Dem
51
GOP
49
Although Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley will continue to delude themselves, by all appearances, the Iowa caucuses did claim one casualty: Vivek Ramaswamy has suspended his "presidential campaign." That's right, our long national nightmare (well, one of them, at least) is over.
Ramaswamy declared on February 21 of last year, and began to get traction a couple of months later. So, we've been watching him reasonably closely for 8-9 months, and... we still have no idea why he was running.
Obviously, he was never going to become president. Not in 2024, not in 2028, not ever. He was generally ultra-MAGA, which suggested he was hoping for a role in the Trump administration, or maybe a cushy media gig at a Trump-friendly media outlet. However, as yesterday's caucuses grew closer, Ramaswamy decided to act like someone who is actually running against Donald Trump, and so to challenge the throne. In the last week or so, Ramaswamy took several potshots at Trump, including the assertion that the former president is "wounded" because of the 91 criminal counts he faces. The natural conclusion, per Ramaswamy, is that people should vote for a non-wounded MAGA candidate... like himself.
In the end, no matter how fawning someone is, and no matter how loyal someone is, Trump will turn on them. But actually daring to criticize him? That just fast-forwards immediately to the day of reckoning. And so, the former president spent the weekend attacking his would-be toady. For example, this posting to his failing boutique social media site:
Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, “the best President in generations,” etc. 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! Vivek is not MAGA. The Biden Indictments against his Political Opponent will never be allowed in this Country, they are already beginning to fall! MAGA!!!
Trump repeated these basic thoughts several times on the campaign trail.
So, let us review. Ramaswamy is not going to be elected to political office. He's not going to latch on with the Republican Party as some sort of operative, because most Republican officials hate him. He's not going to be a part of a would-be Trump administration. He's not going to be a MAGA celebrity who writes books for that crowd, or works for a MAGA media outlet, or does the rounds on the MAGA convention/speaking circuit. Ramaswamy is now persona non grata in that world. Again, why did he run?
In any case, he's done now, so we can delete "Ramaswamy" from our spell-checker. Very soon, we expect we'll be able to delete "Hutchinson," too. (Z)