Vivek Ramaswamy insulted Trump supporters and Ohioans in his elitist rant
The 39-year-old from Cincinnati, rocking a pretentious pompadour, got carried away with himself last week. Vivek Ramaswamy presumed his sizable net worth, amassed from biotech and financial investments, and his inflated sense of self-importance, gave him latitude to be a jerk online. Gave him permission to flip the MAGA script on all immigrants are bad to some are better than Americans. Bound to happen to a rich guy high on his own supply.
A year ago, the wealthy Wall Street speculator was so impressed with himself that he indulged in the ultimate ego trip. Ramaswamy ran for president not so much to win, but to market his emerging brand as a slick provocateur in the MAGAverse willing to take smarmy to next-level obnoxious. After his failed campaign, Ramaswamy hopped aboard the Trump train and wormed his way into the Dear Leader’s inner circle.
He became a Trump surrogate on steroids to ingratiate himself with the convicted felon and sexual abuser who would be president. Ramaswamy was a hardliner on Trump’s signature campaign issue — scapegoating Black and Brown immigrants. The candidate fumed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of the country” and had to go.
Ramaswamy amplified that anti-immigrant message because it supercharged the MAGA base. The dehumanizing rhetoric put a target on undocumented workers but played well at Trump rallies. Crowds roared, “Send them back!” Promises of mass deportations of terrified families provoked thunderous applause. Ramaswamy, son of Indian immigrants, fanned the fear and hate of other immigrants.
He told his xenophobic audiences he was committed to universally deporting undocumented immigrants and using the military to stop migration at the southern border. He cruelly vowed to limit the number of immigrants — fleeing persecution in their home countries and desperately seeking asylum in America — to “I would say zero, darn close to zero.”
Ramaswamy, who was born in the U.S. to two noncitizens (which means he gained citizenship through birthright), also pledged to end birthright citizenship for “kids of illegal immigrants in the country because their parents broke the law.” He was against even a special visa program (H-1B) that temporarily allowed highly skilled foreign workers in the country — until he wasn’t. Hold that thought. The wealthy Millennial, who now lives in an enormous mansion in Columbus, attached himself to the Trump campaign as a zealous crusader for the anti-immigrant cause. He bet his abject sycophancy would pay off and it did. Ramaswamy was appointed to a vague government efficiency initiative with the richest oligarch in the world. Must have been a heady moment for the young poser striding through the U.S. Capitol with his commission co-chair, the billionaire becoming trillionaire Elon Musk.
But Ramaswamy gave away the game. He told the world what he and the hi-tech titan really thought about the rubes who bought the Trumpian propaganda about immigrants as an evil to be eradicated. “America is for Americans and Americans only!” screamed Stephen Miller, anointed architect of Trump’s mass deportation plans. Immigrants stole American jobs. They must be stopped, not managed. No exceptions. Ramaswamy found some.
Immigrants who work as software engineers.
Silicon Valley and high-tech companies, with powerful allies like Ramaswamy and Musk, want more of them — even if they steal American jobs and depress wages in high-tech industries. Besides, and this is where young Ramaswamy let the cat out of the bag, Americans are too dumb and too lazy to compete with foreign tech workers.
Vivek let his disdain for MAGA loyalists fly. In a moment of pique during the holiday lull, Ramaswamy caused Trump World to wince and go to war with itself. He revealed his inner contempt for Americans as slackers with a superficial culture that “has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
In a post on X, Ramaswamy bizarrely placed part of the blame for the mediocre masses (or his fellow citizens) on 90s sitcoms “that venerate Cory from “Boy meets World” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters.”
The best tech workers are Indian and Asian immigrants, ranted the rich man-child, not culturally depraved ‘native’ Americans. Discounting decades of American innovation and ingenuity, along with scores of homegrown engineering graduates with high tech expertise, Ramaswamy suggested skilled visas for select immigrants in high-tech jobs were critical considering the lousy pool of American applicants.
The Ohio finance bro, who made bank off capital gains, not invention, dripped with derision about “a culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian” and produces average talent. Methinks a nerdy Vivek, with a huge chip on his shoulder, felt underappreciated as a schoolboy know-it-all. Ramaswamy was wistful the Trump presidency could start an American culture that prioritizes “hard work over laziness.” Please.
This guy doesn’t get us. At all. And he’s reportedly eyeing a run for Ohio governor in 2026! His home state boasts first-rate universities and colleges that train top notch engineers, software developers, data scientists, systems analysts, computer architects, and plenty of highly educated professionals. Ohio industries, from automotive to aerospace and advanced manufacturing technologies, embody innovation and resilience.
But the smug pompadoured prince posted scorn and showed his cards. A losing hand for Ramaswamy.