Vivek Ramaswamy, the youngest Republican presidential candidate in 2024 and a self-proclaimed political outsider, made his “America First” pitch at the White House on Sunday as he defended his view that the US must impose “big concessions” on Ukraine to end the invasion of Russia. and allow for a sharper approach to dealing with China.
“The job of the president of the United States is to look out for American interests,” said Martha Raddatz, co-anchor of ABC’s “This Week,” arguing that military support for Ukraine’s continued resistance to Russia’s invasion is a less compelling goal than dealing with Beijing.
Ramaswamy’s stance on Ukraine and Russia puts him in the minority among politicians, with leading Republicans and Democrats saying the Russian invasion must not succeed to preserve stability in Europe.
“You said in a speech in New Hampshire on Friday that you won’t spend another cent of American money on a war that doesn’t affect our interests. Don’t you think the possibility of Russia taking over Ukraine is in our interest? ” Raddatz asked “This Week.”
“I don’t think it’s a foreign policy priority,” Ramaswamy said, then added: “I don’t think it’s preferable for Russia to be able to invade a sovereign country that’s its neighbor. But … I think it threatens No. 1 for the U.S. military right now, our biggest military threat, is the China-Russia alliance. I think by fighting Russia more, by arming Ukraine more, we’re driving Russia into China’s hands.”
Instead, he said, he would “end this war” as long as Putin ended his country’s alliance with China.
“Nobody is telling Vladimir Putin what to do. That hasn’t worked yet,” insisted Raddatz. “And you said you would like to give them the Donbas [a region of Ukraine currently occupied by Russia]. … That would be rewarding Putin, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t trust Putin, but I do trust Putin to follow his interest,” Ramaswamy maintained.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a town hall meeting in South Chicago on May 19, 2023.
Paul Beaty/AP, FILE
“What I think we need to do is end the war in Ukraine on peaceful terms that, yes, make some major concessions to Russia, including freezing those current lines of control in an armistice-style agreement of the Korean War … which Ukraine would not do. I don’t want to do,” he continued. “And also a permanent commitment not to allow Ukraine to join NATO. But in return, Russia must leave its treaty and its joint military agreement with China.”
Ramaswamy expressed concern about a future invasion of Taiwan, the autonomous island that Beijing considers a breakaway province.
Stopping a war there “is a much higher priority,” he said.
“China’s bet is that they will go for Taiwan, the US will not want to be in a simultaneous conflict with two nuclear superpowers at the same time. But if Russia is no longer behind China and vice versa, we are in a stronger position,” he to say.
Earlier in Ramaswamy’s “This Week” interview, Raddatz noted that he is polling the back of the GOP hopefuls and asked him how he would walk the “fine line” of appealing to the base of former President Donald Trump, which makes up a large number of voters in the Republican primaries.
“America first does not belong to Trump. It does not belong to me,” said Ramaswamy, a former biotech entrepreneur. “It belongs to the people of this country. And I think we take that agenda even further if we do it based on first principles and moral authority, like [Ronald] Reagan did, more than in revenge and grievance.”
No revival of Trump’s trans military ban
In light of his criticism of “woke” policies around identity, diversity and historical oppression, Raddatz asked Ramaswamy if, as president, he would revive a controversial Trump-era ban on transgender military personnel which was reversed under President Joe Biden.
“I would not reinstate the ban on transgender members,” Ramaswamy said. “However, I would be very clear that for children, that is where my policies are very focused.”
Conservatives have increasingly denounced policies on transgender children that they find troubling, including pressure to limit the health care such children can receive related to their gender, arguing that they are extreme, which advocates and many doctors they refuse
“We should not force this ideology on children,” Ramaswamy said.
