswamy follows in the footsteps of Trump, who followed the same line during the election campaign and his presidency. But observers agree that the fledgling Republican, unlike the previous president, is venturing even more heavily into this “culture war.” Ramaswamy gave the issue top priority in the election campaign.
He’s really hitting the media with this. It is played up and down in particular on the decidedly conservative right-wing sides. Other media also pick up on Ramaswamy and report on his campaign trip. Already in December 2022, the US magazine “The New Yorker” dedicated a detailed portrait to the “emerging star of the right”. At the time, there was no sign of his candidacy. He only made this public on Fox News in February.
Level “Vivek” with Pence
Of course, Ramaswamy is nowhere near the polls of Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, he trailed former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in some polls. A poll by US media outlet CBS News in May showed him sharing third place with Pence – albeit just five per cent. Trump leads in all polls, DeSantis trails behind.
IMAGO/ZUMA Wire/Brian Cahn DeSantis is considered Trump’s fiercest presidential challenger within the party
Even Trump has noticed Ramaswamy. “I am pleased that Vivek Ramaswamy is doing so well in the recent CBS YouGov Republican primary poll,” the former president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. What he likes about “Vivek” is that he has “only good things to say about ‘President Trump’ and everything that has made the Trump administration so successful.” That’s why he’s doing so well.
According to the Washington Post, the fact that Trump praises his opponent and keeps his fingers crossed is due to his self-interest. Trump wants to show Republicans, who may not know what to make of his looks, that there is still a candidate not named DeSantis – who is considered Trump’s biggest challenger in the internal party poll.
According to the American magazine “The Atlantic”, DeSantis is currently not doing a good job and is falling short of expectations – this was before he announced that he would enter the party’s internal primaries. Ramaswamy, on the other hand, is on everyone’s lips. His “surprisingly high numbers suggest that the brightest, youngest, and most spirited American-style politics may still be competitive – or at least disruptive”.
campaign fortune
Ramaswamy’s campaign told Politico that the candidate was willing to invest more than $100 million (€92 million) in his campaign. That budget is enough for the primary campaign, but it would not cover the costs of the presidential candidacy. According to the media report, Ramaswamy invested $10.5 million towards his political ambitions in the first quarter. That amount has allowed him to hire employees who primarily handle the complex digital campaign.
IMAGO/UPI Photo/Ian Halperin Trump congratulated his opponent Ramaswamy
Although Ramaswamy is also now collecting donations, he can also draw a large fortune, as “Politico” researched based on his tax returns. The businessman made these journalists available. He has earned over $240 million since 2011, including $174 million in 2020 capital gains alone. On the day he announced his candidacy, he sold shares in the holding company Roivant Sciences, which he founded, for $32 million.
Edited Wikipedia article – not a neutral point of view
The fact that at least Ramaswamy’s election campaign is in full swing can also be seen from his Wikipedia entry. This has been updated several times over the last few weeks. According to a Forbes article, the Republican poured money into changes. Anyone can edit Wikipedia articles, but it’s against the rules for anyone to edit an article about themselves. So a user named Jhofferman was hired. He also disclosed the payment according to his profile guidelines.
primaries in the United States
The US president is elected in a two-step process. Prior to the actual election, the party’s primaries take place, in which Republicans and Democrats agree on one candidate each.
According to the Wikipedia article’s version history, the lines about Ramaswamy receiving a “Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans” in 2011 have been removed. Paul Soros was the older brother of billionaire George Soros. The latter donated money to Democrats, and at the same time, the philanthropist has repeatedly been the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories spread by rightists. After talking with other users, Soros’ passage returned to the article.
This also applies to Ramaswamy’s role on the Ohio State Covid-19 Response Team. This was removed and later reinserted. User Jhofferman noted that the Covid-19 exposure was removed at the Republican’s request, while Soros’ concession was deemed “irrelevant material” by the editor himself.
However, it is assumed that Ramaswamy sees any connection to the Soros family as counterproductive to the Republican campaign. In any case, the neutrality or objectivity of the article in English about the republican is marked as controversial. Wikipedia warns: “The article may need to be cleaned up to comply with Wikipedia’s content guidelines, particularly the neutral point of view. One of the main authors of this article appears to have a close relationship with the subject.”