- Tuesday, April 29, 2025
The Indian-American entrepreneur’s move came after he finished a poor fourth in the Iowa caucuses.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN-AMERICAN entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who joined the race for the White House this year, has called off his campaign following a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses held on Monday (15). The 38-year-old leader endorsed former president Donald Trump who won the caucuses.
Speaking to his supporters in Iowa, Ramaswamy said, “There is no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country.”
He also said that he had a word with Trump and planned to campaign in his support.
.@VivekGRamaswamy announces he is suspending his presidential campaign & will be endorsing Trump.
“There is no path for me to be the President absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country. I am very worried for this country.”
Trump “will have my full…
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) January 16, 2024
Ramaswamy finished fourth after Trump; Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, also an Indian-American. He was the only candidate to drop out of the race after the first-in-the-nation voting was held in the Hawkeye State.
Read: Iowa caucuses: Nikki Haley says she’s final hope of stopping ‘Trump-Biden nightmare’
Trump, the US’s first one-term president in nearly three decades, clinched 51 per cent of the votes. DeSantis won 21.2 per cent, Haley 19.1 per cent and Ramaswamy ended up with 7.7 per cent.
Ramaswamy’s departure narrowed down the field dominated by Trump, further.
Read: US election: Vivek Ramaswamy ruled out as Trump’s running mate
He vowed to put “an America first candidate in the White House” and said that he planned to contribute to Trump’s campaign rally in New Hampshire where a primary will be held on January 23.
“Now, going forward, he will have my full endorsement for the presidency. And I think we’re going to do the right thing for this country,” Ramaswamy said.
“And so I’m going to ask you, to follow me in taking our America First movement to the next level.”
Ramaswamy, son of Indian immigrants from the southern state of Kerala and educated in Harvard and Yale, entered the race for the White House after earning a name in the pharmaceutical industry.
As someone who never held any political office, Ramaswamy sparked controversies at times by endorsing conspiracy theories.
The 38-year-old has never held political office and his campaign has at times courted controversy for its endorsement of conspiracy theories.
Ramaswamy promised to put an end to birth-right citizenship and affirmative action and said he would shut various government agencies such as the education department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and others. His on-stage arguments with Haley during the GOP debates also stole headlines.
He also took the stance of an outsider kin to develop Trump’s “America Forst” agenda with his own spin. But his plan did not pay off as he failed to pull much support away from the mercurial former president.
Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Trump came up with a rare criticism of Ramaswamy, calling him a “fraud” and telling Republicans that a vote for him would be a vote for the “other side”.
Previously, he had praised the entrepreneur when he posted after a Republican debate in December: “Vivek WINS because he thinks l’m great.”
Ramaswamy has been a steadfast defender of Trump’s record on the campaign trail and had even offered to pardon the former president from his legal troubles if he became the next occupant of the top office.
