Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy unveiled what he describes as his comprehensive foreign policy vision, a shift from “liberal hegemony to the Modern Monroe Doctrine,” Thursday evening at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
“We will support freezing the current lines of control, reopening economic relations with Russia & a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine in return for Russia exiting its military partnership with China, removing nuclear weapons from Kaliningrad and ending its military presence in the Western Hemisphere — a reverse maneuver of what Nixon accomplished with Mao in 1972,” Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, before the speech.
“We will further deter China from annexing Taiwan by shifting from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity: We will defend until 2029 but not afterward, at which point we will have full semiconductor independence from Taiwan, significantly reduced economic independence on China, stronger relationships with India, Japan and South Korea, and stronger U.S. homeland defense capabilities to protect against cyber, super-EMP, and nuclear attacks.
“In the meantime, we will have absolutely `zero’ tolerance for any breaches of our homeland or aggression in the Western Hemisphere, including Chinese spy balloons, Chinese spy bases in Cuba, intentional fentanyl poisoning, biological lab leaks, illegal border crossings or any other encroachments of the U.S. homeland — and will make adversaries pay full-on hell if they do.”
Ramaswamy also spoke at an 11 a.m. fundraising luncheon at Andreis Conscious Cuisine and Cocktails in Irvine. Ticket prices ranged from $150 to $3,300, the individual contribution limit per election.
Ramaswamy, who turned 38 Aug. 9, was born and raised in Cincinnati, graduated summa cum laude in biology from Harvard and from Yale Law School. He founded the biotechnology company Roivant Sciences in 2014 seeking to revolutionize drug development.
Ramaswamy oversaw the development of five drugs that went on to become FDA-approved, according to his campaign biography. He was the company’s CEO through January 2021 and chairman until Feb. 20, when he resigned to concentrate on his campaign.
Ramaswamy is the author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence,” and “Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn’t Vote For.”
Ramaswamy announced his candidacy Feb. 21, releasing a 3 1/2-minute video, declaring, “We are in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism and hard work have disappeared, only to be replaced by new secular religions like COVIDism, climateism and gender ideology. We hunger to be part of something bigger than ourselves, yet we cannot even answer the question of what it means to be an American.
“Today, the woke left preys on that vacuum. They tell you that your race, your gender and your sexual orientation govern who you are, what you can achieve and what you’re allowed to think. This is psychological slavery, and that has created a new culture of fear in our country that has completely replaced our culture of free speech in America.”
Ramaswamy has released a set of 25 policy commitments “to take America First further than Trump.” They include reviving American national identity; reducing taxes and regulation, increasing competition and promoting investment to achieve annual gross domestic product increases of over 5%; “Declare independence from communist China,” and “Dismantle managerial bureaucracy,” by shutting down “toxic government agencies,” including the Department of Education, FBI and IRS and “rebuild from scratch when required”; eliminate federal employee unions; and moving more than 75% of federal employees out of Washington.
If elected, Ramaswamy would be the nation’s youngest president — Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he succeeded to the presidency in 1901 following the assassination of William McKinley and John F. Kennedy was 43 when he was elected in 1960.
Ramaswamy would be the first Indian American president and the first Hindu to hold the office.