WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The lovefest between former President Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy appears to be over days out from the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. Trump and his campaign took issue with Mr. Ramaswamy warning voters they would be throwing their vote away if they supported Mr. Trump because the political and legal “system” would not let him be returned to The White House.
“Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, ’the best President in generations,’ etc,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks.”
“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!” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Ramaswamy has never run for public office but has been the surprise of the campaign and has won a lot of fans within the Make America Great Again Movement that Mr. Trump popularized.
He has spent so much time in the state of Iowa that grassroots activists are predicting he could pull more of the vote than expected.
Mr. Ramaswamy also has sung Mr. Trump’s praise. He did so again Saturday shortly after Mr. Trump attacked him.
He reiterated his belief that Mr. Trump is the “best president of the 21st century” and said he has defended Mr. Trump amid his various legal battles.
“But OPEN YOUR eyes to the hard Truth: this system will not stop at nothing to keep this man away from the White House,” Mr. Ramaswamy said on X. “Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it won’t happen & we owe it to our nation to take American-First forward.”
Mr. Ramaswamy reposted a photo earlier in the day that showed him posing with young men wearing black T-shirts with a photo of Trump that read “SAVE TRUMP” and “VOTE VIVEK.”
That grabbed the attention of Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump adviser, who snapped back on social media, saying Mr. Trump doesn’t need “saving.”
“If you support @realDonaldTrump you sure as hell don’t vote for this FAKE,” Mr. LaCivita said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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