This came after Trump accused the Indian-American entrepreneur of engaging in “deceitful campaign tricks”.
A verbal battle between Trump and Ramaswamy, both Republican candidates for presidential polls, erupted after the former US president reacted to a series of remarks Ramaswamy had posted about him.
Ramaswamy’s campaign had handed out shirts that read “Save Trump, Vote Vivek”.
Ramaswamy posted a photo with a group of young men donning the shirt after his event in Iowa’s Rock Rapids, which left Trump fuming.
Later, Trump reacted to Ramawamy’s shirt strategy, calling it “deceitful tricks”.
“Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, ‘the best President in generations,’ etc. Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks,” Trump, 77, wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
“Very sly, but a vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side’ – don’t get duped by this. Vote for ‘TRUMP, don’t waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA,” Trump, the strongest Republican contender for President post, said.
Make America Great Again (MAGA) is Trump’s political slogan that echoed across the United States during his first presidential run in 2016.
The criticism marks the first time Trump and his team have made direct, public attacks against Ramaswamy, as the former US president largely avoided criticising Ramaswamy, who praises and backs Trump so much so that he had one declared Trump as the “best President of the 21st century.”
Responding to Trump’s attack on X (formerly Twitter), Ramaswamy said he did not think “friendly fire” would be helpful as “same billionaires” wanted to reduce the Republican field into a “2-horse race” between Trump and Nikki Haley.
“Yes, I saw President Trump’s Truth Social post. It’s an unfortunate move by his campaign advisors, I don’t think friendly fire is helpful. Donald Trump was the greatest President of the 21st century, and I’m not going to criticize him in response to this late attack,” Ramaswamy said.
“But we have to open our eyes. Last time it was a man-made pandemic & Big Tech election interference. Now, the same billionaires funding the lawsuits against Trump are the ones trying to prop up Nikki Haley. The same MSM blasting Trump is lavishing praise on Nikki. They want to narrow this to a two-horse race between Trump & Haley, eliminate Trump (one way or other), & trot their puppet into the White House,” he added.
