Nikki Haley's son accuses Ohio Republican of 'sleazy' long con

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's son took to X on Tuesday to lash out at Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech businessman turned Department of Government Efficiency adviser who is now running for governor of Ohio as a Republican with President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Both Haley and Ramaswamy are American-born citizens of Indian ancestry, and both ran for president against Trump in 2024 before falling in line behind his campaign. Haley's son Nalin has positioned himself even farther to the right of his mother, calling for the H-1B visa program to be severely curtailed and even advocating naturalized citizens be barred from public office.

In his latest post, he came down hard on Ramaswamy, accusing him of running a long con.

"My Mom would never say this cuz she’s too nice... but I’m not so I will," he wrote. "[Ramaswamy] reached out in 2021 to my mom to ask her to say nice things about his book (Which she kindly did). He was a total fangirl before the grift. He also asked her advice on running for Gov of Ohio which was his plan all along. Very sleazy. That’s why he kissed a-- the whole presidential campaign. He didn’t actually believe any of it. He just wanted the endorsement."

"It’s not surprising that someone who made their fortune scamming other people would then run a fraudulent presidential campaign in an attempt to be a fraudulent governor who wants to replace Americans and American workers with foreigners," he continued. "Now he’s threatening to sue people who rightfully call out his scams. Vivague Ramaslimey is and always will be a greedy Anti-American scammer with a hairline worse than pennywise the clown."

This comes at a moment when Ramaswamy's campaign is under attack by far-right activists, many of whom are infuriated by his support for high-skilled worker visas, and some pushing racist invective against his Indian heritage — a fact he highlighted in his recent New York Times op-ed pleading with the GOP to get the anti-immigrant elements of the party under control.

"Older Republicans who may doubt the rising prevalence of the blood-and-soil view should think again. My social media feeds are littered with hundreds of slurs, most from accounts that I don’t recognize, about 'pajeets' and 'street s------s' and calls to deport me 'back to India,'" he wrote.