Before the January 15 Iowa Caucuses, Donald Trump attacked challenger Vivek Ramaswamy, accusing him of “deceitful campaign tricks” and not being “MAGA.” But after Ramaswamy’s poor showing in the caucuses prompted him to drop out and endorse Trump, all was forgiven.
In a Truth Social post the Saturday before the caucuses, Trump said Ramaswamy ran for president pretending to be “a great supporter” of Trump and suggested that Ramaswamy’s support was “deceitful.”
Trump accused Ramaswamy of being “sly” and warned his followers that a vote for the longshot candidate would be a vote for the “other side.”
Trump’s attack was prompted by a photo Ramaswamy posted on social media showing him posing with a group of supporters in T-shirts featuring Trump’s mug shot and the caption, “Save Trump, vote Vivek.”
A close advisor to the Trump campaign told CNN that Trump was “infuriated” by the picture. The advisor said the former president believed that Ramaswamy was undercutting Trump’s support in the primaries by falsely portraying himself as a Trump supporter.
Trump was also reportedly angry with Ramaswamy’s characterizing him as “wounded” in recent interviews with NBC News and the Des Moines Register. The advisor told CNN that the slights had not gone unnoticed by the former president.
But all was forgiven after Ramaswamy came in a far distant fourth place in Iowa.
During his concession speech, the “sly” and “deceitful” Ramaswamy announced that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Donald Trump for president.
By the next day, Ramaswamy was appearing on stage beside Trump at a campaign event in New Hampshire where Trump accepted his surrender by embracing the former candidate.
After Ramaswamy sang Trump’s praises, the former president described the former “deceitful” candidate as a “fantastic” and “very smart guy” with “tremendous ideas.”
Trump told the small crowd of supporters that the man he declared “not MAGA” would be working with him “for a long time,” prompting Trump’s supporters to chant, “VP, VP.”
