Trump Praises Challenger Vivek Ramaswamy

Former President Donald Trump extended an olive branch Friday to his Republican presidential opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, praising him for his recent poll numbers.

Trump also took swipes at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, who is tied to the entrepreneur at 5% in this week’s CBS News and YouGov poll of the 2024 GOP primary race.

“I am pleased to see that Vivek Ramaswamy is doing so well in the most recent Republican Primary Poll, CBS YouGov,” Trump wrote in a campaign email. “He is tied with Mike Pence, and seems to be on his way to catching Ron DeSanctimonious.

“The thing I like about Vivek is that he only has good things to say about ‘President Trump,’ and all that the Trump Administration has so successfully done — This is the reason he is doing so well,” he continued. “In any event, good luck to all of them, they will need it!”

Other results in the survey found Trump on top of the field at 58%, a 35-percentage-point lead over DeSantis at 22%. Former United States Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley came in at 4%.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is expected to announce a run later this month, received 1% of the vote. Other candidates, including former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, took up the remaining vote.

Trump’s praise comes as Ramaswamy has run a campaign to the right of Trump, pledging to abolish the Department of Education, eradicate teachers unions, and unleash the military on fentanyl dealers.

“I respect what Donald Trump did, I do, with the America First agenda, but I think he went as far as he was going to go,” Ramaswamy told a crowd Tuesday in Bedford, New Hampshire. “I’m in this race to take the America First agenda far further than Donald Trump ever did.”