Don’t be surprised if Vivek shows up at the next GOP presidential debate wearing a Donald Trump mugshot T-shirt.
If the 38-year-old surprise candidate of the year could perform Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” rap song at the Iowa State Fair, then anything is possible.
It is safe to say that no other candidate running could rap as well.
Vivek Ramaswamy has the political world talking, not only because of his audacity to compete against a stage full of political pros, but to do so while praising Trump, whom he considers a mentor.
They all, to one degree of another, are running against Trump. Vivek seems to be running with him.
And if the Milwaukee debate hosted by Fox News was intended to be a job interview to be Trump’s 2024 running mate, then Vivek scored well. With Trump a no show, Vivek was able to become his stand in and a center of attention.
Trump even raved about his Vivek’s performance.
If by some miracle Vivek did become president, one of the first things he would do is pardon Trump, who is facing jail time as a result of four Democrat produce political indictments.
Most of the others would prefer for Trump to serve time if he were to be convicted of anything.
Vivek has struck a chord with many Republicans and with conservatives as well. He has also ruffled feathers of the other candidates,
Chris Christie called him an “amateur,” former Vice President Mike Pence called him a “rookie,’ U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said he was “childish,” and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said he did not know what he was talking about.
It obviously grated on Pence, Christie and the others that an “amateur” like Vivek, who has never run for office before, was beating them in the polls.
Vivek took the attacks on him as high praise, considering that six months ago nobody even knew who he was, and he here he was besting most of the seven other GOP candidates on the presidential debate stage.
Vivek, who has been financing his own campaign, called them all “superPAC puppets.” He claimed to be the only candidate on the stage who was not “bought and paid for.”
It is interesting to note that while Haley and Vivek went after each other over foreign policy, both candidates were born in the U.S. from parents who migrated from India.
It is the first time that two Americans of Indian descent are running for president as Republicans.
Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, born in Oakland, is also of Indian descent. Her father was born in Jamaica and her mother in India.
Indians, like other minority immigrant groups, have come a long way in America. It was not too long ago (2006) that Joe Biden, then a wiseguy Delaware senator, said, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
Haley, 51, made her bones as a two-term governor of South Carolina and then Trump’s secretary to the United Nations. Her husband is a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard who is currently serving in Africa.
Vivek is a successful and wealthy biotech entrepreneur who founded Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company.
He is also controversial, calling the climate change agenda “a hoax” and questions whether the government has told the public all it knows about the Islamic terrorists who crashed into the New York Trade Center and took 3,000 lives on 9/11.
He would build the wall, abolish the Department of Education and eliminate the FBI.
Vivek also questions the billions of dollars that have been sent to keep Ukraine in its war with Russia, money that could have been better spent helping Americans.
He is very young as presidential candidates go, but he has an ego equal or bigger than any of them, including Trump.
If asked if he would be Trump’s running mate, Vivek is likely to respond by asking if Trump would be his.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
