One man can help make America great again

The Telegraph commentator Nigel Farage in a comment on the next year's US presidential elections alleges that with Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate, Trump could storm to victory. Caliber.Az republishes the article.

I am one of very few people in Britain with a political or media profile who has met the Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, but I don’t think it’s going to be long before he is better known here. Much better known, in fact.

I first encountered him at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Maryland in March. We both gave speeches there, and afterwards met for a chat. We discussed campaigning, messaging and Brexit, and have stayed in touch since. Although Ramaswamy will celebrate only his 38th birthday this month, I could tell very soon after meeting him that he has what it takes to be a force in American politics. For those of us who aspire to a return to common sense in the Western world, I believe he can also be a force for good more generally.

The story of his life so far is a sort of modern day representation of the American dream. His Hindu parents migrated from India to America. Ramaswamy was born in Ohio in 1985 and raised there. He attended Harvard University, worked in finance, obtained a law qualification from Yale University and has already built a fortune via the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. It’s safe to say that his intellect, capacity for hard work and all-round ability are not in doubt.

This year, he has attracted attention in America via one of his main messages: that Western society must not be blighted any longer by the Left-wing ideology that underpins identity politics, wokeism and political correctness. His belief that these things divide people rather than uniting them has been hard to ignore among the centre-Right.

He also has a lot to say about the disastrous Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) orthodoxy that is so pervasive in the corporate realm and which led to the sorts of problems I’ve experienced at the hands of Coutts and NatWest. Quite simply, this highly successful entrepreneur knows that if companies hire or promote people on the basis of class, race or sex they are very likely to stop focusing on their main mission – to generate profits – and even more likely to start treating their customers according to their own narrow-minded world view.

Ramaswamy will be in Milwaukee this month for the first televised debate between the Republican candidates who want to take on Joe Biden in November 2024. I will be there as well to watch the debate. He is fighting to win and has made it clear to me that he wants to be in politics for the long term. Despite his energy, I’m not sure that he – or any of his rivals – will be able to overcome Donald Trump, whose nomination looks assured at this point. But I do think that Ramaswamy could become Trump’s pick for the crucial role of vice presidential candidate.

All the polling I’ve seen suggests that, despite the indictments against Trump, he should have no difficulty securing 42 or 43 per cent in a presidential contest. It’s no secret, however, that he does not appeal to the all-important suburban “mom” vote. It’s in this area that I think Ramaswamy, as Trump’s running mate, could be decisive.

When I was in touch with Ramaswamy a few days ago, he told me that some of his main concerns include “stopping our children being poisoned in schools”. He added that, as a father of two, he has a personal stake in this battle and, more broadly, in America’s future. The extreme messages being peddled in classrooms about the environment, race, sex and sexuality have shocked and dismayed many parents, eroding their right to inform their children about sensitive issues in their own way. 

I asked him whether he thought being Hindu is a handicap when so much of the conservative base in America is deeply Christian. He responded that he fully endorses and personally embodies the Christian principles of the founding fathers of our country. “In many ways,” he said, “I think I represent those values more than those who outwardly profess to be Christian.”

Ramaswarmy wants order to be restored to our increasingly topsy-turvy world, and he is not frightened to take on the interests of the powerful Left-wing establishment to achieve it.

The hopeful may not end up being the Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 race. But he has already won the right to play a big role in getting Joe Biden out of the White House.