Ramswamy's political campaign director just left him for Trump
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Ramaswamy's early campaign trail success has begun to diminish as the Republican Primary approaches, with Ramaswamy polling about 5% compared to Donald Trump's 60%.
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Vivek Ramswamy takes questions in the Spin Room after the first GOP presidential primary debate in August 2023 (AFP)
According to The Messenger, a former top aide to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is ditching his campaign to join former US President Donald Trump's campaign instead.
Brian Swenson, Ramaswamy's national political director, is allegedly taking on the new role of working with top Trump campaign advisor Susie Wiles on Friday.
The report added that Swensen and Wiles had worked together previously during Rick Scott's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Starting Friday, Swensen will be working as a campaign advisor for the Trump campaign, the report added.
Swensen and Wiles previously collaborated during Rick Scott's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, according to the article.
Ramaswamy's early campaign trail success has begun to diminish as the Republican Primary approaches, with Ramaswamy polling about 5% compared to Donald Trump's 60%, according to the Messenger report.
This could be due to many reasons, including his last month's criticism of the US's outdated interventionist approach in the Middle East.
At the time, Ramaswamy expressed questions "They're attacking us in places that we shouldn't have been. Why are we in Syria? Why are we in Iraq? We shouldn't have been in either of those places," Ramaswamy stated at the Hudson Institute, adding that the current strategy involves certain ill intentions but is primarily based on an outdated concept of "interventionist foreign policy."
Swensen's responsibilities would be assigned to Ramaswamy senior advisor Mike Biundo, according to campaign officials.
Trump cleared by Michigan court to run for 2024 elections
On November 15, a Michigan state court ruled that former US President Donald Trump is eligible to stay on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot for the Republican Party after a local activist group Free Speech for People attempted to bar Trump from running for office by filing an “insurrection” lawsuit against him.
Michigan Court of Claims judge James Redford was responsible for the ruling, in which he said that deciding if the January 6 riots represented a “rebellion or insurrection, or whether or not someone participated in it” should be deferred to Congress - stressing that Michigan’s electoral authorities are not in a place of power to remove Trump from the ballot.
Free Speech for People had invoked Section 3 of the 14th Amendment stating that a person cannot run for elected office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the constitution.
In response, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung relayed that his team welcomed the decision and “anticipates the future dismissals of the other 14th Amendment cases.”
Just last month, the US Supreme Court shot down an attempt by Texas Republican John Anthony Castro to ban Trump from being reelected in 2024 on the basis of the 14th Amendment.
Trump is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Washington on March 4, where he faces charges related to attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Afterward, Trump will face criminal hush money charges in a New York state court, and he is also accused of mishandling classified documents in a Florida federal court following his departure from office. Additionally, he will confront state charges in Georgia, where prosecutors accuse him of unlawfully attempting to influence the 2020 election results in his favor.
