A political amateur and one among the global’s wealthiest millennials, Vivek Ramaswamy has waged a whirlwind presidential marketing campaign mirroring his meteoric upward push as a biotech entrepreneur. On the whole lot from deporting other folks born in the United States to finishing support to Israel and Ukraine, he constantly presentations the bravado of a populist, self-declared outsider.
“I stand on the side of revolution,” he broadcasts. “That’s what I’m going to lead in a way that no establishment politician can.”
In business and politics, despite the fact that, Ramaswamy has run into skeptics and on occasion exhausting information that threatened to derail his ambitions. In the 2024 campaign, the Israel-Hamas war has refocused the Republican number one on international coverage and uncovered simply how a lot Ramaswamy’s self-declared innovative approach places him at odds with the celebration’s maximum tough figures and a lot of its citizens.
At Wednesday’s number one debate, Ramaswamy joined the remainder of the box in supporting Israel’s offensive however returned to his observe of no longer simply critiquing his warring parties however mocking them. Ramaswamy skewered Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who some on-line sleuths recommend wears lifts in his boots, through asking, “Do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?”
The efficiency drew eye rolls and derision on degree. When Ramaswamy implied Haley used to be being hypocritical in criticizing the social media platform TikTok as a result of her daughter has prior to now used it, the 51-year-old mom of 2 referred to as him “scum.”
Ramaswamy, an Ohio local who additionally lives there, has wowed many audiences together with his rapid-fire, wide-ranging discourse. Yet even some Republican citizens who come away inspired aren’t backing him. He’s amongst a bunch of applicants who path former President Donald Trump and typically fall at the back of DeSantis in nationwide surveys, polling in the mid to prime unmarried digits.
Ann Trimble Ray, a Republican activist from Early, Iowa, recommended Ramaswamy “exposes his naivete in part with what he’s said about Israel, but also his inexperience.”
“Unless you’ve had the enjoy of any individual who has had publicity to the briefings, what you keep up a correspondence is a variety of conjecture,” said Ray, who is leaning toward backing Haley.
The 38-year-old son of Indian immigrants has spent his adult life as a sort of boastful savior. In business, that meant building a fortune by hyping a drug that ultimately failed. In politics, it means arguing he can return Trump’s “America First” vision to the White House without the baggage.
Ramaswamy set his course at Harvard, a pillar of the American establishment. Ramaswamy majored in biology and participated in the campus Republican club, standing out even there as a libertarian. He drew attention from the campus newspaper for his alter ego, “Da Vek,” a rapper who performed using libertarian ideology as lyrics.
“I consider myself a contrarian; I like to argue,” Ramaswamy told The Crimson.
Harvard introduced Ramaswamy to the hedge-fund class. He interned at Goldman Sachs, the most prestigious Wall Street investment house, then won a job at QVT Financial, founded by another Harvard alumnus, Dan Gold. Ramaswamy led the firm’s pharmaceutical investments.
Ramaswamy launched his own venture in 2014. He named it Roivant — the ROI standing for “return on investment” — and had a clear business model in mind: Buy discount patents for drugs languishing in the development phase, then resurrect them.
In his first big move, Ramaswamy used a subsidiary, Axovant, and paid GlaxoSmithKline $5 million for RVT-101, a potential Alzheimer’s drug already put through multiple trials and deemed not promising enough to continue. Ramaswamy rebranded it as “intepirdine” and, despite the earlier studies, touted it as a game-changer, a “best-in-class drug candidate,” he told The New York Times during Axovant’s infancy. He landed on the cover of Forbes magazine.
The hype worked. Intepirdine never would.
Axovant’s initial public stock offering in 2015 drew $315 million, the largest-ever biotech IPO to that point, and Axovant’s valuation approached $3 billion. In 2017, Axovant released more trial results that found the drug ineffective at dampening Alzheimer’s symptoms or its advancement. Axovant stock tanked.
Ramaswamy, though, had pocketed tens of millions, divesting himself of shares whose value had swelled because of public buy-in.
“He pumped up the image and the name so people invested, while he was selling out,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a scholar at the Yale School of Management who tracks Ramaswamy’s business dealings. “That’s classic ‘pump and dump.’”
On his 2015 tax return, one of 20 years’ worth he has disclosed, Ramaswamy reported almost $38 million in capital gains income. He parlayed that into a portfolio now measured in the hundreds of millions, enough to dwarf the $15 million he has loaned his own campaign.
He became a conservative author and cable news regular, mainly as a critic of corporate America’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. In that role, and as a candidate, Ramaswamy sidesteps that some of his own interests — he invested in Disney, a punching bag for conservatives — are leaders in DEI efforts.
Ramaswamy embraces the notion that he is Donald Trump 2.0.
“I believe Donald Trump was an excellent president,” Ramaswamy said while campaigning in Atlanta. “But I do believe that we need to take our America First agenda to the next level, and I think it will take an outsider from a different generation with an actual positive vision.”
Ramaswamy has promised to pardon the former president if he is convicted of federal crimes, including those related to the Capitol Hill attack in 2021. In one of his earlier books, Ramaswamy called Jan. 6 “a dark day for democracy” and criticized Trump’s “abhorrent” habits — checks he no longer repeats.
Ramaswamy advocates deporting the American-born youngsters of immigrants in the nation illegally, despite the fact that they’re U.S. voters beneath federal regulation and Supreme Court precedent. He questions the executive’s account of 9/11. He’s referred to as for firing 75% of the federal body of workers. He needs to boost the U.S. balloting age.
Two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack killed 1,400 people, Ramaswamy recommended the U.S. withhold support to Israel till its executive detailed plans for Gaza.
While many conservatives dislike international support, Republican citizens align closely with Israel.
About 4 in 10 Republicans (44%) say the United States’ present degree of toughen for Israel in the war with the Palestinians is about proper, in step with a brand new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research ballot carried out in November. Another one-third of Republicans (34%) say the U.S. is not supportive sufficient, when compared with 9% of Democrats who say the similar.
During Wednesday’s debate, Ramaswamy counseled Israel’s proper to counterattack Hamas however stated Americans will have to no longer have a monetary stake in the warfare. He chided his warring parties for framing U.S. support to Ukraine as a combat for democracy towards Russian aggression.
“I want to be careful to avoid making the mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past. Corrupt politicians in both parties spent trillions, killed millions,” he stated. “Made billions for themselves in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting wars that sent thousands of our sons and daughters, people my age, to die in wars that did not advance everyone’s interests, adding $7 trillion to our national debt.”
Ramaswamy jousted just lately with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson over Ramaswamy’s accusations of systemic corruption in the U.S. established order.
When Sean Hannity, the vastly influential Fox News persona, challenged Ramaswamy after his interview with Carlson, the candidate insisted he used to be mischaracterized. Retorted Hannity: “You do this in every single interview. You say stuff but then you deny it, your own words.”
Trump’s critics accuse him of doing that as smartly. The former president additionally were given in hassle with best Republicans for denigrating Israel’s top minister after the Hamas assault. Yet Trump stays such an awesome favourite to win the GOP nomination that he has skipped every debate, leaving Ramaswamy to take in punches maximum applicants by no means direct towards the former president.
“I am telling you, Putin and President Xi are salivating at the thought that someone like that could become president,” Haley retorted Wednesday, pronouncing the Russian and Chinese leaders “would love” his isolationism.
Ramaswamy confirmed his core technique previous this 12 months in a short lived huddle with a 16-year-old who requested for recommendation. “Find where the pack is going and then figure out what they missed,” Ramaswamy advised him. “You have to buck the consensus.”
But he added a final analysis: “You have to be right.”
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Associated Press writers Linley Sanders in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this file.