MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — America First megastar and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy exclusively told Breitbart News that he wants to have a conversation with former President Donald Trump about how he is “going to have the biggest impact” on America, though he would consider accepting a potential appointment to the U.S. Senate should the Trump-Vance ticket win in November.
As Ramaswamy was wrapping up a brief press gaggle with numerous reporters outside the Pfizer Forum, he invited only Breitbart News to ride with him on his golf cart on the streets of downtown Milwaukee as the second day of the Republican National Convention got underway.
During the interview, Breitbart News asked if he would consider accepting a potential appointment to the seat that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) would vacate should the GOP presidential ticket win in November. The populist firebrand said he would “consider it,” though he has not “had much time to think about it deeply,” as Vance was only nominated Monday. He also shared he would want to have a discussion with Trump about how he can best serve the nation, emphasizing his desire to eradicate the administrative state.
“The truth is, I mean, the decision was only made yesterday, so it’s all hot off the press, so I haven’t had time to think about it deeply, is the truth, but, if I was asked, I would consider it, absolutely,” he said.
“I’d also want to have a conversation with President Trump about how I’m going to have the biggest impact on this country,” he added. “One of my passions — as you know, my top passion and purpose — is to shut down the administrative state.”
Indeed, Ramaswamy has long been a proponent of dismantling the administrative state, sharing with Breitbart News in an April 2023 interview in Manchester, New Hampshire, his vision about “gutting…the managerial bureaucracy in the federal government.”
“The two things I care about: revive our national identity and shut down the deep state,” Ramaswamy continued. “The first is a job for the president. The second is a team effort, and there’s a part of the team that’s going to have to do that through the executive branch; there’s part of the groundwork that needs to be laid in the Senate and in Congress to legislatively pave the way for a president who can actually shut down the federal bureaucracy and send a lot of the bureaucrats home packing.”
Ramaswamy added the “need” for a “mass deportation of millions of…unelected federal bureaucrats in Washington, DC.”
“That’s the most important work, I think, that needs to be done for this country. There’s going to be a component of it that comes through leadership in the executive branch. There’s going to be a component of it that comes through, probably, leadership in the legislative branch,” he said.
In a complementary fashion, Ramaswamy noted that the lone “negative” to the populist Vance being tabbed as Trump’s vice presidential pick is the “big vacuum” he will leave in the Senate should he and Trump prevail in November.
“That’s gonna be critical. If you think about governing with not super-wide majorities — and there are even different kinds of modes of thought with respect to America First versus not across the Congress and the Senate — I think that it does leave a big vacuum to be filled,” he said.
“I think it would be out of my sense of obligation to the country, I would consider it,” said. “It’s not been an aspiration that I’ve had. If I was gonna do that, I would’ve run for Senate either of the last few cycles, and I didn’t for a reason, but, in this moment, out of a sense of obligation to this country, I would consider it.”
