DREAM TEAM. THE RISE OF VIVEK RAMASWAMY.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................INTERVIEW WITH TUCKER CARLSON..2023.8.18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhM8AVHSPr4 Is Anyone Having More Fun Running For President Than Vivek Ramaswamy? Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican presidential candidate and businessman, acknowledges his supporters at the conclusion of one of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds' "Fair-Side Chats" at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Aug. 12, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images) Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican presidential candidate and businessman, acknowledges his supporters at the conclusion of one of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds' "Fair-Side Chats" at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Aug. 12, 2023. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images BY MINI RACKER/NEW HAMPSHIRE AUGUST 17, 2023 11:59 AM EDT Vivek Ramaswamy is in a crowded Ford Explorer zooming through New Hampshire. It's early August, and the Republican presidential candidate is racing between campaign stops, taking questions from three reporters while strategizing with a campaign aide. At one point, the SUV shakes as his driver veers onto the highway's rumble strip, but Ramaswamy looks only momentarily startled before launching back into a response. Every presidential candidate needs to be able to do more than one thing at a time—to walk and chew gum, hold babies and deliver speeches. But nobody in the GOP field multitasks quite like the uber-wealthy Ramaswamy, 38. He's already had a busy day, jetting from Washington—where he visited the courthouse where Donald Trump was about to be arraigned to express his outrage—to the Granite State, where he took questions at a lunchtime meet-and-greet and a backyard party. His team blanketed both events with pamphlets listing Ramaswamy’s 10 “truths.” (Among them: “there are two genders,” “human flourishing requires fossil fuels,” and “the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.”) The first-time candidate told attendees about his plans to eliminate the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service. And he said he'd take “America First” even further than Trump, by pulling back on support for Ukraine and deploying troops to secure the southern border. Watch More The everywhere-all-at-once strategy, and the former biotech tycoon's talent for presenting bomb-throwing anti-establishment sentiment in an affable package, has made him the closest thing the GOP primary has had to a breakout star. Since launching his campaign in February, Ramaswamy has been going nonstop: shaking hands in New Hampshire, rapping Eminem verses in Iowa, appearing on more than 70 podcasts and nearly every news program that will have him, and producing a stream of online content more voluminous than any of his competitors. Suddenly, Ramaswamy is running in second or third place in multiple national polls and often outperforming governors and a former vice president in the early states. Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican pollster who regularly conducts focus groups with GOP-leaning voters, says her panelists used to bring up Florida Governor Ron DeSantis unbidden, while mentioning Ramaswamy barely at all. Now the situation has reversed. “I think that he has been running the kind of campaign that Ron DeSantis should have run,” Longwell says of Ramaswamy. That doesn't mean Ramaswamy's road from here will be easy. Trump remains the dominant force in the race, earning the support of a majority of primary voters in most recent national polls. And none of Ramaswamy's rivals have turned their fire on him yet, in part because he hadn't been seen as a threat. While he's making a name for himself with the GOP base, Longwell still doesn’t view Ramaswamy as a serious candidate for the GOP nomination. “He's not really running as a challenger to Trump,” she says. “He's running as somebody who's trying to elevate his brand, elevate his name ID, and simply become a player in politics.” Ramaswamy greets audience members during a campaign stop in Iowa on Aug. 5, 2023. (Charlie Neibergall—AP) Ramaswamy greets audience members during a campaign stop in Iowa on Aug. 5, 2023. Charlie Neibergall—AP Ramaswamy insists he’s in it to win it, and would not even consider a role in a second Trump administration. The entrepreneur, who claims to be a billionaire, has already loaned his campaign $15 million and says he’s prepared to shell out an “unlimited” amount. When he walks onto the debate stage in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, he and his team expect they will capitalize on the momentum he's gained over six months of relentless campaigning. After that, Ramaswamy has plans for the campaign to shift to a more traditional strategy, with TV ads and more conventional means of voter contact. By the time the Iowa caucuses roll around in January, Ramaswamy believes he will have shown the Republican electorate what a viable Trump successor looks like. For now, the frenetic approach continues. In the car in New Hampshire, Ramaswamy reserves the last 10 minutes of our ride to collect his thoughts and look at his phone. Peering at it, he finds something on social media that intrigues him. He plays an MSNBC clip of Al Sharpton commenting on Trump’s legal troubles. “Can you imagine our reading that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government so they can stay in power?” Sharpton asks. Ramaswamy chuckles. The glint in his eye suggests he knows he can work with this. “It’s very funny actually,” he begins, recalling how, back in his college days, he once asked Sharpton a question as a member of the audience during a news program. Ramaswamy can't remember what he asked back then. But now, as the car nears the next campaign stop in Concord, he tweets a response to Sharpton's remark: “It was called the American Revolution. We were successful. We won.” Before long, it will rack up more than 2 million views. Ramaswamy attends the Roast and Ride hosted by Senator Joni Ernst in Des Moines, on June 3, 2023. (Rachel Mummey—Bloomberg/Getty Images) Ramaswamy attends the Roast and Ride hosted by Senator Joni Ernst in Des Moines, on June 3, 2023. Rachel Mummey—Bloomberg/Getty Images Earlier in the day, in Milford, several dozen people have crowded into a local grill. Some are willing to awkwardly eat their lunch standing up because something about this candidate in the crowded field has caught their interest. Ramaswamy may be the only one in the room of older, casually-attired voters wearing a suit. He spends thirteen minutes giving his stump speech and nearly another hour taking questions on everything from how he'll unify the country to his thoughts on modern monetary theory to what he would do to address pedophilia. Afterwards, he sticks around to meet with those waiting in a photo line that has formed. Ramaswamy’s drive and charisma were apparent early on. Born in Cincinnati, his Indian immigrant parents’ search for the American Dream shaped his worldview. Coming to the U.S. without much money, his father became an engineer, his mother a psychiatrist. The values they taught him were more cultural than political, Ramaswamy tells me in the SUV. "That was sort of what we cared more about," he says, "Moral foundations." During adolescence, he began to pick up a political education from outside influences, including a conservative Christian piano teacher who lauded Ronald Reagan. “She probably influenced me with modes of conservative thought that I probably wouldn't have thought about in the past,” Ramaswamy says. “Which were really the groundedness and importance of family, and sort of calling my attention to how blessed I was to grow up in a stable family environment like the one that I was in.”