GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had just finished saying that he and the current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump enjoyed a mutual respect — when the youngest of the GOP contenders issued a statement that severely tests that mutual respect’s ability to survive.
Asked to distinguish what separated him from the septuagenarian Trump, the 38-year-old businessman-turned-politician first allowed that the two “had a lot of policy alignment” in their platforms — and that they shared an outsider political status as “business guys.”
[NOTE: Ramaswamy says the mutual respect between Trump and him began before he started running for President in February and dates to when Trump admired his book, Woke Inc, published in 2021. Last week during a Chris Christie insult jab, Trump said of Ramaswamy: “he’s good.”]
But then Ramaswamy threw a hammer that shattered any notion that he and Trump represented the same sort of candidate. “The reality is I’ve got fresh legs,” Ramaswamy said, mentioning his age in answering what makes him different from Trump, before adding: “I’m not yet jaded and tired and cynical…That’s not me today.”
Vivek Ramaswamy is asked how he is different from Trump: “I’m not jaded and tired and cynical.” pic.twitter.com/eMdPrTpTlr
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 14, 2023
Ramaswamy’s statement begs the question: If “jaded and tired and cynical” doesn’t describe him today, who does it describe? But the comparison addressed in the interviewer’s question takes the ambiguity out of Ramaswamy’s answer.
Ramaswamy may believe he can bring more energy at the moment than the 4-times-indicted former President at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t taking the party line against the various Trump prosecutions — which may allow Ramaswamy to remain in Trump’s and MAGA’s good graces.
As news of Trump’s indictment in Georgia broke, Ramaswamy reacted with outrage even before the indictment was available to view. “These are politicized persecutions through prosecution,” Ramaswamy said during a NewsNation Town Hall.
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