Vivek Ramaswamy Drops Out Of Race, Endorses Trump

The New York Times reports:

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old entrepreneur and political newcomer who briefly made a splash with brash policy proposals and an outsize sense of confidence, dropped out of the race for the Republican White House nomination after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. He then immediately endorsed former President Donald J. Trump for the White House. “We did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight,” he said in Des Moines on Monday night.

Mr. Ramaswamy had embraced increasingly apocalyptic conspiracy theories; spoke of a “system” that would block Mr. Trump from office and install a “puppet,” Nikki Haley; called the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol an “inside job” orchestrated by federal law enforcement; and begun trafficking in the racist theory of “replacement” that holds falsely that Democrats are importing immigrants of color to supplant white people.

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Vivek Ramaswamy, Wealthy Political Novice Who Aligned With Trump, Quits Campaign. The Harvard-educated Ramaswamy had embraced increasingly apocalyptic conspiracy theories before Trump turned on him just ahead of the Iowa caucuses. https://t.co/gEHNXdTht2

— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) January 16, 2024