Ramaswamy to Newsmax: Too Early to Declare Two-Man Race

The early coverage of the 2024 presidential race may seem like a two-man race between former President Donald Trump and expected candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but GOP contender Vivek Ramaswamy said Friday on Newsmax it's far too early to make determinations.

"The rest of the media has been repeatedly wrong when it comes to covering these presidential elections," Ramaswamy told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "I think anything before that first debate in August is irrelevant; 2016 and 2015 teach us that."

Instead, he said he thinks his race at this point is "about where" Trump was in his first race, or maybe even a bit ahead.

"I started at 0.0% just seven weeks ago when we launched this campaign," said Ramaswamy. "I'm already polling at three-plus percent nationally and even better in some of the early states, and so I think that this is just the beginning."

People, he added, are "hungry for solutions … people are hungry for an outsider. That's what I'm bringing to the table."

"They're hungry for ideas, but they're hungry for a vision and somebody that can execute it, too," Ramaswamy said. "That's what I'm bringing to the table. I'm taking Trump's America First agenda in many ways even further than Donald Trump did, doing it based on first principles rather than vengeance or grievance."

When asked about Trump's legal troubles and whether he thinks they will affect the race, Ramaswamy said there remains no doubt that the former president remains the front-runner.

"I think this is going to be a two-person race," he said. "It's going to be between me and Donald Trump, the two non-professional politicians in this race."

Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and author who co-founded Strive Asset Management, also on Friday pointed out that he kicked off his campaign with an "eight-figure contribution to myself." "That allowed me to skip begging donors for money, which is what most professional politicians do," he said.

Earlier this week, The Washington Examiner reported that Ramaswamy's campaign ended the first quarter of this year with about $9.5 million cash on hand, most of which was fueled by the $10.25 million loan he made to himself, along with $1.16 million in contributions he raised, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

His campaign spent about $2 million between Jan. 1 and March 31, the filings reported.

Ramaswamy also told Newsmax he isn't concerned about his low placing in polls, as there are also polls showing Americans are not happy with the direction of the economy now and in the future.

"I think it's clear that Joe Biden's presidency has been disastrous," he said. "I think a lot of the uncertainty about who is going to carry the torch forward in the Republican Party is what accounts for those lower numbers … I think we have an opportunity to defeat Joe Biden in a landslide election.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum has named Ramaswamy as a "young global leader," even though he's often criticized the organization, and the designation came without his consent, and he said Friday that he's filed a lawsuit after repeatedly asking that his name be removed.

"I think it's a devious game they play, taking one of their fiercest critics, but then defending that opposition by putting my face and name on their website without my consent," he said. "I decided they need to be held accountable … nobody's going to take me on or trick me without actually being held accountable."

He insisted he doesn't need the money from a lawsuit, but he stands "firmly" against the World Economic Forum's "globalist agenda, that he's been "one of the leading crusaders, if not the leading crusader in America over the last several years. The last thing I'm going to let them do is to work [me] to their advantage, placing me on their website without permission. That's why we're taking them to court, which I'm proud that we actually filed this week."

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