Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

(NewsNation) — Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is a former Republican long-shot candidate for president who was once on the shortlist as a running mate for Donald Trump and who may still be in line for a spot in Trump’s White House should he be elected in November.

At 38 years old, Ramaswamy was the youngest candidate in the GOP field. The firebrand conservative emerged as an “anti-woke” warrior who built his campaign around wanting to “revive” a “missing national identity” and further an “America First” agenda that was first ushered in by Trump.

Ramaswamy dropped out of the race in January following the Iowa caucuses and endorsed Trump, who has praised Ramaswamy as a “smart guy” who would have a future with a second Trump administration should he defeat President Joe Biden.

Here’s what you need to know about Ramaswamy and his political views:

• Vivek Ramaswamy’s net worth
• Ramaswamy’s relationship with Donald Trump
• Violent crime
• Guns
• Border Crisis
• Ukraine, Israel
• China’s aggression, TikTok
• Education
• Child card
• Abortion
• Fentanyl crisis
• Climate change
• Social security
• Inflation, cryptocurrency

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents, Ramaswamy went to Harvard and later Yale Law School. In 2014, he founded biotech company Roivant Sciences, a publicly traded company now worth more than $7 billion. He is also the co-founder and executive chairman of investment firm Strive Asset Management. Forbes estimates his net worth is at least $630 million.

What’s Ramaswamy’s net worth?

The entrepreneur’s net worth reached $1 billion at one point in August 2023, making him one of the 20 youngest billionaires in the U.S. But a drop in the market reportedly pushed him under the billion-dollar threshold, and he has an estimated net worth of more than $950 million.

Ramaswamy founded Roivant Sciences, which he stepped down as CEO from in 2021. The company is worth more than $7 billion. According to Forbes, the company’s stock was up nearly 40% in 2023, which boosted his 10% stake to nearly $600 million.

The Harvard graduate also created Strive Asset Management, which has been described as an “anti-woke investment fund.”

After his graduation from Harvard, Ramaswamy joined the hedge fund QVT, where he focused primarily on pharmaceutical investments, Forbes reported. He earned $7 million in the first seven years of his career and was made partner by age 28.

After leaving the company at age 29, he started Roivant Sciences, which was based on the notion, he told Forbes, that pharma giants had abandoned plenty of drugs that potentially had a lot of worth if someone was willing to focus on them.

A year after the company was formed, a Roivant spin-off company, Axovant, went public with a $2.2 billion valuation. The year that the company joined the New York Stock Exchange, Ramaswamy reported more than $38 million in income, most of which came from capital gains, Forbes reported.

What is Ramaswamy’s relationship with Trump?

Ramaswamy was among six potential Trump running mates who traveled to Atlanta in late June for the first presidential debate. However, he told reporters that Trump had not asked him to join him on the GOP ticket.

Instead, Ramaswamy has hinted at a possible appointment as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should Trump defeat Biden in November’s general election. When asked in an interview why Trump should choose him as a vice president, Ramaswamy said that Trump should choose who he feels is best for the job.

“The vice president to President Trump has a unique opportunity to help him take that agenda to the next level,” Ramaswamy said. “Whoever he chooses, I think we’re going to have the strongest ticket of my lifetime.”

After Ramaswamy dropped out of GOP contention for president, Trump referred to the businessman as “smart” and said that Ramaswamy was “going to be with us in some form.”

What are Ramaswamy’s political views?

With no prior experience in political office, Ramaswamy positioned himself as an outsider ready to advance former Trump’s “America First” agenda with his unique spin.

That included unconventional proposals, such as abolishing the FBI and ending military aid to Ukraine. 

Additionally, he gained traction in the Republican field by taking on positions like calling climate change a “hoax” and supporting an end to birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrant parents.

Violent crime, mental health

• Suggests bringing back “involuntary commitment” in psychiatric institutions as a way to combat increases in violent crime
• Suggests withholding federal funding from cities that “refuse to protect Americans from violent crime”

Guns, calls for ATF shutdown

• Ramaswamy has labeled himself a “Second Amendment absolutist” and says convicted felons should be allowed to carry guns.
• He also called for a shutdown of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the stated purpose of which is to protect “our communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.”

Border crisis and immigration

• Describes the southern U.S. border with Mexico as “Swiss cheese” and criticizes the Biden administration for not doing more to stem the flow of fentanyl
• During a visit to the border, drew parallels to Israel, calling the flow of illegal immigrants a threat to national security
• Like some other Republicans, suggests the United States should consider sending troops to the border
• Similar to Trump, suggests ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, claiming that their family’s status as illegal immigrants strips them of any rights in the U.S.
• Supports the Remain in Mexico immigration policy first enacted under Trump
• Supports the use of military force to secure the border as well as a merit-based immigration system

Stance on Israel and Palestine, the war in Ukraine

• Opposes full-fledged support for the war in Ukraine and frequently calls out “neocons” (neoconservatives) for supporting wars in general, including GOP contender Nikki Haley
• At a NewsNation town hall in August, he said he’d make a “deal” with Russian President Vladimir Putin if elected to end the war in Ukraine and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “fraud.”
• After the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Ramaswamy urged a “cool-headed” response to avoid the situation devolving into a larger regional conflict.
• Condemned the attack by Hamas but said the United States needs to carefully consider what actions it takes in the region

China’s aggression, TikTok and ‘opium war’

• Proposed a foreign policy that includes a “decouple from Communist China” by negotiating new trade deals, growing the industrial defense base and supporting Taiwanese and domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
• When he unveiled his foreign policy platform, Ramaswamy said the United States should lean on allies in the region like India and Japan to increase their own defense budgets to counter China’s military aggression.
• Speaking at the Iowa State Fair earlier this summer, Ramaswamy railed against China’s role in the opioid epidemic in the United States, calling it a “modern Opium War.” Chinese manufacturers produce some of the precursors used to create fentanyl.
• Uses TikTok to reach young voters but says kids 16 and under shouldn’t use “addictive” social media
• Ramaswamy accumulated a 8.37% stake in the Buzzfeed media site, claiming the company needed a change in leadership after taking on a liberal bias.

Education and civics test

• Suggests young American citizens between 18 and 24 should have to pass a civics test in order to vote, similar to the one taken by those going through the naturalization process
• Calls for the elimination of many federal agencies, including the Education Department, and instead send the department’s $80 billion in funding back to the localities
• At a New Hampshire town hall in October hosted by the USA TODAY Network, he argued that education decisions should be in the hands of parents and not government agencies.
• Rails against what he calls “woke culture,” which he says has “infected” schools and led to the indoctrination of children

Child care availability and costs

• Ramaswamy says the “nuclear family” is key to success — defining families in traditional terms as a mother and father raising their children
• Describes the CHIPS Act requirement that companies receiving federal funds provide child care for workers as an “interesting feature,” but it’s not clear if it was a comment in favor of or against the policy

Abortion

• Does not support a federal ban on the procedure, according to NPR
• However, has indicated support for six-week bans that have been enacted in many Republican states
• Supports exceptions in abortion ban for cases involving rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger, Reuters reported
• He shared for the first time publicly at an Iowa event that his wife suffered a miscarriage during her first pregnancy. Now, the couple has two kids, and he said, “When you bring life into this world, you protect all life, born and unborn.”

Fentanyl crisis, opioid epidemic

• Accuses Mexico’s leader of treating drug cartels as his “sugar daddy” and says that if he is elected president, “there will be a new daddy in town”
• Describes the fentanyl epidemic as “poisonings” and “closer to bioterrorism” at the third Republican debate
• Suggests using military force to “annihilate the Mexican drug cartels”

Climate Change

• The entrepreneur with a background in biology suggests “climate change agenda” is a “hoax” and favors the use of natural gas, nuclear and coal energy.
• Believes that the climate change agenda is killing more Americans than climate change itself
• Called “climate-ism” among a group of new secular religions that have become a substitute for traditional religion.

Social Security, Federal workforce

• Suggested at the third GOP debate that he’d save the Social Security program from becoming insolvent through drastic spending cuts and reductions in the federal workforce
• Suggests cutting the federal workforce in half by firing each employee whose Social Security number ends in an odd number

Economy, inflation, cryptocurrency

• Ramaswamy’s economic platform is built around his desire to “unleash the American economy” and achieve a growth of the gross domestic product by more than 5%.
• Calls for reforming the Federal Reserve by cutting 90% of its headcount and changing its mandate to “stabilizing the U.S. dollar as a reliable unit of measurement”
• He released a plan for cryptocurrency that calls for repeals of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and a path for the digital tokens to be considered commodities.

NewsNation’s digital producer Caitlyn Shelton contributed to this report.