Former President Donald Trump praised GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy when asked if he would consider the biotech engineer as a running mate.
“I think he’s great,” Trump told Glenn Beck.
“Look, anybody that’s said I’m the best president in a generation … and he said it a couple of times … I have to like a guy like that.”
Trump also discussed his thoughts on the presidential candidacy of Ramaswamy, indicating he could bring a fresh perspective to Washington.
Trump described Ramaswamy as “smart,” “young,” and “got a lot of talent.”
When asked if Ramaswamy could be “Vice President,” Trump said, “He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something. I tell you, I think he’d be very good. I think he’s very good. I think he’s really distinguished himself.”
Trump’s remarks came shortly after the first GOP debate, where they opted out and pledged to observe for potential vice presidential contenders.
Trump’s interest in Ramaswamy adds speculation to the developing political landscape, especially given Ramaswamy’s rapid rise from an unknown long-shot to a serious contender.
But Trump voiced caution regarding the entrepreneur’s tendency to court controversy.
“He’s starting to get out there a little bit. He’s getting a little bit controversial. I got to tell him to be a little bit careful. Some things you have to hold in just a little bit, right?” Mr. Trump said. “But he’s got a lot of good energy,” Trump said.
However, Ramaswamy previously told NewsNation that he would not accept being the former president’s vice president.
“I don’t do well in a No. 2, so I’d be about as likely to accept it as he would be to accept my offer to be my vice president,” Ramaswamy said earlier this month. “It’s a ‘no.'”
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Ramaswamy.
“I think there’s a great deal of alignment between my former running mate and Vivek, and so for my part, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised that he’s been complimentary of him in that way,” Pence said on Tuesday.
Chris Christie described Ramaswamy as the “worst of what politicians are characterized to be.”
“And then when you call them, like I did, on the negative things he said about Donald Trump on Jan. 6, in his book, he didn’t say it,” Christie told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“If you believe Donald Trump was the greatest president of the 21st century, which is what Vivek said on the stage, then what the hell are you doing running against him?” he added.
“The fact is that Vivek says one thing and does another.”
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