Who Was Vivek Ramaswamy’s Campaign Actually For?

Vivek Ramaswamy was never a credible presidential candidate. The biotech multimillionaire—who dropped out of the Republican primary on Monday after a distant fourth-place finish in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses—instead seemed to run a calculated campaign aimed at boosting his personal brand, seducing conservative media heavyweights, and landing him a future title should Donald Trump retake the White House. Indeed, he spent much of the race flattering the former president, regurgitating his populist talking points, and even imitating his belligerent style on the debate stage.

For what it’s worth, Ramaswamy has repeatedly declined to say whether he would serve in a Trump administration, claiming he is not a “plan B person.” But it is difficult to imagine why else he would spend his candidacy serving as an unofficial surrogate to his chief rival. During an August interview, Trump himself appeared receptive to naming Ramaswamy as his vice presidential choice after host Glenn Beck floated the idea. “He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something,” Trump said. “I think he’d be very good.”

On his way out the door, however, Ramaswamy may have extinguished Trump’s goodwill by promising to save the legally embattled ex-president with a presidential pardon. “Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter,” Trump later claimed Friday over Truth Social, but “now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks. Very sly.” By exiting the race and immediately throwing his support behind Trump, Ramaswamy may have taken a step toward reconciliation.

Apart from wooing Trump, Ramaswamy has spent the past year making the rounds with just about any conservative media personality willing to hear him out, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and right-wing podcasters Tim Pool, Candace Owens, and Benny Johnson. To pique the interests of these relatively fringe characters, Ramaswamy cosigned a number of conspiracy theories and extreme policies prominent in online right-wing circles. He has claimed the Capitol riot was “an inside job” carried out by federal agents; defended the racist “Great Replacement” narrative; called for deporting American-born children of undocumented immigrants; and said the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

There was also the youth angle to his campaign. At 38, Ramaswamy was the youngest Republican candidate. He advertised this fact by holding Instagram livestreams and appearing in TikToks with Jake Paul, an internet celebrity who urged Iowans to caucus for Ramaswamy despite the freezing temperatures currently afflicting the state. “There’s a bigger purpose than being cold sometimes, and that’s what I think about in the ice bath every morning,” Paul said during a joint live stream with Ramaswamy on Sunday.

Ramaswamy ultimately finished Iowa with less than half the delegates of bronze medalist and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who narrowly trailed Florida governor Ron DeSantis. In first place was Trump, who secured more than 50% of the state’s delegates.

Maybe the cold proved too much. Or maybe Iowans of the “America First” persuasion realized they could get the real thing by simply supporting Trump over his more junior imitator. Whatever the reason for his defeat, it is possible that Ramaswamy now sits exactly where he always wanted to be at this point in the race: removed and unburdened, free to lick Trump’s boots without having to distinguish himself or feign opposition. “I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Donald J. Trump,” Ramaswamy wrote in a Monday night post. “[I] will do everything I can to make sure he is the next U.S. President.”

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