Vivek Ramaswamy
Appearances
Bongino Report Early Edition with Evita
Epstein Files Drop Today-But How Much Will They Reveal? (Ep.149)
Save for ancient Rome, the United States of America is the nation in human history that defines your identity based on your citizenship and your civic allegiance to a set of ideals. And I think that that debate is really what lurks beneath the surface in the future direction of America. First is even what it means to be an American.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think part of what's happened culturally in the country is we've gotten to this place where we've been told that stay in your lane. You don't have an expert degree in that. Therefore, you can't have an opinion about it. I don't know. I think that's a little bit un-American in terms of the culture of it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And yeah, it's one of the things I like about you and why I was looking forward to this conversation too is it's cool to have intellectual interests that span sports to culture to politics to philosophy. And it's not like you just have to be an expert trained in one of those things to be able to engage in it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But actually, maybe, just maybe, you might even be better at each of those things because you're curious about the other. Yeah. The renaissance man, if you will. I think we've lost a little bit of that concept in America, but it's certainly something that is important to me. And this year, it's been kind of cool. After leaving the campaign, I've been doing a wide range of things, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I've been picking up my tennis game again. I've practiced at the Ohio State. You're damn good at tennis. I used to be better, but I'm picking it up again.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But it's gotten better, again. It's gotten better recently. I've been practicing with the Ohio State team in the morning. They're like number one in the country or close to it. Now, the guys on the team play, but there's a couple coaches who were recently on the team, one of whom used to be a guy I used to play with in the juniors who invited me out.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I hit with them in the mornings alongside the team. My goal, I should be careful here. Oh, no. My hips are telling me this. So I've been playing so many days a week that I set a goal for myself by the end to play in a particular tournament. But we'll see if that happens or not. No, no. But regardless, it's been fun to get back into tennis.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The vestiges of what happened even in 1860 in the course of human history isn't that long ago, and that we need to do everything in our power to correct for those imbalances in power in the United States. That's the core view of the modern left. I'm not criticizing it right now. I'm steelmanning it. I'm trying to
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I was an executive producer on a movie, something I've never done before. It's called City of Dreams. It's about a story of a young man who was trafficked into the United States. It's a thriller. It's a very cool movie to be a part of.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I have actually started a couple of companies, one company in particular that I think is going to be significant this year, guiding some of the other businesses that I've gotten off the ground in the past.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So for me, I'm re-energized now where I was in the thick of politics for a full year there and getting a little bit of oxygen outside of politics, doing some things in the private sector has actually given me a renewed sense of energy to get back into driving change through public service.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Thank you, man. One final fact to Thomas Jefferson, whether you cut this or not. Of course. He wrote 16,000 essays in his life, letters, right? So he said, I've written four books in four years. That is nothing compared to how prolific – Anyway, good stuff, man.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Neither of us will ever live up to anything close to Thomas Jefferson. I love your curiosity, man. Thanks for reading the book and appreciated your feedback on it as well. And hopefully we'll do this again sometime. Yep. Thank you, brother. Thanks, dude.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
give you, I think, a good articulation of why the left believes they have a compelling case for the government stepping in to correct for historical or present inequalities. I can give you my counter rebuttal of that. But the best statement of the left, I think that it's the fact that we've been imperfect and living up to those ideals.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In order to fix that, we're going to have to take steps that are severe steps if needed to correct for those historical inequalities before we actually have true equality of opportunity in this country. That's the case for the left wing view in modern America. So what's your criticism of that?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So my concern with it is even if that's well motivated, I think that it recreates many of the same problems that they were setting out to solve. I'll give you a really tangible example of that in the present right now. I may be alone amongst prominent conservatives who would say something like this right now, but I think it's true. So I'm going to say it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm actually, even in the last year, last year and a half, seeing actually a rise in anti-black and anti-minority racism in this country, which is a little curious.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Right when, over the last 10 years, we got as close to Martin Luther King's promised land as you could envision, a place where you have every American, regardless of their skin color, able to vote without obstruction, a place where you have people able to get the highest jobs in the land without race standing in their way. Why are we seeing that resurgence
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In part, it's because of, I believe, that left-wing obsession with racial equity over the course of the last 20 years in this country. And so when you take something away from someone based on their skin color – and that's what correcting for prior injustice was supposed to do. The left-wing views are to correct for prior injustice by saying that whether you're a white, straight, cis man –
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You have certain privileges that you have to actually correct for. When you take something away from somebody based on their genetics, you actually foster greater animus towards other groups around you. And so the problem with that philosophy is that it creates – there are several problems with it, but the most significant problem that I think everybody can agree we want to avoid –
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
is to actually fan the flames of the very divisions that you supposedly wanted to heal. I see that in our context of our immigration policy as well. You think about even what's going on in, I'm from Ohio, I was born and raised in Ohio and I live there today, the controversy in Springfield, Ohio.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I personally don't blame really any of the people who are in Springfield, either the native people who are born and raised in Springfield or even the Haitians who have been moved to Springfield.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But it ends up becoming a divide and conquer strategy and outcome where if you put 20,000 people in a community where 50,000 people where the 20,000 are coming in, don't know the language, are unable to follow the traffic laws, are unable to assimilate. you know there's going to be a reactionary backlash. And so even though that began perhaps with some type of
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
some type of charitable instinct, right? Some type of sympathy for people who went through the earthquake in 2010 in Haiti and achieved temporary protective status in the United States. What began with sympathy, what began with earnest intentions actually creates the very division and reactionary response that supposedly we say we wanted to avoid.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So that's my number one criticism of that left-wing worldview. Number two is I do believe that merit and equity are actually incompatible. Merit and group quotas are incompatible. You can have one or the other, you can't have both.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And the reason why is no two people, and I think this is a beautiful thing, it's true between you and I, between you, I, and all of our friends or family or strangers or neighbors or colleagues, no two people have the same skillsets. We're each endowed by different gifts. We're each endowed with different talents. And that's the beauty of human diversity.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And a true meritocracy is a system in which you're able to achieve the maximum of your God-given potential without anybody standing in your way. But that means necessarily there's going to be differences in outcomes in a wide range of parameters, not just financial, not just money, not just fame or currency or whatever it is.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's going to be different outcomes for different people in different spheres of lives. And that's what meritocracy demands. It's what it requires. And so the left's vision of group equity necessarily comes at the cost of meritocracy. And so those are my two reasons for opposing the view is one is it's not meritocratic.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But number two is it often even has the effect of hurting the very people they claimed to have wanted to help. And I think that's part of what we're seeing in modern America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah, it was great.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So let's just take a step back and understand because people use these acronyms and then they start saying it out of muscle memory and stop asking what it actually means. DEI refers to capital D, diversity, equity and inclusion, which is a philosophy adopted by institutions, principally in the private sector, companies, nonprofits and universities.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
to say that they need to strive for specific forms of racial, gender, and sexual orientation diversity. And it's not just the D, it's the equity in ensuring that you have equal outcomes as measured by certain group quota targets or group representation targets that they would meet in their ranks.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The problem with the DEI agenda is in the name of diversity, it actually has been a vehicle for sacrificing true diversity of thought. So the way the argument goes is this, is that we have to create an environment that is receptive to minorities and minority views.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if certain opinions are themselves deemed to be hostile to those minorities, then you have to exclude those opinions in the name of the capital D diversity. But that means that you're necessarily sacrificing actual diversity of thought. I can give you a very specific example.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That might sound like, okay, well, is it such a bad thing if an organization doesn't want to exclude people who are saying racist things on a given day? We could debate that. But let's get to the tangible world of how that actually plays out. I, for my part, have not really heard in ordinary America people uttering racial epithets if you're going to a restaurant or in the grocery store.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's not something I've encountered, certainly not in the workplace. But that's a theoretical case. Let's talk about the real world case of how this plays out. There was an instance, it was a case that presented itself before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC, one of the government enforcers of the DEI agenda.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And there was a case of a woman who wore a red sweater on Fridays in celebration of veterans and those who had served the military and invited others in the workplace to do the same thing. And they had a kind of affinity group. You could call it that a veteran type affinity group appreciating those who had served. Her son had served as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There was a minority employee at that business who said that he found that to be a microaggression. So the employer asked her to stop wearing said clothes to the office. Well, she still felt like she wanted to celebrate. I think it was Friday was the day of the week where they did it. She still wore the red sweater. She didn't wear it, but she would hang it on the back of her seat, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Put it on the back of her seat at the office. They said, no, no, you can't do that either.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So the irony is in the name of this capital D diversity, which is creating a supposedly welcoming workplace for all kinds of Americans by focusing only on certain kinds of so-called diversity that translates into actually not even a diversity of your genetics, which is what they claim to be solving for, but also a hostility to diversity of thought. And I think that's dangerous.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And you're seeing that happen in the last four years across this country. It's been pretty rampant. I think it leaves America worse off. The beauty of America is we're a country where we should be able to have institutions that are stronger from different points of view being expressed. But my number one criticism of the DEI agenda is not even that it's anti-meritocratic. It is anti-meritocratic.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But my number one criticism is it's actually hostile to the free and open exchange of ideas by creating often legal liabilities for organizations that even permit certain viewpoints to be expressed. And I think that's the biggest concern.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He did make that case, and it was a great conversation. And my response to that is, Great. That's a good thing. We don't need a three letter acronym to do that. Right. You don't need special programmatic DEI incentives to do it because companies are always going to seek in a truly free market, which I think we're missing in the United States today for a lot of reasons.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But in a truly free market, companies will have the incentive to hire the best and brightest. or else they're going to be less competitive versus other companies. But you don't need ESG, DEI, CSR regimes in part enforced by the government to do it. Today, to be a government contractor, for example, you have to adopt certain racial and gender representation targets in your workforce.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's not the free market working. So I think you can't have it both ways. Either it's going to be good for companies and companies are going to do what's in their self-interest. That's what capitalists like Mark Cuban and I believe. But if we really believe that, then we should let the market work rather than forcing it to adopt these top-down standards. That's my issue with it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
This has less to do with left-wing versus right-wing ideology and more the nature of a bureaucracy is one that looks after its own existence as its top goal. So part of what you've seen with the so-called perpetuation of wokeness in American life is that the bureaucracy has used the appearance of virtue to actually deflect accountabilities for its own failure.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So you've seen that in several different spheres of American life. You could even talk about in the military, right? You think about our entry into Iraq after 9-11 had nothing to do with the stated objectives that we had. And I think by all accounts, it was a policy move we regret. Our
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Policy ranks in our foreign policy establishment made a mistake in entering Iraq, invading a country that really, by all accounts, was not at all responsible for 9-11. Nonetheless, if you're part of the U.S. military or you're General Mark Milley, you would rather talk about white rage or systemic racism than you would actually talk about the military's actual substantive failures.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's what I call the practice of blowing woke smoke to deflect accountability. You say the same thing with respect to the educational system. It's a lot easier to claim that, and I'm not the one making this claim, but others have made this claim that math is racist because there are inequitable results on objective tests of mathematics based on different demographic attributes.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You can claim using that that math is racist. It's a lot easier to blow that woke smoke than it is to accept accountability for failing to teach math. black kids in the inner city, how to actually do math and fix our public school systems and the zip code coded mechanism for trapping kids in poor communities in bad schools.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think that in many cases, what these bureaucracies do is they use the appearance of signaling this virtue as a way of not really advancing a social cause, but of strengthening the power of the bureaucracy itself and insulating that bureaucracy from criticism. So in many ways, bureaucracy, I think,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It carves the channels through which much of this woke ideology has flowed over the last several years. And that's why part of my focus has shifted away from just combating wokeness, because that's just a symptom, I think, versus combating actual bureaucracy itself, the rise of this managerial class, the rise of the deep state.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We talk about that in the government, but the deep state doesn't just exist in the government. It exists, I think, in every sphere of our lives, from companies to nonprofits to universities.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's the rise of what we call the managerial class, the committee class, the people who professionally sit on committees, I think are wielding far more power today than actual creators, entrepreneurs, original ideators, and ordinary citizens alike.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's not even a left or right. It just transcends that. But it's anti-American at its core. So our founding fathers, they were anti-bureaucratic at their core, actually. They were the pioneers, the explorers, the unafraid, right? They were the inventors, the creators.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
People forget this about Benjamin Franklin, who signed the Declaration of Independence, one of the great inventors that we have in the United States as well. He invented the lightning rod. He invented the Franklin stove, which was actually one of the great innovations of the field of thermodynamics. He even invented a number of musical instruments that Mozart and Beethoven went on to use.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's just Benjamin Franklin. So you think, oh, he's a one-off. Everybody said, okay, he was the one zany founder who was also a creative scientific innovator who happened to be one of the founders of the country. Wrong. It wasn't unique to him. You have Thomas Jefferson. What are you sitting in right now? You're sitting in a, on a swivel chair.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Who invented the swivel chair? Thomas Jefferson? Yes, Thomas Jefferson. Funny enough, he invented the swivel chair while he was writing the Declaration of Independence.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
What people don't know, he was an architect. So he worked in Virginia, but the Virginia State Capitol Dome, so the building that's in Virginia today, where the state capital is, that dome was actually designed by Thomas Jefferson as well. So these people weren't people who sat on professional committees. They weren't bureaucrats. They hated bureaucracy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Part of Old World England is Old World England was committed to the idea of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy and monarchy go hand in hand. A monarch can't actually administer or govern directly. It requires a bureaucracy, a machine to actually technocratically govern for him. So the United States of America was founded on the idea that we reject that old world view.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The old world vision was that we, the people, cannot be trusted to self-govern or make decisions for ourselves. We would burn ourselves off the planet is the modern version of this.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
With existential risks like global climate change, if we just leave it to the people and their democratic will, that's why you need professional technocrats, educated elites, enlightened bureaucrats to be able to set the limits that actually protect people from their own worst impulses. That's the old world view. And most nations in human history have operated this way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But what made the United States of America itself, to know what made America great, we have to know what made America itself. What made America itself is we said hell no to that vision. That we, the people, for better or worse, are going to self-govern without the committee class restraining what we do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And the likes of Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and I could give you examples of John Adams or Robert Livingston. You go straight down the list of founding fathers who were inventors, creators, pioneers, explorers, who also were the very people who came together to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so, yeah, this rise of bureaucracy in America in every sphere of life, I view it as anti-American, actually. And I hope that, you know, conservatives and liberals alike can get behind my crusade, certainly, to get in there and shut most of it down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Well, the first thing I will say is you're always taking a risk. Okay, there's no free lunch here, mostly at least. You're always taking a risk. One risk is that you say, I want to reform it gradually. I want to have a grand master plan and get to exactly what the right end state is and then carefully cut with a chisel like a work of art to get there. I don't believe that approach works.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think that's an approach that conservatives have taken for many years. I think it hasn't gotten us very far. And the reason is, If you have like an eight-headed hydra and you cut off one of the heads, it grows right back. The other risk you could take, so that's the risk of not cutting enough. The other risk you could take is the risk of cutting too much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
To say that I'm going to cut so much that I'm going to take the risk of not just cutting the fat, but also cutting some muscle along the way, that I'm going to take that risk. I can't give you option C, which is to say that I'm going to cut exactly the right amount. I'm going to do it perfectly. Okay. You don't know ex ante. You don't know beforehand that it's exactly how it's going to go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So that's a meaningless claim. It's only a question of which risk you're going to take. I believe in the moment we live in right now, the second risk is the risk we have to be willing to take. And we haven't had, we haven't had a class of politician. I mean, Donald Trump in 2016 was, I think the closest we've gotten. And I think the second term will be even, even closer to what we need.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But short of that, I don't think we've really had a class of politician who has gotten very serious about cutting so much that you're also going to cut some fat, but not only some fat, but also some muscle. That's the risk we have to take. So what would the way I would do it? Seventy five percent headcount reduction across the board in the federal bureaucracy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Send them home packing, shut down agencies that shouldn't exist, rescind every unconstitutional regulation that Congress never passed in a true self-governing democracy. It should be our elected representatives that make the laws and the rules, not an unelected bureaucrats. And that is the single greatest form of economic stimulus we could have in this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But it is also the single most effective way to restore self-governance in our country as well. And it is the blueprint for, I think, how we save this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
75%.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yes. In fact, I think it's necessary and essential. I think things are depends on depends on what your level of well really is, what you're benchmarking against. America is not built on complacency. We're built on the pursuit of excellence. And are we still the greatest nation on planet Earth? I believe we are. I agree with you on that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But are we great as we could possibly be or even as we have been in the past measured against our own standards of excellence? No, we're not. I think the nation is in a trajectory of decline. That doesn't mean it's the end of the empire yet. But we are a nation in decline right now. I don't think we have to be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But part of that decline is driven by the rise of this managerial class, the bureaucracy, sucking the lifeblood out of the country, sucking the lifeblood out of our innovative culture, our culture of self-governance. So is it possible? Yeah, it's really possible. I mean, I'll tell you one easy way to do it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm being a little bit glib here, but I think it's not crazy, at least as a thought experiment. get in there on day one, say that anybody in the federal bureaucracy who was not elected, elected representatives obviously were elected by the people, but if the people who were not elected, if your social security number ends in an odd number, you're out. If it ends in an even number, you're in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's a 50% cut right there. Of those who remain, if your social security number starts in an even number, you're in. And if it starts with an odd number, you're out. Boom. That's a 75% reduction. Then literally, stochastically, okay, one of the virtues of that, it's a thought experiment, not a policy prescription, but one of the virtues of that thought experiment is that
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You don't have a bunch of lawsuits you're dealing with about gender discrimination or racial discrimination or political viewpoint discrimination. Actually, the reality is you've at mass, you didn't bring the chisel, you brought a chainsaw. I guarantee you do that on day one and do number two, step two on day two on day three.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Nothing will have changed for the ordinary American other than the size of their government being a lot smaller and more restrained, spending a lot less money to operate it. And most people who run a company, especially larger companies, know this. It's 25% of the people who do 80 to 90% of the useful work. These government agencies are no different.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So now imagine you could do that same thought experiment, but not just doing it at random, but do it still at large scale while having some metric of screening for those who actually had both the greatest competence as well as the greatest commitment and knowledge of the Constitution. That, I think, would immediately raise not only the civic character of the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now we feel, OK, the people we elect to run the government, they've got the power back. They're running the government again, as opposed to the unelected bureaucrats who wield the power today. It would also stimulate the economy. I mean, the regulatory state is like a wet blanket on the American economy. Most of it's unconstitutional.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
All we require is leadership with a spine to get in there and actually do what conservative presidents have maybe gestured towards and talked about, but have not really effectuated ever in modern history.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Exactly, which you're missing today. Because right now the government would swallow them up. Most competent people feel like that bureaucratic machine will swallow them whole. You clear the decks of 75% of them, real innovators can then show up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah, well, look, I think there's opportunities for the very best to have large scale impact. in all kinds of different institutions, in our universities, to K through 12 education, through entrepreneurship. I'm obviously very biased in that regard. I think there's a lot you're able to create that you couldn't create through government.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I do think in the moment that we live in, where our government is as broken as it is and is as responsible for the declining nature of our country, yeah, I think bringing in people who are unafraid, talented, and able to have an impact could make all of the difference. And I agree with you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think actually most people, even most people who say they're motivated by money, I don't think are actually motivated by money. I think most people are driven by a belief that they can do more than they're being permitted to do right now with their skill sets. See, I've never, I'll tell you that. So I've run, I've run a number of companies.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And one of the things that I used to ask when I was, you know, I'm not day-to-day involved in them anymore, but as a CEO, I would ask when I did interviews. And the first company I started at Roivant, like for four years in, I mean, we're, you know, company was pretty big by that point.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I would still intent on interviewing every candidate before they joined, screening for the culture of that person. And I can talk a lot more about things we did to build that culture, but- One of the questions I would always ask them naturally just to start a conversation, it's a pretty basic question is, why did you leave your last job or why are you leaving your last job?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'll tell you what I didn't hear very often is that I wasn't paid enough, right? And maybe they'd be shy to tell you that during an interview, but there's indirect ways to signal that. That really wasn't at all, like even a top 10 reason why people were leaving their job. I'll give you what the number one reason was, is that they felt like they were unable to do
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
the true maximum of what their potential was in their prior role. That's the number one reason people leave their job. And, you know, I think... By the way, I would say that I'm saying that in a self-boastful way that we would attract these people. I think that's also true for most of the people who left the company as well, Roivant, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that was true at Roivant, it's true at other companies I've started. I think the number one reason people join companies and number one people leave companies, whether they've been to join mine or to leave mine in the past, have been that they feel like they're able to do more than they're able to with their skillset than that environment permits them to actually achieve.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so I think that's what people hung for. We think about capitalism and true free market capitalism. And we used words earlier like meritocracy. It's about building a system, whether it's in a nation or whether it's even within an organization that allows every individual to flourish and achieve the maximum of their potential.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And sometimes it just doesn't match for an organization where let's say the mission is here and somebody's skill sets could be really well aligned to a different mission. Then the right answer is it's not a negative thing. It's just that that person needs to leave and find their mission somewhere else.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But to bring that back to government, I think part of what's happened right now is that the rise of that bureaucracy in so many of these government agencies has actually obfuscated the mission of these agencies. I think if you went to most federal bureaucracies and just asked them, like, what's the mission? I'm just making one up off the top of my head right now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The Department of Health and Human Services. What is the mission of HHS in the United States of America? I doubt somebody who works there, even the person who leads it, could give you a coherent answer to that question. I just I just heavily doubt it. And you could fill in the blank for, you know, any range of the Department of Commerce.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I mean, it could go straight down the list of each of these other ones. What is the mission of this organization? You could say for the U.S. military, what's the purpose of the U.S. military, the Department of Defense? I can give you one. I think it is to win wars and more importantly, through its strength to avoid wars. That's it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Well, OK, if that's the mission, then, you know, OK, it's not tinkering around and messing around in some foreign conflict where we kind of feel like it sometimes and other ones where we don't. And who decides that? I don't really know. But whoever the people are that decide that we follow those orders. No, our mission is to protect the United States of America, to win wars and to avoid wars.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Boom. Those three things. What does protecting the United States of America mean? Number one, the homeland of the United States of America and the people who reside there. OK, that's a clear mission.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I mean, the Department of Health and Human Services maybe could be a reasonable mission to say that I want to make America the healthiest country on planet Earth, and we will develop the metrics and meet those metrics. And that's the goal of the Department of HHS, to set policies or at least to implement policies that best achieve that goal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But you can't – and maybe that's the right statement of the mission. Maybe it's not. But one of the things that happens is when you're governed by the committee class, it dilutes the sense of mission out of any organization, whether it's a company or a government agency or a bureaucracy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And once you've done that, then you lose the ability to track the best and the brightest because in order for somebody to achieve the maximum of their potential, they have to know what it's towards. There has to be a mission in the first place. Then you're not getting the best and brightest. You get more from the committee class, and that becomes – a self-perpetuating downward spiral.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that is what the blob of the federal bureaucracy really looks like today.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's what it does. I mean, that's just by the nature of a bureaucracy. It creates sand in the gears to slow down whatever the other process was. Is there some room for that somewhere in certain contexts? Sure. It's like a defensive mechanism that's designed to reduce dynamism. But I think when you...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
when that becomes cancerous in its scope, it then actually kills the host itself, whether that's a school, whether that's a company, whether that's a government. And so the way I think about it, Lex, is there's sort of a balance of distributed power.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I don't mean power in the Foucault sense of social power, but I mean just sort of power in the sense of the ability to affect relevant change in any organization between what you could call the founder class, the creator class, the everyday citizen, the stakeholder class, and then the managerial class. And there's a role for all three of them, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You could have the constituents of an organization, say in a constitutional republic, that's the citizen. You could have the equivalent of the creator class, the people who create things in that polity. And then you have the bureaucratic class that's designed to administer and serve as a liaison between the two.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm not denying that there's some role somewhere for people who are in that managerial class.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But right now, in this moment in American history, and I think it's been more or less true for the last century, but it's grown, starting with Woodrow Wilson's advent of the modern administrative state, metastasizing through FDR's New Deal and what was required to administer it, blown over and metastasizing further through LBJ's
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Great society and everything that's happened since, even aided and abetted by Republican presidents along the way, like Richard Nixon, has created a United States of America where that committee class, both in and outside the government and our culture, wields far too much influence and power relative to the everyday citizen stakeholder and to the creators who are in many ways independent.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
constrained, hamstrung, shackled in a straitjacket from achieving the maximum of their own potential contributions. And, you know, I certainly feel that myself. I, you know, I probably identify as being a member of that creator class most closely. It's just what I've done. I create things.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think we live in an environment in the United States of America where we're still probably the best country on earth, where that creator has that shot. So that's the positive side of it. But one where we are far more constrictive to the creator class than we have been when we've been at our best. And that's where I want to see change.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah, so I go back to this question of mission, right? A lot of people who make arguments for the Department of Education are aren't aware why the Department of Education was created in the first place, actually. So that might be a useful place to start, is that this thing was created. It had a purpose, presumably. What was that purpose?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Might be at least a relevant question to ask before we decide what are we doing with it or not. What was the purpose of this thing that we created? It's not a
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It, to me, seems like a highly relevant question, yet in this discussion about government reform, it's interesting how eager people are to skip over that question and just to talk about, okay, but we got the status quo and it's just going to be disruptive versus asking the question of, okay, this institution was created. It had an original purpose. Is that purpose still relevant?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Is this organization at all fulfilling that purpose today? To me, those are some relevant questions to ask. So let's talk about that for the Department of Education. Its purpose was relevant at that time. Which was to make sure that localities and particularly states were not siphoning dollars, taxpayer dollars away from predominantly black school districts to predominantly white ones.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that was not a theoretical concern at the time. It was happening or there was at least some evidence that that was happening in certain states in the south. And so you may say you don't like the federal solution. You may say you like the federal solution, but like it or not, that was the original purpose of the U.S.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Department of Education to make sure that from a federal perspective, states were not systematically disadvantaging black school districts over predominantly white ones. However noble and relevant that purpose may have been six decades ago, it's not a relevant purpose today.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's no evidence today of states intentionally mapping out which are the black versus white school districts and siphoning money in one direction versus another. To the contrary, one of the things we've learned is that the school districts in the inner city, many of which are predominantly black, actually spend more money per student than other school districts. Thank you very much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So against that backdrop, the Department of Education has instead extrapolated that original purpose of what was a racial equality purpose to instead implement a different vision of racial equity through the ideologies that they demand in the content of the curriculum that these public schools actually teach.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So Department of Education funding, so federal funding accounts for about, you know, I'm giving you round numbers here, but around 10% of the funding of most public schools across the country. But that comes with strings attached. So in today's Department of Education, this didn't happen back in 1970, but it's happening today.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Ironically, it's funny how these things change with the bureaucracies that fail. They blow smoke to cover up for their own failures. What happens with today's Department of Education? They effectively say you don't get that funding unless you adopt certain goals deemed at achieving racial or gender equity goals.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And in fact, they also intervene in the curriculum where there's evidence of schools in the Midwest or in the Great Plains that have been denied funding because Department of Education funding so long as they have certain subjects like archery. There was one instance of a school. that had archery in its curriculum. I find that to be pretty interesting, actually.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think you have different kinds of physical education. This is one that combines mental focus with physical aptitude. But hey, maybe I'm biased. Doesn't matter whether you like archery or not.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think it's the federal government's job to withhold funding from a school because they include something in their curriculum that the federal government deems inappropriate, where that locality found that to be a relevant locus of education. So what you see then is an abandonment of the original purpose that's long past.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You don't have this problem that the Department of Education was originally formed to solve of siphoning money from black school districts to white school districts and laundering that effectively in public funds. That doesn't exist anymore. So they find new purposes instead, creating a lot more damage along the way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So you asked me to steel man it, and could I say something constructive rather than just, you know, pounding down on the other side? One way to think about this is for a lot of these agencies, Were many of them formed with a positive intention at the outset? Yes.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Where that positive intention existed, I'm still a skeptic of creating bureaucracies, but if you're going to create one, at least make it, what should we call it, a task force. Make it a task force. A task force versus an agency means after it's done, you celebrate, you've done your work, pat yourself on the back and then move on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Rather than creating a standing bureaucracy, which actually finds things to do after it has already solved or addressed the first reason it was born in the first place. And I think we don't have enough of that in our culture. I mean, even if you have a company that's generated tons of cash flow. And it solved a problem.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Let's say it's a biopharmaceutical company that developed a cure to some disease. And the only thing people knew at that company was how to develop a cure to that disease. And they generated a boatload of cash from doing it. At a certain point, you could just give it to your shareholders and close up shop. And that's actually a beautiful thing to do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You don't see that happen enough in the American consciousness, in the American culture of when an institution has achieved its purpose, celebrate it and then move on. And I think that that culture in our government would result in a vastly restrained scope of government rather than today. It's a one-way ratchet. Once you cause it to come into existence, you cause new things to come into existence.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But the old one that came into existence continues to persist and exist as well. And that's where you get this metastasis over the last century.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So if the question is what should government do that the private sector cannot, I'll give you one. Protect our border. I mean, capitalism, it's never going to be the job of capitalists or never going to be the capability or inclination of capitalists to preserve a national border.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think a nation, it's literally, I think one of the chapters of this book, okay, a nation without borders is not a nation. It's almost a tautology. An open border is not a border. Capitalism is not going to solve that. What's going to solve that is a nation. Part of the job of the federal government is to protect the homeland of its nation, in this case, the United States of America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's an example of a proper function of the federal government to provide physical security to its citizens. Another proper role of that federal government is to look after, or in this case, could be state government. To make sure that private parties cannot externalize their costs onto somebody else without their consent. It's a fancy way economists would use to describe it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
What does that mean? It means if you go dump your chemicals in somebody else's river, then you're liable for that. It's not that, okay, I'm a capitalist and so I want to create things and I'm going to do hell or high water whether or not that harms people around me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The job of a proper government is to make sure that you protect the rights of those who may be harmed by those who are pursuing their own rights through a system of capitalism. In seeking prosperity, you're free to do it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if you're hurting somebody else without their consent in the process, the government is there to enforce what is really just a different form of enforcing a private property right. So I would say that those are two central functions of government is to preserve national boundaries and the national security of a homeland.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And number two is to protect and preserve private property rights and the enforcement of those private property rights. And I think at that point, you've described about 80 to 90% of the proper role of a government. What about infrastructure? Look, I think that most infrastructure can be dealt with through the private sector. I mean, you can get into specifics.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You could have infrastructure that's specific to national security. No, I do think that military industrial base is essential to provide national security. That's a form of infrastructure. I don't think you could rely exclusively on the private sector to provide the optimal level of that protection to a nation.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But interstate highways, I think you could think about whether or not that's a common good that everybody benefits from, but nobody has the incentive to create. I think you could make an argument for the existence of interstate highways.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think you could also make powerful arguments for the fact that actually you could have enough private sector co-ops that could cause that to come into existence as well. But I'm not dogmatic about this, but broadly speaking, 80 to 90% of the goal of the federal government
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm not going to say 100, 80, 90% of the goal of the existence of a federal government should be to a government period should be to protect national boundaries and provide security for the people who live there and to protect the private property rights of the people who reside there. If we restore that, I think we're well on our way to a revival of what our founding fathers envisioned.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think many of them would give you the same answer that I just did.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think here, if it goes closer to municipalities and to states, I'm fine with that being a locus for people determining as, for example, let's just say school districts are taxed at the local level, for that to be a matter for municipalities and townships to actually decide democratically how they actually want that governed, whether it's balance between a public school district versus making that same money available to families in the form of vouchers or other forms of
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
ability to educational savings accounts or whichever mechanism it is to opt out of that. If that's done locally, I'll have views on that that tend to go further in the direction of true educational choice and diversity of choice, the implementation of charter schools, the granting of state charters, or even lowering the barriers to granting one. I favor those kinds of policies.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if we've gotten the federal government out of it, that's achieved 75% of what I think we need to achieve that I'm focused on solving other problems and leave that to the states and municipalities to cover from there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Well, I'm, of course, biased because Elon and I had discussed that for the better part of the last year and a half. So I think it's a great idea. It's something that's very consistent with the core premise of my presidential candidacy. I got to know him as I was running for U.S. president in a couple of events that he came to, and then we built a friendship after that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So obviously, I think it's a great idea. Who do you think is more hardcore on the cutting, you or Elon? Well, I think Elon is pretty hardcore. I said 75%. of the federal bureaucrats. And while I was running for president, he said, you need to put at least 75%. So I agree with him. I think it'd be a fun competition to see who ends up more hardcore.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think there's someone out there who's going to be more hardcore than here I would be. And the reason is, I think we share in common A willingness to take the risk and see what happens. I mean, the sun will still rise in the east and set in the west. That much I guarantee you. Is there going to be some broken glass and some damage? Yes, there is. There's no way around that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But once you're willing to take that risk, then it doesn't become so scary anymore. And here's the thing, Lex. It's easy to say this. Let's talk about where the rubber hits the road here. Even in second Trump term, this would be the discussion. President Trump and I have had this conversation, but I think we would continue to have this conversation is,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
where does it rank on our prioritization list? Because there's always going to be a trade-off. If you have a different policy objective that you want to achieve, a good policy objective, whatever that is, right? You could talk about immigration policy. You could talk about economic policy. There are other policy objectives. You're going to trade off a little bit in the short run
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
effectiveness of your ability to carry out that policy goal, if you're also committed to actually thinning out the federal government by 75%, because there's just going to be some clunkiness, right? And there's just going to be frictional costs for that level of cut. So the question is, where does that rank on your prioritization list?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
To pull that off, to pull off a 75% reduction in the size and scale of the federal government, the regulatory state, and the headcount, I think that only happens if that's your top priority.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You can do it at a smaller scale, but at that scale, it only happens if that's your top priority, because then as president, you're in a position to say, I know in the super short run that might even make it a little bit harder for me to do this other thing that I want to do and use the regulatory state to do it. But I'm going to pass on that. I'm going to pass that up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm going to bear that hardship and inconvenience because I know this other goal is more important on the scale of decades and centuries for the country. So it's a question of prioritization. And certainly my own view is that now is a moment where that needs to be a top priority for saving this country. And if there's one thing about my campaign, I was if I was to do it again.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I would be even clearer about because I talked about a lot of things in the campaign and we can cover a lot of that, too. But if there's one thing that I care about more than anything else is dismantling that bureaucracy and more of moreover, it is a. It's an assault and a crusade on the nanny state itself. And that nanny state presents itself in several forms. There's the entitlement state.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's the welfare state presents itself in the form of the regulatory state. That's what we're talking about. And then there's the foreign nanny state where effectively we are subsidizing other countries that aren't paying their fair share of protection or other resources we provide them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
If I was to summarize my ideology in a nutshell, it is to terminate the nanny state in the United States of America in all of its forms, the entitlement state, the regulatory state, and the foreign policy nanny state. Once we've done that, we've revived the republic that I think would make George Washington proud.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think the nanny state, I'm against it overall. I'm against the foreign policy nanny state as well. Let me start from that as the starting off point, and then I'll tell you about my views on the DOD and our defense. First of all, I think that and I think that it was easy for many people from the neocon school of thought to caricature my views with the media at their side.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But actually, my own view is. If it's in the interest of the United States of America to provide certain levels of protection to U.S. allies, we can do that as long as those allies actually pay for it. And I think it's important for two reasons. The less important reason. still important reason. The less important reason is it's still money for us, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's not like we're swimming in a cash surplus right now. We're at $34 trillion national debt and growing. And I think pretty soon the interest payments are going to be the largest line item in our own federal budget. So it's not like we have money willy-nilly to just hand over for free. That's the less important reason though. The more important reason is that it makes sure that our allies are
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
have actual skin in the game to not have skewed incentives to actually enter conflicts where they're not actually bearing the full cost of those conflicts. So take NATO, for example, most NATO countries, literally a majority of NATO countries today do not pay or contribute 2% of their GDP to to their own national defense, which is supposedly a requirement to be in NATO.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So majority of NATO countries are failing to meet their basic commitment to be in NATO in the first place. Germany particularly is, I think, arbitraging the hell out of the United States of America. And I don't think that I'm not going to be some sort of you know, shrill voice here saying, so therefore we should not be supporting any allies or providing security blankets. No, I'm not.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm not going in that direction. What I would say is you got to pay for it, right? Pay for your fisher, A, because we're not swimming in excess money ourselves. But B is it tells us that you actually have skin in the game for your own defense, which actually then makes nations far more prudent in the risks that they take, whether or not they enter war versus if somebody else is paying for it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And somebody else is providing our security guarantee. Hey, I might as well, you know, take the gamble and see where I end up at the end of a war versus the restraint that that imposes on the decision making of those allies. So now let's bring this home to the Department of Defense. I think the top goal of the U.S.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
defense policy establishment should be to provide for the national defense of the United States of America. And the irony is that's what we're actually doing most poorly. We're not really using other than the Coast Guard. We're not really using the U.S. military to prevent crossings at our own southern border and crossings at our other borders.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In fact, the United States of America, our homeland, I believe is less secure today than it has been in a very long time. Vulnerable to threats from hypersonic missiles where China and Russia, Russia certainly has capabilities in excess of that of the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Missiles, hypersonic means faster than the speed of sound that could hit the United States, including those carrying nuclear warheads. We are more vulnerable to super EMP attacks, electromagnetic pulse attacks that could, you know, without exaggeration, some of this could be from other nations.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Some of this could even be from solar flares, cause significant mass casualty in the United States of America. The electric grid's gone. It's not an exaggeration to say if that happened, planes would be falling out of the sky because our chips really depend on those electromagnetic, well, will be affected by those electromagnetic pulses.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I know this, oh, people start yawning and say, okay, boring stuff, super EMP, cyber, whatever. No, actually, it is pretty relevant to whether or not you actually are facing the risk of not getting your insulin because your refrigerator doesn't work anymore or your food can't be stored or your car or your ability to fly in an airplane. is impaired. Okay.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think that these are serious risks where our own national defense spending has been wholly inadequate. So I'm not one of these people that says, oh, we decreased versus increased national defense spending. We're not spending it in the right places. The number one place we need to be spending it is actually in protecting our national defense. And I think protecting our own physical homeland.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think we actually need an increase in spending on protecting our own homeland.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But that is different from the agenda of foreign interventionism and foreign nanny state ism for its own stake, where we should expect more and demand more of our allies to provide for their own national defense, and then provide the relevant security guarantees to allies where that actually advances the interests of the United States of America. So that's what I believe.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think this process has been corrupted by what Dwight Eisenhower famously in his farewell address called the military-industrial complex in the United States. But I think it's it's bigger than just the you know, I think it's easy to tell the tales of the financial corruption.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's a kind of cultural corruption and conceit that just because certain number of people in that expert class have a belief that their belief happens to be the right one because they can scare you with what the consequence would be if you don't follow their advice. One of the beauties of the United States is, at least in principle, we have civilian control of the military.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The person who we elect to be the U.S. president is the one that actually is the true commander in chief. I have my doubts of whether it operates that way. I think it is quite obvious that Joe Biden is not a functioning commander in chief of the United States of America. Yet on paper, supposedly, we still are supposed to call him that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But at least in theory, we're supposed to have civilian control of the U.S. military and And I think that one of the things that that leader needs to do is to ask the question of, again, the mission. What's the purpose of this U.S. military in the first place? At the top of the list should be to protect the homeland and the people who actually live here, which we're failing to do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So that's where I land on that question.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's a good question. I would say in his case, it's particularly accentuated because it's both. In his case, I don't think anybody in America anymore believes that Joe Biden is the functioning president of the United States of America. How could he be? He wasn't even sufficiently functioning to be the candidate after a debate that was held in June.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's no way he's going to be in a position to make the most important decisions on a daily and demanding basis to protect the leading nation in the world. Now, More generally, though, I think we have a deeper problem that even when it's not Joe Biden, in general, the people we elect to run the government haven't really been the ones running the government.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's been the unelected bureaucrats and the bureaucratic deep state underneath that's really been making the decisions. I've done business in a number of places. I've traveled to Japan. There's an interesting corporate analogy. Sometimes if you get outside of politics, people can—I find— listen and pay attention a little bit more because of politics.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's so fraught right now that if you start talking to somebody who disagrees with you about the politics of it, you're just butting heads but not really making progress. So let's just make the same point but go outside of politics for a second. So I was traveling Japan. I was having a late night dinner with a CEO of a Japanese pharmaceutical company.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And, you know, it takes a while to really get him to open up, culturally speaking, Japan, you know, a couple nights of karaoke and, you know, whatnot, maybe late night restaurant, whatever it is. We built a good enough relationship where he was very candid with me. He said, I'm the CEO of the company.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I could go and find the head of a research unit and tell him, okay, this is a project we're no longer working on as a company. We don't want to spend money on it. We're going to spend money somewhere else. And he'll look me in the eye and he'll say, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll come back six months later and find that they're spending exactly the same amount of money on those exact same projects.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I'll tell them, no, we agreed. I told you that you're not going to spend money on this project. And we have to stop now. Should have stopped six months ago. Get a slap on the wrist for it. He says, yes, sir. I'm sorry. Yes. No, no, of course. That's correct. Come back six months later, same person is spending the same money on the same project. And here's why.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Historically in Japan, and I should say in Japan, this is changing now. It's changing now. But historically, until very recently, and even to an extent now, it's near impossible to fire people. So if somebody works for you and you can't fire them, that means they don't actually work for you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It means in some deeper perverse sense, you work for them because you're responsible for what they do without any authority to actually change it. So I think most people who have traveled in Japan and Japanese corporate culture through the 1990s and 2000s and 2010s and maybe even some vestiges in the 2020s wouldn't really dispute what I just told you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now, we're bringing back to the more contentious terrain. I think that's basically how things have worked in the executive branch of the federal government of the United States of America. You have these so-called civil service protections on the books.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now, if you really read them carefully, I think that there are areas to provide daylight for a truly constitutionally well-trained president to act. But apart from those, that's a contrarian view that I have that bucks conventional wisdom. But apart from that caveat, in general, the conventional view has been the U.S. president can't fire these people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's 4 million federal bureaucrats, 99.9% of them can't be touched by the person who the people who elected to run the executive branch can't even fire those people. It's like the equivalent of that Japanese CEO. And so that culture exists every bit as much in the federal bureaucracy of the United States of America as it did in Japanese corporate culture through the 1990s.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that's a lot of what's wrong with not just the way that our Department of Defense is run and our foreign policy establishment is run, but I think it applies to a lot of the domestic policy establishment as well. And to come back to the core point, how are we going to save this republic? This is the debate in the conservative movement right now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So this is a little bit, maybe a little bit spicy for some Republicans to sort of swallow right now. And my top focus is making sure that we win the election. But let's just move the ball forward a little bit and skate to where the puck is going here. OK, yes, let's say we win the election all as well and dandy. OK, what's the philosophy that determines how we govern?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's a little bit of a fork in the road amongst conservatives where there are those who believe that the right answer now is to use that regulatory state and use those levers of power to advance our own pro-conservative, pro-American, pro-worker goals. And I'm sympathetic to all of those goals.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I don't think that the right way to do it is to create a conservative regulatory state that replaces a liberal regulatory state. I think the right answer is actually to get in there and shut it down. I don't want to replace the left wing nanny state with a right wing nanny state. I want to get in there and actually dismantle the nanny state.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think it has been a long time in the United States, maybe ever in modern history that we've had A conservative leader at the national level who makes it their principal objective to dismantle the nanny state in all of its forms, the entitlement state, the regulatory state, and the foreign policy nanny state. That was a core issue.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
focus of my candidacy, one of the things that I wish, and this is on me, not anybody else, that I should have done better was to make that more crystal clear as a focus without getting distracted by a lot of the shenanigans, let's just say, that happen as sideshows during a presidential campaign, but call that a lesson learned because I do think it's what the country needs now more than ever.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Can I say a word about the conditions he was operating in? Because I think that's why I'm far more excited for this time around. is that a lot has changed in the legal landscape. So Donald Trump did not have the Supreme Court backdrop in 2016 that he does today. So there's some really important cases that have come down from the Supreme Court. One is West Virginia versus EPA.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think it's probably the most important case of our generation. In 2022, that came down and said that if Congress has not passed a rule into law itself through the halls of Congress, And it relates to what they call a major question, a major policy or economic question. It can't be done by the stroke of a pen by a regulator, an unelected bureaucrat either.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That quite literally means most federal regulations today are unconstitutional. Then this year comes down a different big one, another big one from the Supreme Court in the Loper-Bright case, which held that historically for the last 50 years in this country, The doctrine has been, it's called Chevron deference.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's a doctrine that says that federal courts have to defer to an agency's interpretation of the law. They now toss that out the window and say, no, no, no, the federal courts no longer have to defer to an agency's interpretation of what the law actually is. The combination of those two cases is seismic in its impact for the regulatory state.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's also another great case that came down was SEC versus Jarkesey. And the SEC is one of these agencies that embodies everything we're talking about here.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The SEC, among other agencies, has tribunals inside that not only do they write the rules, not only do they enforce those rules, they also have these judges inside the agency that also interpret the rules and determine and dole out punishments. That doesn't make sense if you believe in separation of powers in the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So the Supreme Court put an end to that and said that that practice at the SEC is unconstitutional. Actually, as a side note, the Supreme Court has said countless practices and rules written by the SEC, the EPA, the FTC in recent years were outright unconstitutional. Think about what that means for a constitutional republic.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That supposedly these law enforcement agencies, the courts have now said, especially this year, The courts have now said that their own behaviors actually break the law. So the very agencies entrusted with supposedly enforcing the law are actually behaving with utter, blatant disregard for the law itself. That's un-American. It's not tenable in the United States of America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But thankfully, we now have a Supreme Court that recognizes that. So, you know, whether or not we have a second Trump term, well, that's up to the voters, but even whether or not that now takes advantage of that backdrop the Supreme Court has given us to actually gut the regulatory state. We'll find out. I'm optimistic.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I certainly think it's the best chance that we've had in a generation in this country. And that's a big part of why I'm supporting Donald Trump and why I'm going to do everything in my power to help him. But I do think it is going to take a spine of steel to see that through. And then after we've taken on the regulatory state, I think that's the next step.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I do think there's this broader project of dismantling the nanny state in all of its forms, the entitlement state, the regulatory state and the foreign policy in any state. Three word answer for us to summarize my worldview and my presidential campaign in three words, shut it down. Shut it down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think there's one other factor. So you're right to point. I mean, the legal backdrop is a valid and understandable excuse and reason. I think there are other factors at play too. So I think there's something to be said for never having been in government, showing up there the first time, and you're having to understand
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The rules of the road as you're operating within them and also having to depend on people who actually aren't aligned with your policy vision, but tell you to your face that they are.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so I think that's one of the things that I've admired about President Trump is he's actually been very open about that, very humble about that to say that there's a million learnings from that first term that make him ambitious and more ambitious in that second term. But everything I'm talking to you about, this is what needs to happen in the country. It's not specific to Donald Trump.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It lays out what needs to be done in the country. There's the next four years. Donald Trump is our last best hope and chance for moving that ball forward. But I think that the vision I'm laying out here is one that hopefully goes even beyond just the next two or four years.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
of really fixing a century's worth of mistakes, I think we're gonna fix a lot of them in the next four years of Donald Trump's president. But if you have a century's worth of mistakes that have accumulated with the overgrowth of the entitlement state in the US, I think it's gonna take, you know, probably the better part of a decade, at least to actually fix them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We've got two candidates, right? People face a choice. This is a relevant election. One of my goals is to speak to people who may not agree with 100% of what Donald, who do not agree with 100% of what Donald Trump says. And I can tell them, you know what? I don't agree with 100% of what he says. And I can tell you, as somebody who ran against him for US president, that right now he is
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
When I say the last best hope, I mean in this cycle, the last best hope that we have for dismantling that bureaucratic class. And, you know, I think that I'm also open about the fact that it's going to take, this is a long run project, but we have the next step to actually take over the next few years. That's kind of where I land on it. I mean, you talked to him, I guess, a few weeks ago.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I saw you had a podcast with him, right? What was your impression about his preparedness to do it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Border, laser focused on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Just as you've clearly highlighted, we share the same priority with respect to the southern border. And that's that's those are near term fixes that we can hit out of the park in the first year. But at the same time, I think we got to think also on decade long time horizon.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So my own view is I think that I think that he it is my conviction and belief that he does care about dismantling that federal bureaucracy, certainly more so than any Republican nominee we have had in certainly in my lifetime.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I do think that there are going to be competing schools of thought where some will say, okay, well, we want to create a right-wing entitlement state, right, to shower federal subsidies on favored industries while keeping them away from disfavored industries and new bureaucracies to administer them. And, you know, I don't come from that school of thought.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't want to see the bureaucracy expand in a pro-conservative direction. I want to see the bureaucracy shrink in every direction. And, you know, I do think that from my conversation with Donald Trump, I believe that he is well aligned with this vision of shrinking bureaucracy. But that's a longer term project.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
No, you, you have to have this spine of steel to cut through what that short term advice is you're getting. And I'll tell you, certainly, I intend to do whatever I can for this country, both in the next four years and beyond. But my voice on this will be crystal clear. And President Trump knows that's my view on it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I believe he shares it deeply, is that all else equal, getting there and shut down as much of the excess bureaucracy as we can, do it as quickly as possible. And that's a big part of how we save our country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Sure. And so it goes back to that original discussion we had is what are the few proper roles of the federal government? I gave you two. One is of the government period. Right. One is to protect the national borders and sovereignty of the United States, and two is to protect private property rights. There's a lot else.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Most of what the government's doing today, both at the federal and state level, is something other than those two things. But in my book, those are the two things that are the proper function of government.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So for everything else the federal government should not be doing, the one thing they should be doing is to protect the homeland of the United States of America and the sovereignty and sanctity of our national borders. So in that domain, that's mission aligned with a proper purpose for the federal government. I think we're a nation founded on the rule of law.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I say this is the kid of legal immigrants. That means your first act of entering this country cannot break the law. And in some ways, if I was to summarize a formula for saving the country over the next four years, it would be a tale of two mass deportations. The mass deportations of millions of illegals who are in this country and should not be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And then the mass deportation of millions of unelected federal bureaucrats out of Washington, D.C., Now, all in all, you could say that those are intention, but I think that the reality is anything outside of the scope of what the core function of the government is, which is protecting borders and protecting private property rights, that's really where I think the predominant cuts need to be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And if you look at the number of people who are looking after the border, it's not even 0.1% of the federal employee base today. So 75% isn't 99.99%, it's 75%, which still leaves that... it would still be a tiny fraction of the remaining 25%, which I actually think needs to be more rather than less. So it's a good question, but that's sort of where I land on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
When it's a proper role of the federal government, great. Act and actually do your job. The irony is 99.9999% of those resources are going to functions other than the protection of private property rights and the protection of our national physical protection.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Fair enough. And I would call those even not even criticisms, but just thoughtful questions, right? Even if somebody who's really aligned with doing this, those are thoughtful questions to ask. So I do want to say something about this point on how we think about the breakage of the rule of law in other contexts.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There are 350,000 mothers who are in prison in the United States today who committed crimes and were convicted of them. They didn't take their kids with them to those prisons either. Right. So we face difficult tradeoffs in all kinds of contexts as it relates to the enforcement of law.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I just want to make that basic observation against the backdrop of if we're a nation founded on the rule of law. That we acknowledge that there are trade-offs to enforcing the law. And we've acknowledged that in other contexts. I don't think that we should have a special exemption for saying that somehow we weigh the other way when it comes to the issue of the border.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We're a nation founded on the rule of law. We enforce laws that has costs, that has trade-offs, but it's who we are. So that backdrop is, and the easiest fact I can cite is 350,000 or so mothers who are in prison and did not take their kids to prison with them. Is that bad? Is it undesirable for kids to grow up without those 350,000 mothers? It is.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But it's a difficult situation created by people who violated the law and faced the consequences of it, which is also a competing and important priority in the country. So that's in the domestic context. As it relates to this question of mass deportations, let's just get very practical because all that was theoretical. Very practically, there's ways to do this, starting with
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
People have already broken the law. People have not just broken the law of entering, but are committing other crimes while already here in the United States. That's a clear case for an instant mass deportation. You have a lot of people who haven't integrated into their communities. You think about the economic impact of this. A lot of people are in detention already.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
A lot of those people should be immediately returned to their country of origin or at least what is called a safe third country. So safe third country means even if somebody is claiming to seek asylum from political persecution, they're Well, move them to another country that doesn't have to be the United States of America that they passed through, say Mexico, before actually coming here.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Other countries around the world are doing this. Australia is detaining people. They don't let them out and live a normal, joyful life because they came to the country. They detain them until their case is adjudicated. Well, the rates of fraud in Australia of what people lie about what their conditions are is way lower now than in the United States because people respond to those incentives.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think that in some ways, people make this sound much bigger and scarier than it needs to be. I've ever taken a deeply pragmatic approach. And the North Star for me is I want the policy that helps the United States citizens who are already here. What's that policy? Clearly, that's going to be a policy that includes a large number of deportations.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think by definition, it's going to be the largest mass deportation in American history. Sounds like a punchline at a campaign rally, but actually it's just a factual statement that says if we've had the by far largest influx of illegal immigrants in American history, it just stands to reason.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's logic that, okay, if we're going to fix that, we're going to have the largest mass deportation in American history. And we can be rational. Start with people who are breaking the law in other ways here in the United States. Start with people who are already in detention or entering detention now. That comes at no cost and strict benefit. There isn't even a little bit of an economic trade-off.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Then you get to areas where you would say, okay, the costs actually continue to outweigh the benefits. And that's exactly the way our policy should be guided here. I want to do it in as respectful and as humane of a manner as possible. I mean, the reality is...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think one of the things we got to remember, give you the example I gave with the Haitian case in Springfield, a town that I spent a lot of time in growing up in Ohio. I live about an hour from there today. I don't blame the individual Haitians who came here. I'm not saying that they're bad people, because in that particular case, those weren't even people who broke the law in coming here.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
They came as part of a program called Temporary Protective Status. Now, the operative word there is the first one, temporary protection. They have been all kinds of lawsuits. There have been all kinds of lawsuits for people who even 8, 10, 12, 14 years after the earthquake in Haiti, where many of them came, when they're going to be removed, their allegations of racial discrimination or otherwise.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
No, temporary protective status means it's temporary. And we're not abandoning the rule of law when we send them back. We're abandoning the rule of law when we let them stay. Now, if that has a true benefit to the United States of America, economically or otherwise, go through the paths that allow somebody to enter this country for economic reasons.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But don't do it through asylum based claims or temporary protected status. I think one of the features of our immigration system right now is it is built on a lie and it incentivizes lying. The reason is the arguments for keeping people in the country, if those are economic reasons, but the people actually entered using claims of asylum or refugee status, those two things don't match up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So just be honest about what our immigration system actually is. I think we do need dramatic reforms to the legal immigration system to select purposely for the people who are going to actually improve the United States of America. I think there are many people, I know some of them, right? I gave a story of one guy who I met who is educated at our best universities or among our best universities.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He went to Princeton. He went to Harvard Business School. He has a great job in the investment community. He was a professional tennis player. He was a concert pianist. He could do a Rubik's Cube in less than a minute. I'm not making this stuff up. These are hard facts. He can't get a green card in the United States. He's been here for 10 years or something like this.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He asked me for the best advice I could give him. I unfortunately could not give him the actual best advice, which would be to just take a and claim to be somebody who is seeking asylum in the United States. That would have been morally wrong advice, so I didn't give it to him.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But practically, if you were giving him advice, that would be the best advice that you actually could give somebody, which is a broken system on both sides. People who are going to make those contributions to the United States and pledge allegiance to the United States and speak our language and assimilate, we should have a path for them to be able to add value to the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yet they're not the ones who are getting in. It's actually the people, our immigration system selects for people who are willing to lie. That's what it does. Selects for people who are willing to see they're seeking refugee status or seeking asylum when in fact they're not. And then we have policymakers who lie after the fact using economic justifications to keep them here.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if it was an economic justification, that should have been the criteria used to bring them in the first place, not this illusion of asylum or refugee status. There was a case actually even the New York Times reported on this, believe it or not, of a woman who came from Russia. fleeing Vladimir Putin's intolerant LGBT, anti-LGBTQ regime. She was fleeing persecution by the evil man Putin.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
She came here and eventually when she was pressed on the series of lies, it came out that she was crying finally when she broke down and admitted this. She was like, I'm not even gay. I don't even like gay people. That's what she said.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And yet she was pretending to be some sort of LGBTQ advocate who was persecuted in Russia when in fact it was just somebody who was seeking better economic conditions in the United States. I'm not saying you're wrong to seek better economic conditions in the United States, but you are wrong to lie about it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that's what you're seeing a lot of people even in this industry of sort of quote unquote tourism to the United States. They're having their kids in the United States. They go back to their home country, but their kids enjoy birthright citizenship. That's built on a lie. You have people claiming to suffer from persecution.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In fact, they're just working in the United States and then living in these relative mansions in parts of Mexico or Central America after they've spent four or five years making money here. Just abandon the lie. Let's just have an immigration system built on honesty. Just tell the truth.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
If the argument is that we need more people here for economically filling jobs, I'm skeptical the extent to which a lot of those arguments actually end up being true. But let's have that debate in the open rather than having it through the back door saying that it's refugee and asylum status when we know it's a lie.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And then we justify it after the fact by saying that that economically helps the United States cut the dishonesty. And I just think that that is a policy we would do well to. to expand every sphere. We talk about from the military industrial complex, to the rise of the managerial class, to a lot of what our government's covered up about our own history, to even this question of immigration today.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Just tell the people the truth. And I think our government would be better serving our people if it did.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think that is true for legal immigrants. I think it's not true for illegal immigrants. That's not what I saw. Yeah. So I in sort of in this this part of why I wrote this book. OK. And I mean, the book is called Truths. So better darn well have well sourced facts in here. Right. Can't be can't be made up hypotheses, hard truths.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And there's a chapter where even in my own research on it, Lex, I know a lot about this issue from my time as a presidential candidate. But even in writing the chapter on the border here. I learned a lot from a lot of different dimensions, and some of which even caused me to revise some of my premises going into it, okay?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
My main thesis in that chapter is, forget the demonization of illegal or legal immigrants or whatever, as you put it, right? Fear, mongering, just put all that to one side. I want an immigration system that is built on honesty. identify what the objective is. We could debate the objectives. We might have different opinions on the objectives.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Some people may say the objective is the economic growth of the United States. I make that, I air that argument in this book. And I think that that's insufficient, personally. Personally, I think you need, the United States is more than just an economic zone. It is a country, it is a nation bound together by civic ideals.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think we need to screen not just for immigrants who are gonna make economic contributions, but those who speak our language, those who are able to assimilate, and those who share those civic ideals and know the US history even better than the average US citizen who's here. That's what I believe.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But even if you disagree with me and say, no, no, no, the sole goal is economic production in the United States, then at least have an immigration system that's honest about that rather than one which claims to solve for that goal by bringing in people who are rewarded for being a refugee.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We should reward the people in that model, which is, I don't even think should be the whole model, but even if that were your model, reward the people who are demonstrated, have demonstrably Proven that they would make economic contributions to the United States, not the people who have demonstrated that they're willing to lie to achieve a goal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And right now, our immigration system, if it rewards one quality over any other, there's one parameter that it rewards over any other. It isn't civic allegiance to the United States. It isn't fluency in English. It isn't the ability to make an economic contribution to this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The number one attribute, human attribute that our immigration system rewards is whether or not you are willing to lie. And the people who are telling those lies about whether they're seeking asylum or not are the ones who are most likely to get in. And the people who are most unwilling to tell those lies are the ones who are actually not getting in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That is a hard, uncomfortable truth about our immigration system. And the reason is because the law says you only get asylum if you're going to face bodily harm or near-term risk of bodily injury based on your religion, your ethnicity, or certain other factors. And so when you come into the country, you're asked, do you fulfill that criteria or not?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And the number one way to get into this country is to check the box and say yes. So that means just systematically, imagine if you're a university, Harvard or Yale or whatever, you're running your admissions process. The number one attribute you're selecting for isn't your SAT score, isn't your GPA, isn't your athletic accomplishments. It's whether or not you're willing to lie on the application.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You're going to have a class populated by a bunch of charlatans and frauds. That's exactly what our immigration system is doing to the United States of America, is it is literally selecting for the people who are willing to lie.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Let's say you have somebody who's a person of integrity, says, okay, I want a better life for my family, but I want to teach my kids that I'm not going to lie or break the law to do it. That person is infinitely more less likely to get into the United States. I know it sounds provocative to frame it that way, but it is not an opinion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It is a fact that that is the number one human attribute that our current immigration system is selecting for. I want an immigration system centered on honesty. In order to implement that, we require acknowledging what the goals of our immigration system are in the first place. And there we have competing visions on the right. Amongst conservatives, there's a rift. Some conservatives believe
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I respect them for their honesty. I disagree with them. Believe that the goal of the immigration system should be to, in part, protect American workers from the effects of foreign wage competition. That if we have immigrants, it's going to bring down prices and we need to protect American workers from the effects of that downward pressure on wages. It's a goal. It's a coherent goal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think it's the right goal, but many of my friends on the right believe that's a goal. But at least it's honest, and then we can design an honest immigration system to achieve that goal if that's their goal. I have other friends on the right that say the sole goal is economic growth. I disagree with that as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
My view is the goal should be whatever enriches the civic quality of the United States of America. That includes those who know the language, know our ideals, pledge allegiance to those ideals, and also are willing to make economic contributions to the country, which is one of our ideals as well. But whatever it is, we can have that debate. I have a very different view.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think it's a proper role of immigration policy to make it a form of labor policy because the United States of America is founded on excellence. We should be able to compete. But that's a policy debate we can have. But right now, we're not even able to have the policy debate because the whole immigration policy is built on not only a lie, but on rewarding those who do lie.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that's what I want to see change.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Maybe even anti-American. Anti-American, yeah. So I want to confront this directly because it is a popular current on the American right. The reason I'm not picking on Ann Coulter specifically is I think actually it's a much more widely shared view, and I just give her at least credit for willing to articulate it, a view that
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The blood and soil is what makes for your American identity, your genetic lineage. And I just reject that view. I think it's anti-American. I think what makes for an American identity is your allegiance, your unabiding allegiance to the founding ideals of this country and your willingness to pledge allegiance to those ideals. So those are two different views.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think that there is a view on the American right right now that says that we're not a creedal nation. that our nation is not about a creed. It's about a physical place and a physical homeland. I think that view fails on several accounts. Obviously, we're a nation. Every nation has to have a geographic space that it defines as its own. So obviously, we are, among other things, a geographic space.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But the essence of the United States of America, I think, is the common creed, the ideals that hold that common nation together. Without that, a few things happen. First of all, American exceptionalism becomes impossible, and I'll tell you why. Every other nation is also built on the same idea. Most nations have been built on common blood and soil arguments.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Genetic stock of Italy or Japan would have a stronger national identity than the United States in that case because they have a much longer standing claim on what their genetic lineage really was. The ethnicity of the people is far more pure in those contexts than in the United States. So that's the first reason. American exceptionalism becomes impossible.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The second is there's all kinds of contradictions that then start to emerge. If your claim on American identity is defined based on how long you've been here, well, then the Native Americans would have a far greater claim of being American than somebody who came here on the Mayflower or somebody who came here afterwards.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now, maybe that blood and soil view is, no, no, no, it's not quite the Native Americans. You only have to start at this point and end at this point. So on this view of blood and soil identity, it has to be, okay, you couldn't have come before a certain year, then it doesn't count. But if you came after a certain year, it doesn't count either.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That just becomes highly uncompelling as a view of what American national identity actually is versus my view that American national identity is grounded on whether or not you pledge allegiance to the ideals codified in the Declaration of Independence and actualized in the U.S. Constitution.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And, you know, it's been said, some of my friends on the right have said things like, you know, people will not die for a set of ideals. People won't fight for abstractions or abstract ideals. I actually disagree with that. The American Revolution basically disproves that. The American Revolution was fought for anything over abstract ideals.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
that said that, you know what, we believe in self-governance and free speech and free exercise of religion. That's what we believe in the United States, which was different from old world England. So I do think that there is this brewing debate on the right. And do I disagree like hell with Ann Coulter on this? Absolutely. And did I take serious issue with some of the things she told me?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Absolutely. But I also believe that she had the stones to say, if I may say it that way, the things that many on the right believe that But haven't quite articulated in the way that she has. And I think we need to have that debate in the open. Now, personally, I think most of the conservative movement actually is with me on this.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I think it's become a very popular counter narrative in the other direction to say that. you know, your vision of American identity is tied is far more physical in nature. And to me, I think it is still ideals based in nature. And I think that that's a good debate for the future for us to have in the conservative movement.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think it's going to be a defining feature of, you know, what direction the conservative movement goes in the future.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
uh doing a lot of whining i like people that win not whine even uh when the refs are biased in whatever direction so look i think the united states of america i preach this to the left i preach it to my kids we gotta accept it on our own side too we're not going to save this country by being victims we're going to save this country by being victorious okay and i don't care whether it's left-wing victimhood right-wing victimhood i'm against victimhood culture the number one factor that determines whether you achieve something in life
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
is you. I believe that's not the only factor that matters. There's a lot of other factors that affect whether or not you succeed. Life is not fair. But I tell my kids the same thing. The number one factor that determines whether or not you succeed in achieving your goal is you. If I tell it to my kids and I preach it to the left, I'm going to preach that to our own side as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now, that being said, that's just a philosophy. Okay. That's a personal philosophy. You asked me to do something different, and I'm always a fan. One of the things that the standard I hope that people hold me to when they read this book as well as I try to do that in this book is to give the best possible argument for the other side.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You don't want to give some rinky dink argument for the other side and knock it down. You want to give the best possible argument for the other side and then offer your own view or else you don't understand your own. So you asked me, what's the strongest case against Donald Trump? Well, I ran for U.S. president against Donald Trump. So I'm going to give you what my perspective is.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think it's nothing of what you hear on MSNBC or from the left attacking him to be a threat to democracy. I think all of that's actually nonsense. I actually think it is
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
if you were making that case, and here's my full support, as you know, but if you were making that case, I think for many voters who are of the next generation, they're asking a question about how are you going to understand the position that I'm in as a member of a new generation, the same criticism they had of Biden, they could say, oh, well, are you too old?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Are you from a different generation that's too far removed from my generation's concerns? And I think that that's In many ways, a factor that weighs on that was weighing on both Trump and Biden. But when they played the trick of swapping out Joe Biden, it left that issue much more on the table for Donald Trump. So you ask me to steel man it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's what I would say is that when I look at what's the number one issue that I would need to persuade independent voters of to say that, no, no, no, this is still the right choices. Even though the other side claims to offer a new generation of leadership, here's somebody who is, you know, one of the older presidents we all have had who was elected.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
How do we convince those people to vote for him? That's what I would give you in that category.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Let me ask you, I mean, you spoke to Donald Trump recently. Mm-hmm. What's your top objection to potentially voting for Donald Trump? And let me see if I can address that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I'll respond to that. Sure. Obviously I'm not the candidate, but I'm going to give you my perspective nonetheless. I think we have seen some growth from Donald Trump over that first term in the experience of the 2020 election. And you hear a lot of that on the campaign trail. I heard a lot of that even in the conversation that he had with you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think he is more ambitious for that second term than he was for that first term. So I think that was the most interesting part of what you just said, is you're looking for somebody who has growth from their own experiences.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Say what you will, I have seen personally, I believe, some meaningful level of personal growth and ambition for what Donald Trump hopes to achieve for the country in the second term that he wasn't able to for one reason or another. You know, COVID, you could put a lot of different things on it, but in that first term.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now, I think the facts of the backdrop of the 2020 election actually like really do matter. I don't think you can isolate one particular aspect of criticizing the 2020 election without looking at it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Holistically, on the eve of the 2020 presidential election, we saw a systematic bureaucratically and government aided suppression of probably the single most important piece of information released in the eve of that election. The Hunter Biden laptop story revealing potentially a compromised U.S. presidential candidate. His family was compromised by foreign interests.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And it was suppressed as misinformation by every major tech company. The New York Post had its own Twitter account locked at that time. And we now know that many of the censorship decisions made in the year 2020 were actually made at behest of U.S. bureaucratic actors in the deep state threatening those tech companies to do it or else those tech companies would face consequence.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think it might be the most undemocratic thing that's happened in the history of our country, actually, is the way in which government actors who were never elected to the government used private sector actors to suppress information on the eve of an election that, based on polling afterwards, likely did influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That was election interference of the highest order. So I think that that's just a hard fact that we have to contend with. And I think a lot of what you've heard in terms of complaints about the 2020 election whatever those complaints have been, take place against the backdrop of large technology companies interfering in that election in a way that I think did have an impact on the outcome.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I personally believe that the Hunter Biden laptop story had not been suppressed and censored. I think Donald Trump would have been unambiguous. I think the president of the United States right now would be Donald Trump, no doubt about it, in my mind. If you look at polling before and after and the impact that would have had on the independent voter.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Now you look at, okay, let's talk about constructive solutions because I care about moving the country forward. What is a constructive solution to this issue of concerns about election integrity? Here's one. Single day voting on election day as a national holiday with paper ballots and government issued voter ID to match the voter file. I favor that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We do it even in Puerto Rico, which is a territory of the United States. Why not do that everywhere in the United States? And I'll make a pledge. I'll do it right here, right? My pledge is, as a leader in our movement, I will do everything in my power to make sure we are done complaining about stolen elections.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
If we get to that simple place of basic election security measures, I think it'd be unifying to make Election Day a national holiday that unites us around our civic purpose one day. Single day voting on Election Day is a national holiday with paper ballots and government issued voter ID to match the voter file. Let's get there as a country and you have my word.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I will lead our movement in whatever way I can to make sure we are done complaining about stolen elections and fake ballots. And I think the fact that you see resistance to that proposal, which is otherwise very practical, very reasonable, nonpartisan proposal. I think the fact of that resistance actually provokes a lot of understandable skepticism.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
understandable skepticism of, okay, what else is actually going on? If not, if not that, what exactly is going on here?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We can't know, obviously. I looked at some post-election polling about the views that that would have had, and I can't prove that to you, but that's my instinct. It's my opinion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Let me ask you one question, because bias is one thing, bias in reporting. Censorship is another. So I would be open-minded to hearing an instance of – and if I did hear it, I would condemn it – of the government systematically ordering – tech companies to suppress information that was favorable to Democrats, suppress that information to lift up Republicans.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
If there was an instance that we know of government bureaucrats that were ordering technology companies covertly to silence information that voters otherwise would have had to advantage Republicans at the ballot box, to censor it, I would be against that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I will condemn that with equal force as I do to the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, suppression and censorship of the origin of COVID-19. All happened in 2020. These are hard facts. I'm not aware of one instance. If you are aware of one, let me know, because I would condemn it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But there's two different problems. I just want to sort them out, right? Because I have a problem with both. You talked about two issues. I think both are important, but they're different issues. One is bias in reporting. One is censorship of information, right? So bias in reporting, I felt certainly the recent presidential debate moderated by ABC was biased in the way that it was conducted.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But that's a different issue from saying that voters don't get access to information through any source. So this Hunter Biden laptop story, we now know that it contains evidence of foreign interference against in potentially the Biden administration and their families incentive structure, that story was systematically suppressed.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So in the United States of America, if you wanted to find that on the internet through any major social media platform or through even Google search, that story was suppressed or downplayed algorithmically that you couldn't see it. Even on Twitter, if you tried to send it via direct message, that's the equivalent of email, right? Sending a peer to peer message.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
They blocked you from even being able to send that story using private messages. That I think is a different level of concern. That's not bias at that point. That's outright interference in whether or not, you know, that's outright interference in the election. Let's do a thought experiment here. Let's suppose that Russia orchestrated that. What would the backlash be?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Let's say the Russian government orchestrated the U.S. election. They interfered in it by saying that tech companies, they worked with them covertly to stop U.S. citizens from being able to see information on the eve of an election. There would be a mass uproar in this country if the Russian government orchestrated that. Well, if actors in the U.S. government bureaucracy or the U.S.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
technology industry bureaucracy orchestrated the same thing, then we can't apply a different standard to say that if Russia did it, it's really bad and interfered in our election. But if it happened right here in the United States of America, and by the way, they blamed Russia for it falsely on the Russian disinformation of the Hunter Biden laptop story, that was false claim.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We have to apply the same standard in both cases. And so the fact that if that were Russian interference, it would have been an outcry, but now it happened domestically and we just call that, hey, it's a little bit of bias ahead of an election. I don't think that that's a fair characterization of how important that event was.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Has any U.S. politician ever been perfect throughout the course of American history? No. But do you want to understand the essence of what was going around in 2020, the mindset of the country?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We had a year where people in this country were systematically locked down, told to shut up, sit down, do as they're told, unless they're BLM or Antifa rioters, in which case it's perfectly fine for them to burn cities down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We were told that we're going to have an election, a free and fair election, and then they were denied information systematically heading into that election, which was really important, and in this case, damning information about one of the parties. And then... You tell these people that they still have to continue to shut up and comply.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That creates, I think, a real culture of deep frustration in the United States of America. And I think that the reaction to systematic censorship is never good. History teaches us that. It's not good in the United States. It's not good at other points in the history of the United States. The reaction to systematic coordinated censorship and restraints on the freedom of a free people is never good.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And if you want to really understand what happened, one really wants to get to the bottom of it rather than figuring out who to point fingers at.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That really was the essence of the national malaise at the end of 2020 is it was a year of unjust policies, including COVID-19 lockdowns, systematic lies about it, lies about the election that created a level of public frustration that I think was understandable and Now, the job of leaders is to how do you channel that in the most productive direction possible?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And to your question, to the independent voter out there evaluating as you are, do I think that Donald Trump has exhibited a lot of growth based on his experience in his first term and what he hopes to achieve in his second term? I think the answer is absolutely yes. And so even if you don't agree with everything that he's said or done in the choice ahead of us in this election,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I still believe he's unambiguously the best choice to revive that sense of national pride and also prosperity in our country. So people aren't in the condition where they're suffering at behest of government policies that leave them angry and channel that anger. in other unproductive ways.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
No, the best way to do it is actually actions do speak louder than words, implement the policies that make people's lives better. And I do think that that's the next step of how we best save the country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I mean, I don't think that that's a... Concern to frame narrowly in the context of Donald Trump winning it or losing it by a whisker. I think this is a man who in the last couple of months, in a span of two months, has faced two assassination attempts. And we're not talking about theoretical attempts. We're talking about like gunshots fired.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That is history changing in the context of American history. We haven't seen that in a generation. And yet now that has become normalized in the U.S. So do I worry we're skating on thin ice as a country? I do. I do think it is a little bit strange to obsess over history.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
are concerns or national or media concerns over Donald Trump, when in fact, he's the one on the receiving end of fire from assailants who reportedly are saying exactly the kinds of things about him that you hear from the Democratic machine. And I do think that it is irresponsible, at least for the Democratic Party to make their core case against Donald Trump.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It was Joe Biden's entire message for years that he's a threat to democracy and to the existence of America. Well, if you keep saying that about somebody against the backdrop conditions that we live in as a country, I don't think that's good for a nation. And so do I have concerns about the future of the country? Do I think we're skating on thin ice? Absolutely.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think the best way around it is really through it, through it in this election, win by a landslide. I think a unifying landslide could be the best thing that happens for this country, like Reagan delivered in 1980 and then again in 1984. And in a very practical note, a landslide minus some shenanigans is still going to be a victory. That, I think, is how we unite this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so I don't think, you know, 50.001 margin where cable news is declaring the winner six days after the election, I don't think that's going to be good for the country. I think a decisive victory...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
that unites the country turns the page on a lot of the challenges of the last four years and says okay this is where we're going this is who we are and what we stand for this is a revival of our national identity and revive national pride in the united states regardless of whether you're a democrat or republican that i think is achievable in this election too and that's what the outcome i'm rooting for so just to pile on since we're steel manning the criticism against trump is the rhetoric
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I mean, the reality is different people have different attributes. One of the attributes for Donald Trump is- He's one of the funnier presidents we've had in a long time. That might not be everybody's cup of tea. Maybe it's different people don't want, that's not a quality they value in their president.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think at a moment where you're also able to make, I will say this much, is everybody's got different styles. Donald Trump's style is different from mine.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I do think that if we're able to use levity in a moment of national division, in some ways, I think right now is probably a role where really good stand-up comedians could probably do a big service to the country if they're able to laugh at everybody 360 degrees.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So they can go up there and make fun of Donald Trump all they want, do it in a lighthearted manner that loves the country, do the same thing to Kamala Harris with an equal standard. I think that's actually good for the country. But, you know, I think I'm I'm more interested, Lex, as you know, in discussing the future direction of the country. My own views.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I was a presidential candidate who ran against Donald Trump, by the way, and is supporting him now. But I just prefer engaging on the substance of what I think each candidate's going to achieve for the country, rather than picking on really the personal attributes of either one, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm not criticizing Kamala Harris's manner of laugh or whatever, you know, one might criticize as like a personal attribute of hers that you may hear elsewhere. And I just think our country is better off if we have a focus on both the policies, but also who's going to be more likely to revive the country. That I think is a healthy debate headed into an election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think everybody has their personality attributes, their flaws, what makes them funny and lovable to some people makes them irritating to others. I think that that matters less heading into an election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah, so look, I think that let's just get the self-interest of each party on the table and be very transparent about it. From everyone's perspective, you know, they think the other side is the aggressor or whatever. Just get it on the table. Russia is... concerned about NATO shifting the balance of power away from Russia to Western Europe when NATO has expanded far more than they expected to.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And frankly, that Russia was told that NATO was going to expand. It's an uncomfortable fact for some in America. But James Baker made a commitment to Mikhail Gorbachev in the early 90s where he said NATO would expand not one inch past East Germany. Well, NATO's expanded far more after the fall of the USSR than it did during the existence of the USSR. And that is a reality we have to contend with.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's the Russian perspective. From the Western perspective, the hard fact is Russia was the aggressor in this conflict crossing the boundaries of a sovereign nation. And that is a violation of international norms. And it's a violation of the recognition of international law of nations without borders are not a nation. And so against that backdrop, what's the actual interest of each country here?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think if we're able to do a reasonable deal that gives Russia the assurances it needs about what they might allege is NATO expansionism violating prior commitments, but get codified commitments for Russia that we're not going to see willy nilly behavior of just randomly deciding they're going to violate the sovereignty of neighboring nations and have hard assurances and consequences for that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That's the beginnings of a deal. But then I want to be ambitious for the United States. I want to weaken the Russia China alliance. And I think that we can do a deal that requires that give some real gives to Russia, conditioned on Russia withdrawing itself from its military alliance with China.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
One of my criticisms of the modern Republican Party and direction of the conservative movement is that we've gotten so good at describing what we're against. There's a list of things that we could rail against woke ism, transgender ideology, climate ideology, COVID ism, COVID policies, the radical Biden agenda, the radical Harris agenda, the list goes on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And this could be good for Russia, too, in the long run, because right now, Vladimir Putin does not enjoy being Xi Jinping's little brother in that relationship. But Russia's military combined with China's naval capacity and Russia's hypersonic missiles and China's economic might together, those countries in an alliance pose a real threat to the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if as a condition for a reasonable discussion about where different territories land, given what's occupied right now, Hard requirements that Russia remove its military presence from the Western Hemisphere. People forget this. Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, we don't want a Russian military presence in the Western Hemisphere. That too would be a win for the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
No more joint military exercises with China off the coast of the Aleutian Islands. The kinds of wins that the United States wants to protect the West's security, get Russia out of the Western Hemisphere, certainly out of the North American periphery, and then also make sure that Russia is no longer in that military alliance with China.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In return for that, able to provide Russia some things that are important to Russia.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We'd have to have a reasonable, reasonable discussion about what the territorial concessions would be at the end of this war to bring it to peace and resolution and what the guarantees are to make sure that NATO is going to not expand beyond the scope of what the United States has at least historically guaranteed that I think together would be a reasonable deal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
that gives every party what they're looking for, that results in immediate peace, that results in greater stability, and most importantly, weakening the Russia-China alliance, which I think is the actual threat that we have so far, no matter who in this debate of more or less Ukraine funding has really failed to confront, that I think is the way we deescalate the risk of World War III and weaken the threats to the West by actually dismantling that alliance.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yes. I think the military alliance between Russia and China represents the single greatest threat we face. So do a deal that's very reasonable across the board. But one of the main things we get out of it is weakening that alliance. So no joint military exercises, no military collaborations. These are monitorable. These are monitorable attributes.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
If there's cheating on that, we're going to immediately have consequences as a consequence of their cheating. But we can't cheat on, you know, our own obligations that we would make in the context of that deal as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I actually think that that would come down to the specifics of the negotiation. But the core goals of the negotiation are peace in this war, weaken the Russia-China alliance. And for Russia, what do they get out of it? Part of this is here's something that's not negative for Ukraine, but that could be positive for Russia as part of that deal, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Because it's not a zero-sum game alone with Ukraine on the losing end of this. I think reopening economic relations with the West would be a big win for Russia, but also a carrot that gets them out of that military relationship with China. So I do think that the foreign policy establishment has historically been at the very least, unimaginative about the levers that we're able to use.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Actually, I was a little bit critical of Nixon earlier in this discussion for his contribution to the overgrowth of the U.S. entitlement state and regulatory state. But I'll give Nixon credit here on a different point, which is that he was imaginative of being able to pull red China out from the clasp of the USSR and
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He broke the China-Russia alliance back then, which was an important step to bring us to the near end of the Cold War. So there's an opportunity for a similar unconventional maneuver now of using greater reopened economic relations with Russia to pull Russia out from the hands of China today. There's no skin off Ukraine's back for that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But actually, what's missing in the conservative movement right now is what we actually stand for. What is our vision for the future of the country? And I saw that as a deficit at the time I started my presidential campaign. It was in many ways the purpose of my campaign, because I do feel that that's why we didn't have the red wave in 2022. So they tried to blame Donald Trump.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I do think that's a big carrot for Russia in this direction. I do think that will involve some level of territorial negotiation as well that, you know, out of any good deal, not everyone's going to like 100% of what comes out of it. But that's part of the cost of securing peace is that not everyone's going to be happy about every attribute.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But I could make a case that an immediate peace deal is also now in the best interests of Ukraine. Let's just rewind the clock. We're looking at now, let's just say we're early 2022, maybe June of 2022. Zelensky was ready to come to the table for a deal back then. until Boris Johnson traveled when he had his own domestic political travails to convince Zelensky to continue to fight.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that goes to the point where when nations aren't asked to pay for their own national security, they have what the problem is of moral hazard of taking risks that really are suboptimal risks for them to take because they're not bearing the consequences of taking those risks, not fully in the cost. If Ukraine had done a deal back then,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think it is unambiguous that they would have done a better deal for themselves than they're doing now after having spent hundreds of billions of dollars and expended tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives. So the idea that Ukraine is somehow better off because it failed to do that deal before is a lie. And if we're not willing to learn from those mistakes of the recent past, we're
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So this idea that it would be painful for Ukraine, you know, it's been painful. Tens and tens and tens of thousands of people continuing to die without any increased leverage and actually getting the outcome that they want. So I think there's an opportunity for a win, win, win, a win for the United States in the West more broadly in weakening the Russia-China alliance.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
A win for Ukraine in having an agreement that is backstopped by the United States of America's interests that provides a greater degree of long run security to the future existence of Ukraine and its sovereignty and also stopping the bloodshed today.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think a win for Russia, which is to reopen economic relations with the West and have certain guarantees about what the mission creep or scope creep of NATO will be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's no rule that says that when one party, before a full outright world war starts at least, there's an opportunity for there to actually be a win for everybody on the table rather than to assume that a win for us is a loss to Russia or that anything positive that happens for Russia is a loss for the United States or Ukraine.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think out of this conversation alone, There are a number of levers on the table for negotiation in a lot of different directions. And that's where you want to be, right? If there's only one factor that matters to each of the two parties and those are their red line factors, then there's no room for negotiation.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
This is a deeply complicated, historically intricate dynamic between Ukraine and Russia and between NATO and the United States and the Russia-China alliance and economic interests that are at issue combined with the geopolitical factors. There are a lot of levers for negotiation. And the more levers there are, the more likely there is to be a win-win-win deal that gets done for everybody.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
They tried to blame abortion. They blamed a bunch of individual specific issues or factors. I think the real reason we didn't have that red wave was that we got so practiced at criticizing Joe Biden that we forgot to articulate who we are and what we stand for. So what do we stand for as conservatives? Right. Right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think it should be encouraging. The fact that there are as many different possible levers here almost makes certain that a reasonable, practicable peace deal is possible. In contrast to a situation where there's only one thing that matters for each side, then I can't tell you that there's a deal to be done. There's definitely a deal to be done here.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think that it requires real leadership in the United States playing hardball, not just with one side of this, not just with Zelensky or with Putin, but across the board, hardball for our own interests, which are the interests of stability here. And I think that that will happen to well serve both Ukraine and Russia in the process. If you were president, would you call Putin? Absolutely.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I mean, in any negotiation, you got to manage when you're calling somebody and when you're not. But I do believe that open conversation and the willingness to have that as another lever in the negotiation is totally fair game.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So a few things. One is I do think the best way we also avoid it is by reducing the consequences to the United States in the event of that type of conflict. Because at that point, what you're setting up for, if the consequences are existential for the United States, then what you're buying yourself in the context of what could be a small conflict is an all out great war.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So the first thing I want to make sure we avoid is a major conflict between the United States and China, like a world war level conflict. And the way to do that is to bring down the existential stakes for the U.S. And the way we bring down the existential stakes for the U.S. is make sure that the United States does not depend on China for our modern way of life. Right now we do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Because right now we depend on China for everything from the pharmaceuticals in our medicine cabinet, 95% of ibuprofen, one of the most basic medicines used in the United States, depends on China for its supply chain. We depend on China, ironically, for our own military industrial base. Think about how little sense that makes, actually. Our own military...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
which supposedly exists to protect ourselves against adversaries, depends for its own supplies, semiconductors and otherwise, on our top adversary. That doesn't make sense. Even if you're a libertarian in the school of Friedrich von Hayek, somebody I admire as well, even then you would not argue for a foreign dependence on adversary for your military.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So I think that's the next step we need to take is at least reduce U.S. dependence on China for the most essential inputs for the functioning of the United States of America, including our own military. As a side note, I believe that means not just onshoring to the United States. It does.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if we're really serious about that, it also means expanding our relationships with allies like Japan, South Korea, India, the Philippines. Right. Right. Right. Now, you think about the other way to do this is strategic clarity.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think the way that you see world wars often emerge is strategic ambiguity from two adversaries who don't really know what the other side's red line is or isn't and accidentally crosses those red lines. is I think we need to be much clearer with what are our hard red lines and what aren't they. And I think that's the single most effective way to make sure this doesn't spiral into major world war.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And then let's talk about ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the terms that I just discussed with you before. I think weakening the Russia-China alliance not only reduces the risk that Russia becomes an aggressor, it also reduces the risk that China takes the risks that could escalate us to World War III as well. So I think that geopolitically, you got to look at these things holistically.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That end of the Russia-Ukraine war and that peace deal de-escalates not only the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but the risk of a broader conflict that includes China as well by also weakening China because Russia also has hypersonic missiles and missile capabilities that are ahead of that of China's. If Russia's no longer in a military alliance with China, that changes China's calculus as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So that's kind of, I think, more strategic vision we need in our foreign policy than we've had since certainly the Nixon era. I think that you need people who are going to be able to challenge the status quo, question the existing orthodoxies, the willingness to use levers to get great deals done that otherwise wouldn't have gotten done. And that's what I do think.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Someone like Donald Trump in the presidency, and obviously I ran for president as an outsider and a businessman as well. I think this is an area, our foreign policy is one where we actually benefit from having business leaders in those roles rather than people who are shackled by the traditional political manner of thinking.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Both sides need to have their red lines. Both sides need to have their red lines. So, you know, we can get into specifics, but it's going to vary depending on the circumstances. But the principle that I would give you is that we have to have a hard red line that's clear.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think that that hard red line, and I was clear during my campaign on this, so I'll say it again, is I think that we have to have a clear red line that China will not and should not for any time in the foreseeable future annex Taiwan.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
free speech and open debate, not just as some sort of catchphrase, but the idea that any opinion, no matter how heinous, you get to express it in the United States of America. Self-governance, and this is a big one right now, is that the people we elect to run the government, they're no longer the ones who actually run the government.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I do think that for the United States, it probably is prudent right now not to suddenly upend the diplomatic policy we've adopted for decades of what is recognizing the one China policy in our position of quiet deference to that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And understand that that may be the red line is the national recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation would be a red line that China would have, but we would have a red line to say that we do not in any circumstance tolerate the annexation. by physical force in any time in the foreseeable future when that's against the interests of the United States of America. So those are examples.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But the principle here is you asked, how do we avoid major conflict with China? I think it starts with clear red lines on both sides. I think it starts with also lowering the stakes for the United States by making sure we're not dependent on China for our modern way of life. And I think it also starts with
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Ironically, using a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war as a way of weakening the Russia-China alliance, which in the other direction of weakening China, has significant benefits to us as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Against the backdrop that I just laid out, that's not going to happen. That wouldn't happen if we actually make sure that we are crystal clear about what our red lines and priorities are. We're also dependent on Taiwan right now for our own semiconductor supply chain. So China knows that's going to draw us into serious conflict in that circumstance.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So against the backdrop of clearly drawn red lines, against the backdrop of Russia no longer automatically being in China's camp, that's a big lever. I think also strengthening our relationship with other allies where we have room to strengthen those relationships like India. Right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
There's a lot of levers here, but I think that if we are both strategically clear with our allies and with our adversaries about what our red lines are, what our priorities are, reasonable deals that pull Russia out of the hands of China and vice versa, reasonable allies and relationships that cause China to question whether it can continue to have the same access to Middle Eastern oil supplies as it does today, and then clear red lines with China itself about what we definitely aren't okay with and understand that they may have certain red lines too.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That allows us, I think, to still avoid what many people will call the unavoidable conflict, the Thucydides trap, you know, against the circumstance of when there's a rising power against the backdrop of a declining power, conflict always becomes inevitable. That's a theory. It's not a law of physics.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I don't think that, A, we have to be a declining power, and B, I don't think that that has to necessarily result in major conflict with China here. It's going to require real leadership, leadership with a spine. And you don't have to judge based on international relations theory to form your view on this.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We in the conservative movement, I believe, should believe in restoring self-governance where it's not bureaucrats running the show, but actually elected representatives. And then the other ideal that the nation was founded on that I think we need to revive and I think is a north star of the conservative movement is restoring the rule of law in this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Four years under Trump, we didn't have major conflicts in the Middle East, in places like Russia, Ukraine. We were on the cusp of war with North Korea when Obama left office and Trump took over. Four years under Biden, less than four years under Biden and Harris, what do you have? Major conflicts in the Middle East, major conflict in Russia, Ukraine, judged by the results.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And, you know, I mean, I would say that even if you're somebody who disagrees with a lot of Donald Trump and you don't like his style, if your single issue is you want to stay out of World War III, I think there's a pretty clear case for why you go for Trump in this election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah, I think I believe that, you know, somebody I've gotten to know actually reasonably well, for example, recently is Giorgia Maloney, who is a leader of Italy. I told her the same thing. One of the things I love about her as a leader of Italy is that she does not apologize for anything. Thank you so much for having me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And there are elements of that in Modi's approach as well, which I respect about him, is he doesn't apologize for the fact that India has a national identity and that the nation should be proud of it. But I'm not saying that because I'm proud of Maloney or Modi for their own countries. I'm American.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think there are lessons to learn from leaders who are proud of their own nation's identity rather than apologizing for it. And I think it's a big part of, you know, it's why I ran for president on a campaign centered on national pride.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's also why I'm not only voting for, but actively supporting Donald Trump, because I do think he is going to be the one that restores that missing national pride in the United States. And, you know, I touch on this as well in the book. There's a chapter here. It says nationalism isn't a bad word.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think nationalism can be a very positive thing if it's grounded in the actual true attributes of a nation. And in the United States, that doesn't mean ethno-nationalism because that was not what the national identity of the United States was based on in the first place. But a civic nationalism grounded in our actual national ideals, that is who we are.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think that that is something that we've gotten uncomfortable with in the countries to say that, oh, I'm proud of being American. And I believe in American exceptionalism. Somehow that's looking down on others. No, I'm not looking down on anybody, but I'm proud of my own country. And I think Modi's revived that spirit in India in a way that was missing for a long time, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
India had an inferiority complex, a psychological inferiority complex. But now to be proud of its national heritage and its national myth-making, and its national legacy and history. And to say that every nation does have to have a kind of myth-making about its past and to be proud of that. It's like Malcolm X actually said this here in the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He said, a nation without an appreciation for its history is like a tree without roots. It's dead. It's dead. And I think that that's true, not just for the United States. I think it's true for every other nation. I think leaders like Maloney in Italy, leaders like Modi in India have done a great job that I wish to bring that type of pride back in the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You think about even the abandonment of the rule of law at the southern border. It's particularly personal to me as the kid of legal immigrants to this country. You and I actually share a couple of aspects in common in that regard. That also, though, means your first act of entering this country can't break the law.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And whatever I do next, Lex, I'll tell you this is, I think reviving that sense of identity and pride, especially in the next generation, is one of the most important things we can do for this country. Speaking of what you do next, any chance you run in 2028? Well, I'm not going to rule it out. I mean, that's a long time from now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I'm most focused on what I can do in the next chapter for the country. I ran for president. Million things that I learned from that experience that you can only learn by doing it. It was very much a fire first, aim later. When getting into the race, there was no way I could have planned and plotted this out as somebody who was coming from the outside.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I was 37 years old, came from the business world. So there was a lot that only could learn by actually doing it. And I did. But I care about the same things that led me into the presidential race. And I don't think the issues have been solved. I think that we have a generation that is lost in the country. It's not just young people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think it's all of us in some ways are hungry for purpose and meaning at a time in our history when the things that used to fill that void in our heart, they're missing. And I think we need a president who both has the right policies for the country, seal the border, grow the economy, stay out of World War III and rampant crime. Yes, we need the right policies.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But we also need leaders who, in a sustained way, revive our national character, revive our sense of pride in this country, revive our identity as Americans. And, you know, I think that that need exists as much today as it did when I first ran for president. I don't think it's going to be automatically solved in just a few years.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think Donald Trump is the right person to carry that banner forward for the next four years. But after that, we'll see where the country is headed into 2028. And whatever I do, it'll be whatever has a maximal positive impact on the country. I'll also tell you that my laser focus maybe is distinct from other politicians on both sides.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
is to take America to the next level, to move beyond our victimhood culture, to restore our culture of excellence, we got to shut down that nanny state. The entitlement state, the regulatory state, the foreign policy nanny state, shut it down and revive who we really are as Americans. And I'm as passionate about that as ever, but the next step is not running for president.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The next step is what happens in the next four years. And that's why over the next four weeks, I'm focused on doing whatever I can to make sure we succeed in this election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
So there's some policy commitments and principles, merit, free speech, self-governance, rule of law. And then I think culturally, what does it mean to be a conservative? Is it means we believe in the anchors of our identity, right? In truth, the value of the individual, family, nation, and God beat race, gender, sexuality, and climate if we have the courage to actually stand for our own vision.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I would love nothing more than a kick-ass set of top tier Democrat candidates. After four years of Donald Trump, we have a primary filled with actually people who have real visions for the country on both sides. And the people of this country can choose between those competing visions without insult or injury being the way we, I would love nothing more than to see that in 2028.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I would like to take on an earnest and civil but contested context, right, of a debate. Who do we want to take on? You want to take on somebody who disagrees with you but still has deep ideology of their own. I think John Fetterman's pretty interesting, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He's demonstrated himself to be somebody who is thoughtful, able to change his mind on positions, but not in some sort of fake flip-floppity, flippity-floppity way, but in a thoughtful evolution. Somebody who's been through personal struggles. Somebody I deeply disagree with on a lot of his views, most of his views, but who I can at least say he comes across at least as somebody who is...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
been through that torturous process of really examining your beliefs and convictions and has, when necessary, been able to preach to his own tribe where he thinks they're wrong. I think it's interesting. I think that you have a number of other leaders probably emerging at lower levels. On the left, not everybody's going to necessarily come from Washington, D.C.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
In fact, the longer they're there, the more they in some ways get polluted by it. I think the governor of Colorado is an interesting guy. He's got a more libertarian tendency. You know, I don't know as much about his views on it from a national perspective, but it's intriguing to see somebody who has at least libertarian freedom oriented tendencies within the Democratic Party.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I think that there are a number of – I don't foresee him running for president, but I had a debate last year when I was running for president with Ro Khanna, who – say what you will about him. He's a highly intelligent person and is somebody who is at least willing to buck the consensus of his party when necessary. I think he recently – I would say lambasted.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
He phrased it very delicately, but criticized Kamala Harris's proposed tax on unrealized capital gains. So I like people who are willing to challenge the orthodoxies in their own party because it says they actually have convictions. And so whoever the Democrats put up, I hope it's someone like that. And for my part, I have and continue to have beliefs that will challenge Republicans.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
That on the face of it may not be the policies that poll on paper as the policies you're supposed to adopt as a Republican candidate. But what a true leader does doesn't just tell people what they want to hear. You tell people what they need to hear and you tell people what your actual convictions are.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And this idea that I don't want to create a right-wing entitlement state or a nanny state, I want to shut it down, that challenges the presuppositions of where a lot of the conservative movement is right now. I don't think the bill to cap credit card interest rates is a good idea because that's a price control just like Kamala Harris's price controls, and it'll reduce access to credit.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I don't think that we want a crony capitalist state showering private benefits on selected industries that favor us or that we want to expand the CFPB or the FTC's remit And somehow we're going to trust it because it's under our watch. No, I believe in shutting it down. That challenges a lot of the current direction of the conservative movement.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I believe in certain issues that are maybe even outside the scope of what Republicans currently care about right now. One of the things that I oppose, for example, is – this is not a top issue in American politics, but just to give you a sense for how I think and view the world.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm against factory farming of a large scale of – you could sort of say putting the mistreatment of – it's one thing to say that you need it for your sustenance and that's great, but it's another to say that – You have to do it in a factory farming setting that gives special exemptions from historical laws that have existed that are the product of crony capitalism.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And that's a big part of what's been missing. And it's a big part of not just through the campaign, but through a lot of my future advocacy. That's the vacuum I'm aiming to fill.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm against crony capitalism in all its forms. I'm against the influence of mega money in politics. I don't think that's been good either for Democrats or Republicans. Some of those views, I think, are not necessarily the traditional Republican, you know, orthodoxy reading chapter and verse from what the Republican Party platform has been. It's not against the Republican Party platform.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But it's asking what the future of our movement is.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so long as it exists, you got to play the game. I mean, if you're going to play to win. I think it's one of the things I realized is that you just can't compete without it. But you want to win the game in order to change the game. And I think that that's something that I keep in mind as well. Yeah. You have written a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I need quiet time, extended periods of it that are separated from the rush of the day to day or the travel. I actually think a lot better when I'm working out and physically active. So if I'm running, playing tennis, lifting, somehow for me, that really opens up my mind. And then I need a significant amount of time after that with a notebook. I usually carry around a notebook everywhere I go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
and write it down in there. Is the notebook full of chaotic thoughts or is it structured? Sometimes it's chaotic, sometimes it's structured. It's a little bit of both. Sometimes I have a thought that I know I don't want to forget later, I'll immediately jot it down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Other times, you know, on the flight over here, I had a much more structured layout of, I got a lot of different projects in the air, for example. And I cross pollinate, you know, I was in the shower this morning, had a bunch of thoughts, collected those on my plane ride over here. So I think that writing is something in all of its forms that helps me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's one of the one of the things actually helped me this year was actually writing this book. You're going through a presidential campaign, you're going at super speed. And if I was to do the presidential campaign again, the thing I would do is actually to take more structured breaks. I don't mean breaks isn't just like vacations, but I mean breaks to reflect on what's actually happening.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Probably the biggest mistake I made is last time around heading into the first debate, I was like in nine different states over seven days. I would have just taken that as a pause, right? We're at halfway through, you've established relevance. Now make sure the country sees who you actually are in full rather than just the momentum competitive driven version of you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I just think that that's sort of taking those moments to just take stock of where you are. Do some writing. I didn't do much writing during the presidential campaign. I enjoy writing. It's part of how I center myself. It's part of what this book allowed me to do is, okay, I ran that whirlwind of a campaign.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
The first thing I started doing after I collected myself for a couple of weeks was take the pen and start writing. And I was committed to writing that book, whether or not anybody read it. I was just writing it for myself. And actually, it started in a very different form. It was very personal, reflection-oriented. So most of that, funny enough, I've learned about writing the books, Lex.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Edit it out. It just didn't end up in the book because it went in a different direction than what's interesting for a publisher to publish. And so for each of my books, the things that I started writing ended up never in the book anyway, just because the topic ended up morphing. But the journey that led me to write this book, a lot of it in this book is still in there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
This is my fourth book in four years, you're right. And I hope it's the most important one, but it is certainly the product of an honest reflection that whatever it might do for the reader, it helped me to write it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And I think that's one of the things that I learned from this campaign is not just all the policy lessons, but even just as a matter of personal practice, the ability to take spaces of time to – not only physically challenge yourself, workout, et cetera, but to give yourself the space to reflect, to recenter yourself on the why.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Had I done that, I think I would have been even more centered on the mission the whole time rather than you get attacked on the way or thrown off your tilt or thrown off your balance. It becomes a lot harder for someone else to do that to you if you've really centered yourself on your own purpose. It's probably one of my biggest learnings.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Well, I enjoy debate. And for me, I think just in ordinary life, forget about like a formal debate setting, whenever I've received criticism or a contrary view, my first impulse is always, are they right? I mean, it's always a possibility, right? And most of the time what happens is you understand the other side's argument, but you emerge with a stronger conviction in your own belief, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Yeah. So look, I think the strongest case, particularly for left wing ideas in the United States or in the American context. is that the country has been imperfect in living up to its ideals. such that they say that that created a power structure in this country that continues to last to this day.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You know your own beliefs better if you can state the best argument for the other side. But sometimes you do change your mind. And I think that that's happened over the course of my life as well. I think no one's a thinking human being unless that happens once in a while too.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so anyway, just the idea of the pursuit of truth through open debate and inquiry, that's always just been part of my identity, part of who I am. I'm wired that way. I thrive on it. I enjoy it. Even my relationships with my closest friends are built around heated debates and deep-seated disagreements. And I just think that's beautiful.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
not just about human relationships, but it's particularly beautiful about America, right? Because it's part of the culture of this country more so than other countries, China, India, Asian cultures, even a lot of European cultures are very different where that's considered not genteel behavior. It's not the respectful behavior.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
Whereas for us, part of what makes this country great is you can disagree like hell and still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. I think we've lost some of that, but I'm on a bit of a mission to bring that back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
And so I don't know whether it's in politics or not, I'm committed in that next step, whatever the path is over the next four years, one of the things I'm committed to doing is making sure that I go out of my way to talk to people who actually disagree with me. And I think it's a big part of how we're gonna save our country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
It's always probably because you just love the heat. I love the heat and I'm a curious person. So I'm kind of, I'm always curious about what's actually getting the other, what's motivating the person on the other side. That curiosity, I think, is actually the best antidote, right? Because if you just try to stay calm in the face of somebody attacking you, that's kind of fake.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
But if you're kind of curious about them, right? Genuinely, just wondering. I think most people are good people inherently. We all maybe get misguided from time to time, but what's actually, what is it that's moving that person to go in such a different direction than you? I think as long as you're curious about that, I mean, the climate change protesters that have interrupted my events have
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
I'm as fascinated by the psychology of what's moving them and what they might be hungry for as I am concerned about rebutting the content of what they're saying to me. And I think that that's certainly something I care to revive.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
We don't talk about in politics that much, but reviving that sense of curiosity, I think is in a certain way, one of the ways we're going to be able to disagree, but still remain friends and fellow citizens at the end of it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#445 – Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump, Conservatism, Nationalism, Immigration, and War
You're a curious person. I know this podcast is basically born of your curiosity, I'm sure. And so I just think we need more of that in America, that kind of, you know, when I talked about our founding fathers, we were joking about it, but they were inventors, they were writers, they were political theorists. They were founders of a nation. They kind of had that boundless curiosity, too.
Morning Wire
Colony Ridge Arrests & Inmate Gets New Trial | Afternoon Update | 2.25.25
I will lead Ohio to be the top state in the country where patriots across America actually flock to instead of Florida and Texas. I will lead Ohio to be the state of excellence in America.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
Congress is about to pass a bill that blows away your taxpayer money, but they made it over 1,500 pages long so you wouldn't read it. I did you a favor. I read it for you. It's supposed to be about keeping government operations open and providing disaster relief aid to hurricane victims, which I'm sympathetic to. But if you read the bill carefully, it contains pay raises for members of Congress,
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
And I'm not making this up, an expansion of their federal health benefits. It contains all kinds of special interests and pork funding, including opening up a new stadium in Washington, D.C. It renews the Global Engagement Center, which is a key node of the censorship industrial complex. And the worst part is they didn't want you to know about any of it.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
And that's why they made this a last minute jam job.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn wir den Job erledigen, ich sage wir als Bewegung, aber wenn Donald Trump den Job erledigen kann, in den nächsten Jahren auf dem föderalen Niveau, dann wird die Aktion an die Staaten geändert. In zwei bis drei Jahren nehmen sie das Departement der Bildung ab, zerstören das Departement der Bildung, zerstören viele dieser Regulierungsorganisationen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, wo wir noch nicht wirklich ein Modell im Land haben, was ich als Modell kreieren möchte, ist, was ist eigentlich die Ausbildung? Und ich denke, das ist das, wo ich als Vater, du hast Kinder? Ich habe Kinder. Du hast Kinder, ja. Wie alt bist du? 1 und 3. All right. Ein ziemlich ähnlicher Zip-Code für uns. Es ist eine lustige Zeit.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich habe einen bald 5-Jährigen und einen 2-Jährigen, der 3 Jahre alt werden wird im Juli. Das ist das Problem, dass auf dem Niveau unserer Nation niemand wirklich ernsthaft darüber spricht, sowohl links als auch rechts. Ich denke, die Republikaner sind besser als die Demokraten. Wir haben eine massive Erfolgs-Krise in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Sie haben 75 Prozent der 8.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Sie sind nicht profizient in Mathematik gegenüber internationalen Standards. 70 Prozent davon sind nicht profizient im Lesen. Und das Schlimmste ist, dass man jetzt sieht, dass es andere Länder gibt, wo Englisch nicht mal ihre erste Sprache ist. Wo Kinder in diesen Ländern in Englisch profizienter sind als unsere eigenen Kinder hier zu Hause, wo Englisch unsere einzige Sprache ist.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das ist verrückt. Das ist unerheblich. Es geht um die erste Konversation, die wir hatten, wo die Aktion ist, in Bezug auf die Regierung und unseren Einfluss. Ist es am föderalen oder am staatlichen Niveau?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Jetzt, dieses Jahr, ist es definitiv am föderalen Niveau, weil Biden in der Vergangenheit so viel Schaden gemacht hat, dass Trump viel davon verhindern muss, auf einem schnellen und furchtbaren Puls. Aber wenn er erfolgreich ist, wie ich erwarte, dass er sein wird, wenn man ein paar Jahre vorwärts rollt, dann ist das Entwickeln der Bildung nicht etwas, was der föderale Regierung gemacht hat.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wer wird also diese Bildungskrise entwickeln? Ja, wir haben viele Woke-DEI-Anschläge. Ich war der Haupt-DEI-Krusader, der Anti-DEI-Krusader, vor vier oder fünf Jahren, als ich Woke-Ink geschrieben habe und die Ausbreitung des Woke-Isms durch Corporate America und andere Teile unserer Kultur kritisiert habe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber jetzt, dass wir in die Post-DEI-Ära, in die Post-Woke-Ära, in die Post-DEI-Ära, in die Post-DEI-Ära, Wir müssen uns immer noch daran erinnern, dass das Teil des Problems war, aber es war nicht das gesamte Problem, das für diese Erfolgskrise zutrifft. Und wie bereiten wir uns also vor, zu sagen, okay, es gibt mehr Menschen, die sich bewegen, und wir haben schwierige Zeiten.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn es nicht klappt, meine Vorschläge sind immer, es zu den Staaten zu schießen. Das haben unsere Founding Fathers erwischt. Wir leben in einem System von Föderalismus. Ich schaue nur, wo ich den größten möglichen Einfluss haben kann.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Lass uns über die nächsten 20 Jahre sprechen. Ich denke, was wir wollen, ist eine Generation von Amerikanern, die sich wirklich umgebracht ist, um zu kämpfen. Denn am Ende des Tages hat China nicht die andere Richtung geschaut und uns eine Art Partizipationstrophäe gegeben, um zu schweigen. Wir können nicht Opfer sein, wir müssen gewalttätig sein.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich denke, dass ein Feuer unter den Füßen unseres Bildungssystems zu priorisieren, Erfolg in Mathematik, Lesung, Schreiben, kritischer Denkung, Physical fitness, by the way. I think that we've gone soft on this. Bring back early physical education. Bring back the presidential fitness test. We used to do that. You know, I don't know.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
I mean, most kids are not probably able to do the level of pull-ups that kids were able to do, what, 30, 40 years ago. I think that goes to implications for mental health. I think it goes to implications for military preparedness. I think we have to have an education system that demands more of ourselves. And that has to be driven by the states.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn man über die Vereinigten Staaten denkt, liebe ich, wie viele amerikanische Flagge man in diesem Raum hat. Man benutzt einen guten Eindruck von Patriotismus, den wir manchmal für unsere Kinder hinterlassen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die meisten Kinder heute, die aus der Hochschule graduationieren, können nicht einmal das gleiche Zivisexamen durchführen, das wir von einem legalen Immigranten benötigen, bevor er ein Bürger wird. Ich denke, jeder Hochschul-Senior, der aus der Hochschule graduationiert ist, sollte das Test durchführen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es ist eine grundlegende Bedingung des Bürgerschafts in einer Nation, dass man etwas über seine Nation weiß, um ein vollständig informierter Bürger dieser Nation zu sein. Ich denke, wir müssen ein bisschen hart werden, wenn es um diese Themen geht, die mit dem Revitalisieren unserer jungen Generation zu tun haben.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und viele der Themen, die ich am meisten auf Substanzen konzentriert bin, nicht nur die administrativen Staaten, sondern auch die Bildung zum Beispiel, können nicht von der Föderalen Regierung geführt werden. Sie müssen von den Staaten geführt werden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Homeschoolst du? Wir haben damit angefangen, ja. Ich denke, dieses Jahr waren wir auf diesem Weg. Für unseren Sohn, unseren älteren Mann, fühlten wir, dass er mit der Sozialisierung einen Vorteil haben könnte. Aber wir sind große Fans von Homeschooling. Ich denke, dass die Schulwahl in den meisten Staaten, also Tennessee ist in dieser Kategorie, hat eine Schulwahl, Ohio hat eine Schulwahl.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es handelt sich nicht um Homeschooling. Das muss sich ändern. Ich meine, die Bildungswahl bedeutet volle Modelle der Wahl. Und man hat viele Leute, die durch Homeschooling-Beigrunde kommen, wo diese Kinder besser tun, als Kinder, die in privaten Schulen oder öffentlichen Charter-Schulen studiert werden. Aber ich bin nicht wie ein Ein-in-ein-Fitz-All-Guy, der für alle Homeschooling macht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und wir kommen zu diesem Debatte auch in der höheren Bildung. Manchmal fallen beide Seiten in diese Schlampe, dass es nur um vier Jahre Hochschulabschlüsse geht. Und das ist der einzige Weg zum amerikanischen Traum. Oder du hast den Reaktionär-Zweifel, der sagt, oh nein, Hochschule ist ein Schlamm. Niemand sollte da hin. Es geht nur um zwei Jahre und vokationelle Begriffe und Apprenticeships.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das ist der Weg. Ob es eine höhere Bildung ist oder eine K-12-Bildung ist, Ich will kein Ein-in-ein-Fitz-All-Approach. Ich will, dass alle die beste Art und Weise wählen können. Das ist nicht das System, das wir heute haben. Und ich denke, dass die universelle Schulentscheidung, wenn man das so nennen möchte, universell sein sollte, insbesondere bei der Homeschooling, als die richtige Option.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, einige Eltern sagen dir das auch. Ich meine, wir haben Kinder, junge Kinder, uns selbst. Deine sind etwas jünger, aber du wirst es wahrscheinlich noch mehr über die Zeit bemerken. Sie sind unterschiedlich, auch in der gleichen Heimat. Sie werden in der gleichen Heimat geboren, unter den gleichen Umständen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich hatte eine gute Zeit in den letzten Jahren, den Präsidenten Trump in jeder Art und Weise zu helfen, junge Leute in der Koalition zu bringen, ihn zu ermitteln. Ich habe mit Doge angefangen, um das auf dem Boden zu bekommen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Einer ist jünger als der andere, der andere älter, also ist es für die beiden unterschiedlich. Aber Privat- oder öffentliche Schule ist die richtige Wahl für einen. Und Homeschooling ist die richtige Wahl für den anderen. Es könnte sich über verschiedene Bereiche ihres Ausbruchs verändern. Und die Leute, die wissen, was für ihr Kind am besten ist, sind die Eltern. Und ich denke, dass es jetzt...
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
People in wealthy families at least have the opportunity to hire home help or nannies or tutors or private school tuition or whatever it is. That's not where I'm worried. It's the civil rights issue of our time that actually the very people that so-called bleeding heart liberals have been bleeding their hearts over
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Menschen in inneren Städten, Menschen, die mit den einzigartigen Einwohnern kämpfen. Sie sind diejenigen, die ihre Kinder nicht haben können. Ich glaube nicht, dass es eine Überzeugung ist, das Thema der Zivilrechte in unserem Zeitpunkt zu nennen. Ich hoffe, dass das nicht nur traditionelle Republikanische Unterstützung bringt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber man kann sich überlegen, ob jemand, der ein Vater ist, die Möglichkeit hat, sein Kind in die beste Schule zu schicken. Und auch in den öffentlichen Schulen, eine der Dinge, die wir in diesem Land nicht haben, ist meritbasierter Betrieb für Lehrer. Ich meine, du runnst ein solches Geschäft, richtig? Ich runne Firmen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Normalerweise funktioniert es so, dass die Leute, die den besten Job machen, um Wert für das Geschäft zu erzielen, mehr bezahlt werden als diejenigen, die nicht so gut einen Job machen, um Wert für das Geschäft zu erzielen oder für das Fund oder für die Investitionsfirma oder was auch immer. Why should it work any differently in public schools? I mean, we got metrics. You've got clear metrics.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And so there isn't a state in the country right now that does this. There is no merit-based pay for teachers and principals and administrators. So I want Ohio to be the first state that implements not just universal school choice, universal including homeschooling, but also for the public schools to compete.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
implements merit-based pay for teachers, administrators, principals, where your pay, you should be paid a lot more than you are now. I think the best teachers are vastly underpaid, should be paid far more when tied to the actual outcomes they deliver.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And conversely, those who aren't delivering outcomes shouldn't be paid at that same level and in some cases should actually not be on that job at all. Und ich denke, dass das mit Leitern, die einen Bein haben, gemacht werden muss. Ich meine, das ist ein großer Kampf, den man wählen muss. Ich will keine Kämpfe wählen, um Kämpfe zu wählen, aber das ist einer.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber wenn ich schaue, wohin der Puck geht, wenn wir diesen Job am föderalen Niveau machen, die Bürokratie zerstören, den föderalen Regierungen verursachen, wird es die Realitätsleute am staatlichen Niveau benötigen, um die Teile zu holen. Und ich habe gemerkt, wenn ich das anschaue, ist das ein paar Jahre auf der Straße. Ich wollte, dass ich zu dem, wo ich dachte, dass der Puck geht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es gibt einen Grund, warum das nicht in allen 50 Staaten existiert. Ich denke, das ist unser Weg raus aus dieser Bildungserzeugungskrise.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ja, ich meine, es ist nicht übermäßig kompliziert, richtig? Es könnte mit dem einen Modell gemacht werden, um mit den Unionen zu kooperieren. I don't believe in just picking fights for the sake of picking fights. Being conservative without being combative is a fine approach if that works.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
So you could talk to the people who are members of a public teachers' union and say, you know what, here's how we're going to do this. But if there are union objections, it is my view that if a public sector union, particularly, I'm going to put fire and police in a different category where this doesn't apply to them, but if public teachers' unions are unionizing,
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Man muss sich fragen, wovon sie sich eigentlich übereinstimmen. In vielen Fällen sind es die besten Interessen der Kinder, denen sie eigentlich dienen. Und ich sage das als jemand, der glaubt, dass die besten Lehrer in diesem Land jetzt sehr untergezahlt und unterrespektiert sind für das, was sie tun. Ich will sehen, dass die besten tatsächlich mehr bezahlt werden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Also machen Sie es entweder in Zusammenarbeit mit den Lehrer-Unionen, Oder du musst bereit sein, zu sagen, dass das nicht mehr eine heilige Katze ist, die wir nicht mehr beherrschen können. Auf der anderen Seite, wenn Lehrer-Unionen und die Existenz von öffentlichen Lehrer-Unionen in der Art und Weise sind, um diesen Job zu erreichen, dann müssen wir das System lösen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Do you see what I'm saying? No, absolutely. It's a great point. I think you've got to have market-based approaches for pricing each one. So I don't think they're going to be paid at the same level. But my point is more, not who's paid more between somebody who's got very few of those calculus teachers available, where you might have a greater supply of other teachers in earlier education.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
That's one question. The question I'm stating is, All of the people who are teaching calculus and all of the people who are teaching PE and all of the people who are teaching social studies are in public schools paid flat at the same level. And I'm saying within each of those categories, whatever the market rate is for each of those, that's a separate question.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And that should be a little bit of supply and demand. If you've got very few people in an essential category where we need to educate our kids, those people are going to have to be paid more than somebody who's in a category where you could find 10 other people to do the job.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber in jeder Kategorie, wie die öffentlichen Lehrer jetzt arbeiten, die öffentlichen Lehrer arbeiten, ist, dass egal, ob sie wirklich gut sind, egal, ob sie wirklich schlecht sind, sie in derselben Weise flach bezahlt werden, mit Erklärungen nur für Seniorität, das ist, wie lange du da warst, oder ob du ein Degree hast, ein vorgelegtes Degree.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die Beweise zeigen, dass es keine Korrelation gibt zwischen einem vorgesehenen Degree und einem besseren Lehrer in den meisten Themen. Und es gibt definitiv keine Argumentation, dass Seniorität diese Unterschiede macht. Mein Punkt ist also, dass sich die Kategorien innerhalb der Kategorien zu echten Ergebnissen und Merit verbinden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und die größte Argumentation, die man bekommt, ist, wer das Ergebnis wählt. Und wenn man nur ein testbasiertes Ergebnis hat, werden sie nur den Test beibringen. Meine erste Antwort darauf ist, dass man die Perfektion nicht das Gegenteil des Gutes lassen kann. Und ich stimme dazu. Das Perfektion ist nicht das Gegenteil des Gutes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das Status Quo des Schlimmes ist das Gegenteil des Gutes, nämlich das Fakt, dass man in den Vereinigten Staaten eine massive Untererzeugungskrise hat. Die Fakten, die ich vorhin erwähnt habe, wo ich sage, was schlecht ist, ist, dass 75 Prozent der 8. Klasse nicht weiß, wie man in der Mathematik profizient ist. Aber die andere Sache ist, dass es nicht nur der Test sein muss.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, es sollte ein Komponent von einigen verschiedenen Faktoren sein. Auf der Tafel können die Eltern der Lehrer prüfen, was ich nicht als einen schlechten Startpunkt finde. Letztlich nicht zu sagen, dass die Eltern zu den Eltern kümmern, ist das einzige Modell oder die richtige Antwort für den Lehrer. Aber das ist wahrscheinlich ein guter erster, bester Ort, um zu beginnen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Man könnte eine individuelle, peer-reviewte Analyse haben. Man könnte das dann auch an Tests und objektive Metriken verbinden, die ein wichtiger Teil dieses Ergebnises sind. Wird das ein perfektes System sein? Vielleicht gibt es kein solches System.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber ich kann Ihnen sagen, dass es viel schlimmer ist, ein System zu haben, in dem die Kompensation und die Präsentation total ägnostisch sind zu der echten Leistung der Kinder, die aus diesem System kommen. Und der Grund, warum, ist, dass in manchen Fällen die Leute, die die Entscheidungen machen, nicht diejenigen sind, die eigentlich die Haut im Spiel haben.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es sind nicht ihre Kinder oder es ist nicht wirklich ihr Ergebnis, das wichtig ist. Ihr Geld ist nicht verbunden damit. Halbe der öffentlichen Schulzahlen, halbe der öffentlichen Schulzahlen jetzt, ich glaube, es sind über halbe, Es ist so, dass 52 Prozent der öffentlichen Schul-Dollar gerade nicht mehr auf Bildung gespendet wird.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es geht um ein paar andere Dinge, wie die Administration, die Bürokratie. Es gibt Bildungskonstruktion oder Bildungs-Ameniten. Es braucht sicherlich einen gewissen Niveau der Infrastruktur, aber ich denke, es ist verrückt, dass die Mehrheit der Dollar, die national in öffentliche Schulen fliehen, nicht sogar auf Bildung oder auf diese Lehrer geht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und meine Meinung ist, dass die Besten der Lehrer absolut viel mehr bezahlt werden müssen, als sie es jetzt sind. Und die Union, der equalisierende Effekt, das ist eigentlich das Obstakel, das in den Weg kommt. Und das durch Kategorien. Ein weiteres Beispiel wäre die inneren Städte. Wie penalisierst du Leute in einer niedrigen Gemeinschaft versus einer besseren Gemeinschaft?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Auf der anderen Seite könnte es eigentlich das Gegenteil sein, weil du die Anzahl der Verbesserungen anschaust. Wenn du also von einer niedrigen Basislinie beginnst und du hast eine Es gibt viele Fragen zu der Implementierung und es kann ziemlich technisch werden, ziemlich schnell. Aber das Grundprinzip ist... Glauben wir wirklich in eine Ameritokrasie in der Bildung in Amerika?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Glauben wir wirklich in eine Ameritokrasie in der Bildung in Amerika? Und ich denke, wenn wir das tun, dann ist das die wichtigste Sache, die wir nehmen können, die wichtigste Maschine in unserem Toolkit, um die Probleme in unserer Bildungserzeugungskrise zu lösen, die, ehrlich gesagt, zu wenige Leute gerade sprechen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich meine, das erste, was man sagen muss, ist, dass man glauben muss, dass man etwas verhindern wird, bevor man das in eine Entscheidung macht. Und zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt hat man andere Länder, die AI auslösen werden, um die Vereinigten Staaten zu gewinnen, egal ob.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, die bessere Frage zu stellen ist, wie wir AI bestens nutzen werden, um nicht nur die Vereinigten Staaten kompetitiv zu machen und an der Leitlinie aller anderen Länder, sondern auch in einer Art und Weise, die Menschenleben besser macht, insbesondere die der Arbeiter. Ich denke, ein Teil dessen, was Sie sehen, ist, dass das die Produktivität vieler Arbeiter verbessern kann.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Was ich gerade sehe, ist ein massiver Unterschied, Sean, zwischen der Anzahl der Investitionen, und wir sprechen von Trillionen von Dollar Investitionen, die in neue KI-Modelle, Algorithmen, Code trainieren. Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das war's für heute. Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung. BR 2018
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
while failing to do the few things that it should be doing. What are the few things the federal government should be doing? One key responsibility is protecting the homeland of its nation. The United States of America, the sovereignty of the U.S., starts even with the physical sovereignty of the U.S. Basic borders. We have not done basic border control in this country.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
We've had more illegal entry at the southern border than we've ever had in our national history. That is a failure of the federal government. Wir können auch auf die anderen Fehler gehen. Wir haben keine Defense-Systeme, wir haben keine Cyber-Defense-Systeme, keine Super-EMP-Defense-Systeme.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Also die Nationale Funktion der Verteidigung unserer eigenen Heimatlande, vergessen wir die anderen Länder, unsere Heimatlande, wir haben das bereits verfehlt. Aber das ist, weil die föderale Regierung in Teilen darauf konzentriert ist, ein paar Dinge zu tun, die sie im ersten Moment nicht tun sollte.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Regulierende Industrie, du hast eine Bildungsabteilung, die in der Art und Weise, wie wir unsere Kinder beitragen, denkt, über Bedingungen zur nuklearen Energie in den Vereinigten Staaten. Es beginnt mit einer nuklearen Regulierungskommission auf dem föderalen Niveau. Es macht ein paar Dinge. die außerhalb dessen fallen, was unsere Founding Fathers in der Verfassung erwischt haben.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
, , , , , , , P P P P P P P P P P P實 ac , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P PG gi wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh em th th em th em th em th em th em th em th em th em , ac la em , ac la em , ac la em , ac la , ac la , ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac la ac
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
, , , , , , ,, P P P P P P P P P P P實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . a Ihr werdet sicher wissen, dass das ein Internet-Meme ist. Es ist natürlich gut für mich, wenn ich es sehe, aber wenn jemand auf TikTok sagt, oh, das ist so Ohio. Was sie meinen, ist, es ist wie denigrieren, es ist alt, es ist out of fashion, es ist müde.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich würde lieben, Ohio zu einem Ort zu führen, wo 20 Jahre später, 10 Jahre später, 5 Jahre später...
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn wir neue Raketen in den Außenraum senden, wenn wir tatsächlich die Exploration von Teilen des Mondes haben, oder sogar Mars, die wir noch nicht vorher getroffen haben, wenn wir eine Form einer Krankheit kürzen, eine rarte Krankheit, die vorher unkürbar war, ich will, dass die Leute sagen, das ist so Ohio, an diesem Punkt im Zeitraum. Das, denke ich, ist die Selbstvertrauen, richtig?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
When Neil Armstrong and John Glenn grew up in Ohio, it was at a time when six of the 15 wealthiest cities were in Ohio. It was at a time when Toledo was the glass capital and Akron was the rubber capital.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
To say that I'm proud as a citizen of the United States of America and I'm proud of the place where I live without having to apologize for it or feeling like I'm a second-tier kind of citizen or second-tier kind of economic region in my own nation, that's what builds the self-confidence to say I'm going to go to outer space.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And it's not an accident that a bunch of those happen in the same state at the same time. Ich meine, Amelia Earhart hatte Ohio Roots, die Wright Brothers waren dort in Dayton. Es geht darum, einen virtuellen Zyklus von Selbstvertrauen zu erschaffen. Man sieht das manchmal auch in Sport, das ist eine seltsame Analyse, aber ich glaube, es gibt da etwas, wo ich ein Tennis-Fanatik bin.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Man sieht Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, alle gleichzeitig. Es ist mathematisch, arithmetisch, du würdest das nicht erwarten. Aber die drei Jungs, die in der Geschichte die meisten Grand Slams gewonnen haben, also in einem Sport, das eine sehr lange Zeit hervorgehoben ist, die ultimative Metrik ist, dass es vier Grand Slams pro Jahr gibt. Wer hat die meisten Grand Slams gewonnen?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Nummer eins, zwei und drei spielen gleichzeitig. Und das macht keinen Sinn, weil es nur vier pro Jahr gibt. Also wenn einer der drei gewinnt, bedeutet das, dass die anderen nicht. Und noch nicht. Die drei größten von allen Zeiten spielen die gleiche Zeit. Es ist, weil es eine Kultur kreiert, die einen Feedback-Loop auf sich selbst hat.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die Verfassung sagt in Artikel 1, das sind die Fähigkeiten des Kongresses, um zu legislieren. Und wenn es nicht in Artikel 1 ist, hat der Kongress keine Fähigkeit, das zu tun. Die 10. Amende sagt, das, was nicht für den föderalen Regierung besorgt ist, wird für die Staaten und die Menschen besorgt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und so ist jeder einer dieser Erfolge nicht nur ein isolierter Erfolg. Es geht darum, eine Kultur des Erfolgs zu kreieren. Und ich denke, dass es gerade, weißt du, It happens at the level of America as a nation.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And I think in a microcosm, I think it's happened at the level of Ohio as a state where people have lost their conviction in their citizenship in their country and in this case in their state too. So Donald Trump is reviving our conviction in America. I think he's got that covered.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
We're only a few weeks into the presidency and I just think the number one thing he is going to have delivered a year in isn't even
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er wird all diese Dinge machen, die Grenze zu zerstören, die Wirtschaft zu wachsen, die Außenkriege zu stoppen, die Zertifizierungen, die wir brauchen, um uns aus den finanziellen Interessen auszutragen, die unsere eigenen Zielsetzungen nicht verbessern, die Gewaltverlust zu beenden, die Backdoor-Zensur zu beenden, all das. Er ist drauf, er ist im Fall, er wird es tun.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber ich denke, die Nummer eins, die er tatsächlich tangibler geliefert haben wird, ein Jahr von jetzt, ist eine Erweiterung der Verwirklichung in Amerika. Und ich denke, das ist großartig. Er hat das geschlossen. Ich bin interessiert in der Erweiterung unserer Überzeugung in Ohio. Und ich denke, dass es da ein Defizit gibt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, die Erweiterung dieser Selbstvertrauen ist die Hälfte der Arbeit eines guten Leiters. Und ökonomische Exzellenz und edukationelle Exzellenz folgen automatisch von dort.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich kann nicht warten, bis du in der Nähe bist. Du hast schon 31 Prozent. Ich glaube, ich war 57 Prozent in der neuesten Poll und das kam am Anfang dieser Woche raus. Und dann der Mann, der Nummer drei in dieser Poll war, ein toller Mann, ist gestern rausgefallen und mich eingeladen hat. Wettbewerb ist nicht das ultimative Ziel.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wettbewerb ist ein Mittel zum Ende, um dieses Staat in die Leitlinie der Innovation weltweit zu verändern. Was Javier Millet in Argentinien in kurzer Zeit getan hat, in den Vereinigten Staaten, im Vergleich zu Argentinien, haben wir mehr ein System von Föderalismus als in Argentinien.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Argentinien ist ein kleines Land in den Vereinigten Staaten, aber was er in Argentinien getan hat, ich denke, wir haben eine Möglichkeit, auf staatlichem Niveau zu demonstrieren, was möglich ist in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Also ich denke, eine Malay-style Ausgabe ökonomischer Stimulus zu einem Staat wie Ohio, zum Ohio River Valley, zu dem, was die Leute nennen, ich mag diesen Term nicht, aber das, was die Leute historisch genannt haben, den Rust Belt, wird stattdessen, denke ich, der neue Platinumbelt sein, der neue Exzellenzbelte Amerikas.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn man also nicht die Besorgung der Autorität in der Verfassung findet, es gibt sehr spezifische Kategorien für das, was der Kongress tun kann. Wenn es nicht eine dieser Kategorien ist, dann bedeutet das, dass die Rest an den Staaten übrig bleibt. Eine große Grenze, die an vielen Menschen vorhanden ist, ist zum Beispiel die Bildung.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich denke, dass das funktioniert, wenn man wirklich die Dinge macht, die es braucht, um dort zu kommen. Das funktioniert in der Zwischenzeit. Ich meine, es geht um Zerotaxe, den Regulierungsstaat zu zerstören. Präsident Trump hat über Friedensstädte gesprochen. Erinnerst du dich daran?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, es ist eine tolle Idee, die Idee, Städte zu kreieren, die Fountainheads der Innovation sind, wo man spezielle Wirtschaftszone in diesen Städten hat, um Innovation in den Bereichen des Zukunfts zu erzeugen. Zukunftsstädte, das ist großartig.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich würde es lieben, nicht nur das Konzept für föderale Städte, föderale Friedensstädte zu verwandeln, sondern auch, dass Ohio der Staat ist, in dem viele von ihnen tatsächlich wohnen und zeigen, was möglich ist. Das ist großartig. Und das verwandelt das Selbstvertrauen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Du fixierst ein Bildungssystem, das unseren Kindern dient, mit meritbasierter Betreuung, Schulwahl, ziviler Bildung, physischer Bildung in dieser jüngeren Zeit. Ich denke, physische Fitness ist eine Wahrheit, die wir verloren haben, zumindest während der Kultivierung in unseren Kindern. Ich denke, man hat ein ganzes Lab für das, was in den USA wieder möglich ist.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Donald Trump macht das auf dem föderalen Niveau, er hat das geschlossen. Das Einzige, was wir noch brauchen, ist, dass die Führer auf dem staatlichen Niveau die gleiche Sache machen. Und ich denke, das ist das, worauf es über die nächsten paar Jahre geht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, er ist viel mehr verabschiedet für diesen zweiten Termin als für den ersten. Ich denke, der erste Termin war der erfolgreichste, den wir je gehabt haben, von jedem 21. Jahrhundert Präsidenten. In einem Sinne ist das zu niedrig. Du hast Bush, Biden, Obama, Trump waren nicht mal so nah. Aber ich denke, dass dieser zweite Termin in einer anderen Kategorie ist.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er kommt mit einem gewissen Bedeutungsstil ein. Er ist kein Pferd in den Händen mit dem tiefen Staat. Ich denke, dass das Pferd in den Händen die andere Art und Weise ist. Wenn er kommt, sind sie komplett verletzt von einem US-Präsidenten, der, so radikal diese Idee sein könnte, tatsächlich die Exekutivbranche der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika betreibt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
The way it historically worked is that the president and other elected leaders are these cute little puppets that come and go. Obviously nobody thinks Biden was running the country. A cog in a system, but the system would still do fine once the next cog came along. Trump's not a cog, he's bringing a jackhammer to that system. I think that the administrative state is stunned.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die föderale Regierung sollte im Grunde keine Rolle in der Formierung von K-12 oder, ehrlich gesagt, sogar höherer Bildung haben. Das bleibt an den Staaten übrig. Und ein Teil unseres Modells war, dass wir Staaten mit einander kämpfen wollen. Das gleiche Prinzip im Kapitalismus, das uns dazu führt, Wert zu erzeugen, wo Unternehmen mit einem anderen kombinieren. Wettbewerb breitet Innovation.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And I think that is what's going to be required to save the country. He's also just moving fast on the things he said he was going to do. I think that one of the things that people are really used to is, wait, he said he was going to do all these things,
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
die Grenze zu schließen, alle Ressourcen zu verwenden, insbesondere die, die von der Verteidigungsstelle benötigt werden, um es zu schaffen, die Fähigkeit zu beenden, Männer in Frauen-Sport zu spielen, das war ziemlich früh, das kam in den letzten Tagen raus. Er macht die Dinge, die er gesagt hat, dass er machen wird, aber er macht sie zu schnell.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ist das die einzige Argumentation, die beste Argumentation, die Menschen haben?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das ist das, was unsere Founding Fathers erwischt haben, wenn Sie die Federalisten-Papiere lesen, mit Respekt zu unserem Modell des Föderalismus. Und so, als ich mir das angeschaut habe, und natürlich bin ich für Präsident, ich denke, das ist die höchste Impaktposition, die man möglicherweise haben könnte. Und ich denke, Donald Trump ist der Mann für unsere Stunde und der Mann für diesen Moment.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er bewegt sich definitiv schneller als jeder Präsident in der heutigen Geschichte oder in unseren Leben. Aber generell, wenn jemand mit einem Mandat ausgewählt wurde und dir gesagt hat, dass er bestimmte Dinge machen wird, und dann geht er da rein und macht sie. Und er macht sie schnell. Ich glaube nicht, dass es schlecht ist, sie schnell zu machen. Ich glaube, es ist eine gute Sache.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich glaube, die beste Angelegenheit, mit der sie kommen, ist, dass die Zeit zu verrückt ist. Well, when you had open borders and a large influx of illegals in American history and a flailing economy and inflation we haven't seen in 50 years and foreign conflicts that didn't exist when Donald Trump left office that do now exist that need to be extinguished.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Yeah, I do think that Fast and Furious is exactly what we need. So far. so beeindruckt, wie ich es vielleicht sein könnte. Und ich bin auch jemand, der, wie Sie wissen, in meiner Erfahrung als Präsident, im Laufe unserer eigenen Gespräche, sogar vor dem Datum davon, ich werde nicht nur das Kapitel und das Vers von republikanischen Gesprächspunkten lesen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber ich denke, wir sprechen gerade eine hartnäckige Wahrheit. Er ist mit einem Knall rausgekommen. Und ich möchte, dass das für die nächsten vier Jahre weitergeht. Hast du Angst, dass es sich einfach überraschen wird?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, das ist Schritt eins. Schritt eins ist, dass man es machen muss. Die Idee, dass die Angst, dass es überwältigt wird, eine Basis ist, um zu sagen, dass wir einen etwas langsameren Ansatz nehmen werden, ist eine falsche Alternative. Aber die Idee, nur zu sagen, wir haben es gemacht und deshalb werden wir komplex sein, ist keine Antwort.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich sehe es so, dass du alles tun kannst, was du möglicherweise tun kannst, legal durch exekutive Aktion. Geh weit, versetze die kulturelle Basis in der Regierung und die kulturelle Basis in dem Land, um mehr unserer Regierung zu erwarten und die Folgen zu erwarten. Danach schließt man die Tür und schließt wirklich die Tür durch Legislaturperiode.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Diese Legislaturperiode dauert einen langen Zeitraum. Manchmal passiert es, manchmal nicht. Das ist die Art und Weise, wie der Kongress funktioniert. Aber ich denke nicht, dass diese Angst dich stoppen sollte, wenn du etwas durch exekutive Aktionen tust, was du sonst nicht tun würdest. Ich gebe dir ein Beispiel aus der Woche.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn du die Möglichkeit hast, eine neue Regel zu übernehmen, die sagt, dass Männer nicht in den Frauen-Sporten kämpfen können und federales Finanzierungen erhalten, Man könnte sagen, dass das mit einer legalen Herausforderung in den Gerichten argumentierbar stärker ist als eine exekutive Aktion, aber das würde für immer dauern.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber wenn du die andere Art anschaust, die nächste, am impactvollsten Art, zumindest für mich, wo ich sagen könnte, hier sind Dinge, die ich durch den öffentlichen Dienst als Leiter tun könnte, wo du tangibler gesehen siehst, den Effekt der Entscheidungen, die du machst, es war nicht mal so nah, wo du diesen großen Effekt hättest.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und man muss nicht warten, bis diese Gesetzgebung durchgeführt wird, weil die existierenden Regeln bereits sagen, dass die federalen Mittel nicht für lokale Institutionen, die diese federalen Mittel erhalten, in dieser Weise diskriminiert werden sollen. Jetzt gehen wir zum nächsten Niveau.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Viele dieser lokalen Institutionen sollten keine federalen Mittel erhalten, weil das Geld nur eine runde Reise macht. Von diesen Lokalitäten zu der federalen Regierung gibt es eine bürokratische Reise und dann kommt weniger zurück an die Menschen. Das macht keinen Sinn.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Also die richtige Antwort, der nächste Schritt, wird sein, das Departement der Bildung zu schließen und das Geld an die Staaten zurückzutragen. Und so wie ich den Trump-Präsidenten beobachten sehe, ist er furchtbar rational. Einfach schnell mit den Löffeln des Exekutivstaats zu tun, was schnell und innerhalb der Grenzen des Landes gemacht werden muss.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das Nächste ist dann, die Bürokratie zu zerstören, die diese Aktionen im ersten Moment vermischt hat. Man kann diese Bürokratie nicht reformieren, sondern die Teile der Bürokratie zerstören, die einfach zerstört werden müssen und nie wieder gebaut werden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Dann der nächste Schritt ist, wenn man über den Rest in Angst ist, es den Staaten zu schlagen, außer für die Werte, die wir in der federalen Regierung behalten müssen. Und ich denke, das wird sein, dass diese dreistellige Sequenz die ersten 18 Monate aussehen wird.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Was uns zurückbringt zu unserer früheren Diskussion, was dann das Zentrum der Gravität für das, was noch übrig ist, schießt und schießt in die Staaten. Und wenn wir jeden von diesen, jeden von den Schritten dieser Kaskade machen, ist das, was die Sache von einem Land in einer langwierigen Art und Weise aussieht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und so müssen wir vorsichtig sein, um sicherzustellen, dass das nicht einfach alles sortiert wird. Either through the myriad legal challenges that are coming or by a future president that through a stroke of a pen can reverse everything to the prior status quo. Yeah, we've got to be vigilant for that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
But I don't think that should stop us, should not stop President Trump from moving swiftly in a fast and furious kind of way. And I say that in the best of ways.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er hat gesagt, wir würden die Gaza kontrollieren und sie besitzen. Es hat einige Leute überrascht. Ich würde sagen, dass, erstens, auf der Pause von vier Dignitären, die in der Weise kommen, wie sie sind, ich denke, dass er wieder Respekt beurteilt. Ich glaube nicht, dass die restlichen Weltleute eine Iota von Respekt für Gaza hatten. Biden as the president.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
They had a respect for the office of the president, but I don't think they fundamentally respected the man who occupied it, largely because people have been in rooms with him, even business leaders who have gone to the White House in late Biden's tenure have told me the same thing. He's just not there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es war sein Regierungsvorsitzender und das war der Ort, an dem ich mich gezwungen habe, weiterzusehen. Das ist die Art und Weise, wie unser Land eigentlich arbeiten sollte, wo man Leute verlassen kann. Kalifornien, New York und Droves, wo gehen die hin? Jetzt gehen sie nach Florida und Texas. Tennis, seit es effektiv zur Null-Taxi gegangen ist, ist mehr erfolgreich geworden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
You and I are having a conversation as two thinking human beings, examining one another's thoughts. That wasn't something that happened for people who met with Biden in the White House. And I don't mean to rag on the guy. I in some ways feel bad for any person of older age who's past their peak of mental acuity and is suffering from it. But that was the state of affairs.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Now you got a guy who is... mit dabei ist, der die Energie bringt, der die Spine hat und die Versorgung und die Kraft des Muskels, um tatsächlich mit unabhängigen Ideen zu engagieren und die Hintergründe dieser Ideen zu negotieren. Donald Trump ist also ein Master Conversation Starter.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er ist ein Master-Negotiator und er ist ein Master am Start einer Konversation, um in eine Negotiation einzugehen. Schau dir das an, was in den letzten Tagen mit Mexiko, Kanada und China passiert ist. Er hat Mexiko und Kanada an den Tisch gebracht und jetzt wird der richtige Fokus auf das, was wir in unserer Beziehung mit China tun werden, was in einer anderen Kategorie ist als Mexiko und Kanada.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
China is in a different category because we can't depend on China for our modern way of life. You got most of the semiconductors in the US Department of Defense being supplied by China. Our defense industrial base depends on China. Our pharmaceutical supply chain depends on China. So it's not just a trade question. It's a question of actual trade.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
National Security, in a true sense, you can't depend on an adversary for things that are essential to your existence. But look at the masterful way he backed into that. He started with, I want to talk about Canada, talk about Mexico, get them to the table, conversation starters that were, you could call them aggressive openers of conversation.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber er ist ein Typ, der eine Konversation starten kann, die sonst nicht vorhanden wäre. Ich liebe, dass er mit Gavin Newsom in Person getroffen hat. Gut. Er hat mit dem Typ gespielt, aber es kommt ein Druck auf die Themen, die mit Amerika verbunden sind. Wenn Gavin in guter Glauben darüber sprechen wird, wird Donald Trump diese Konversation haben. Und dann kommt Bibi hierher.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Er hat eine Konversation und er hat, ähnlich wie viele von seinen anderen Konversationsöffnern, eine Konversation gestartet, indem er ein Feuer ausgelöst hat, das sonst eine Konversation auswirkt. Okay, wie sieht die Zukunft eigentlich aus?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Lass uns über ernsthafte Ideen sprechen, wie wir die Interessen der Vereinigten Staaten in Weisen schützen werden, die uns nicht in den Mittleren Osten in vertragten Konflikten bewegen. Ich meine, Donald Trump war der OG der Republikanischen Partei dafür. Er war ein Gegner der Irak-Wahl, bevor das eine coole Sache war, für einen republikanischen Politiker.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, er ist ein Typ, der weiß, was er tut. Ich denke, er ist ein Pragmatist, der die Interessen Amerikas tiefstens versteht. Und ich denke, man muss es ihm in seinem Methoden machen, um dort zu kommen, auch wenn jeder einer der, weißt du, initialen Konversationsanbieter nicht unbedingt die literale Art ist, dass er es letztendlich tun wird. Denken Sie, wir sollten Gaza kontrollieren?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Well, look, I think that, let's just take a broader question about US-Middle East policy. I don't think our track record, I don't think anything I'm going to say is... Super kontrovers hier. Ich denke, es ist ein bisschen offensichtlich. Ich glaube nicht, dass unser Rekord, dass wir ein nationenbildender Operator im Mittleren Osten sind, sehr gut war.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Oder wir wären nicht da, wo wir sind, in Irak und Afghanistan. Ich meine, um Gottes willen, der Taliban ist noch 80 Billionen Dollar und zwei Jahrhunderte später. Es war kein nationenbildendes Projekt, das funktionierte.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
You got states, other states that are largely blue states that they're leaving. But Ohio is kind of interesting in this regard. It's a red state. It's a conservative state. But at least as of last year, it was still number 38 in terms of people leaving versus netting coming to the country, coming to the state. And I think that leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich glaube nicht, dass Irak, im Vergleich zu der Menge an Geld, und noch wichtiger als Geld, die Leben, die gesacrificiert wurden, ich glaube nicht, unsere Objekte da erreicht haben. And by the way, being in the room with one of them, I fully respect the patriots who served our country when our country called for their service.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And I think there were valuable objectives to have been achieved in a narrow way, certainly in Afghanistan. And you could talk about other missions elsewhere. But I think by and large, our track record of engaging in straight-up nation building has historically in the Middle East not been all that successful. What I'm going to say here is,
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich werde Präsident Trump den Raum geben, um zu wissen, dass er ein Mann ist, der eine Strategie hat, wenn er etwas sagt. Im Langraum hat er eine Idee davon, wohin er geht. Und er ist jemand, der immer wieder beobachtet hat, dass er die Konturen der Gespräche und der Behandlung nutzen kann, um das zu erreichen, was andere vorher als unmöglich bezeichnet hätten.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich meine, ich denke, was er letztes Mal, auch im Mittleren Osten, mit den Abraham-Akkorden gemacht hat, war unvergesslich. Es war unvergesslich, als er aufs Haus kam. And you're not just going to get there by some linear path with, you know, bushy tail showing up and saying, okay, well, here's what I want to do. And I'm going to tell you exactly what that is.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And somehow everyone's going to magically agree with me. No, it doesn't work that way. You got to have some level of cojones to say the things that others aren't willing to say, to bring people to the table in complex ways. And so I'm going to let him als der Kommandeur-in-Chief, um uns effektiv zu führen. Er hat immer wieder demonstriert, dass er weiß, was er tut.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Offensichtlich weiß er, wie auch jeder, was unser historisches Rekord in der Occupation und der Nationenbildung im Mittleren Osten in der Vergangenheit war. Denn er war derjenige, der das vor dem Vordergrund des Republikanischen Partei genannt hat. Und ich denke, er weiß, was er tut, wenn es um das Mappen, wie wir Amerika in der Zukunft sicher machen werden, das ist sein Top-Objektiv.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Du bist ein großer Teil davon. Und dann, was ist passiert? Ja, ich meine, ich habe über das schon Jahre geredet. Ich meine, das Handeln des administrativen Staates war meine langjährige Leidenschaft. Und Elon und ich haben uns zum ersten Mal getroffen, als ich den Präsidenten an einem Abend verabschiedet habe. Das war genau das Thema, über das wir Stunden lang um 1 Uhr geredet haben.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das war die Basis unserer Freundschaft bis jetzt. Das erste Objektiv ist, Donald Trump nach der Wahl zu wählen. Die Frage ist, wie werde ich meinen Einfluss auf das Land haben? Das war die Frage, auf die ich so fokussiert war. Ich habe sogar mal ein Buch geschrieben, das die Art und Weise auslässt, wie ich dachte, dass vieles getan werden könnte.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
einen legalen und konstitutionellen erstes Gesetz und Legislaturperiode zu nehmen, um Budgets in einer langweiligen Art und Weise auszudrücken, um es in einer Art und Weise zu tun, die das Gesetz und den Gesetzgebungsprozess verwendet hat und die jüngsten Bundeskanzlerpräsidentschaften. Und so war das eine Vision, die ich seit langer Zeit artikuliert habe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und, du weißt, ich habe sogar darüber gesprochen, kurz nachdem Doge veröffentlicht wurde, in der Op-Ed in der Wall Street Journal, die Elon und ich dort mitgearbeitet haben, du weißt, das herauszulegen. Now, something like Doge has never happened before. And it's like a new startup. It takes different directions.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And I think that as the plan evolved to take more of a technology-centric approach, right? Doge is supposed to be an outside body to the government. der viele dieser anderen konstitutionellen und legalen Dimensionen angeschaut wurde.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
It's a state that in a lot of ways has been headed in the right direction. But I think right now we need a governor, not only in that state, but across the country. Governors who are willing to step on the gas and actually govern conservative populations with conservative principles.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, es wurde klar, dass um schnellen Wettbewerb zu erzeugen und einige der Möglichkeiten, schnell gewinnen zu können, kam Doge in die Regierung, hat einen technologiefördernden Ansatz genommen, hat das, was ursprünglich die US Digital Services bezeichnet wurde, übernommen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
An diesem Punkt kamen Elon und Präsident Trump und ich alle zu der gleichen Schlussfolgerung, dass für mich die Vision, die ich hatte, der beste Weg, um das zu tun, der beste Weg, um das zu tun, ist die Wahl des Offices. Und so sind wir alle am selben Ort gelandet. Und ich glaube, es war, was, dieses letzte Montag, dass Elon und ich unsere erste Dogecast-Sendung
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Twitter Spaces, X Spaces, I think we started at midnight, it went to 1.30 a.m., laying out a lot of what this vision was. And if you look at how much he's been able to do in just the first two weeks, it's massive. And when you think about a technology-driven approach... Nobody better to do it than Elon. And I think he is doing it not in a small way, but in a big way.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And I'm going to be as helpful on my front of leading at the state level as is going to be required to pick up the pieces from tearing up the federal bureaucracy.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, dass es nicht... Erfolg sollte nicht in Bezug auf die Anzahl der Leute gemessen werden. In manchen Fällen will man weniger Leute, die viel machen. Ich werde also an dem Grunde nicht... Ich will nicht auf der Innenseite respektvoll sein.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber du sprichst nicht von fünf Leuten, aber du sprichst nicht von einer Armee von Tausenden von Leuten, die einfach nur die Arbeit suchen, um etwas zu tun. Das ist der Rest der föderalen Bürokratie. Aber ich glaube, dass ein lehn-mehn-Team in einem kurzen Zeitraum viel erreicht hat. Gibt es noch keine Überraschungen für dich?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
I think it's great that Elon and the team are focused there. I really give credit here on to President Trump for USAID. I mean, he understands that even in some of the conversations I had with President Trump, even at the Army-Navy game where you and I were. I mean, he mentioned that to me then.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
He mentioned it several times over that this was one of the areas where he knows there's massive amount of waste of US taxpayer dollars. And also kind of a cultural issue.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
es unvergültig zu tun und die Probleme aufzunehmen, die der federalen Regierung in seinem eigenen Recht nicht lösen kann.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
People who have worked in the State Department or good people even who have worked in or around the USAID will tell you, it almost developed a culture of just believing that it wasn't accountable to anybody, not even the department in which it sat, let alone the American people. And at a certain point, you cannot incrementally reform that type of beast.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
If you want to tame that beast, you got to look at it wholesale. And so, look, I love the expansive vision with which Elon is moving quickly, but Es beginnt mit einem Präsidenten, der wirklich die Beine hat, um das zu tun, was man normalerweise mit einem Präsidenten macht, der auf der Kampagnenstraße spricht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich mag dieses Studio, weil ich viele dieser Beratungen oder Podcasts mache. Es ist super heiß und du wäschst. Nicht mit Sean Ryan. Du hast ein ähnliches Glauben und Verständnis für Luftverschmutzung wie ich. Ja, ja. Also danke dir für das. Ich mag einen schönen Kaffee.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und dann, wenn es darum geht, den Lauf zu machen, wenn sie im Büro sind, wird es ein bisschen schmerzhaft, wenn sie sich auf den Kliff schauen. Jetzt hast du einen Mann, der vorher da war. Er hatte vier Jahre, um darüber nachzudenken. Es ist eine seltene Situation in amerikanischer Geschichte.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
He looks at this as, how do I actually, from a legacy of the United States of America, make the changes that need to be made? And you take a look at an organization like USAID, which is supposedly historically a sacred cow that couldn't be touched, lift the hood and see just the level of Ich glaube, ich könnte es als C-Korruption nennen, in der Weise, wie viele dieser Dollar gespart werden.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ja, ich denke, die amerikanischen Leute sind auf der Seite, um zu sagen, gib mir das Geld zurück, anstatt es zu nutzen, um Investitionen domestisch oder außen zu beeinflussen. Also wie funktioniert das? Wie funktioniert das?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
So I'll share with you my opinion. And I think, again, Wir geben Präsident Trump die Latitud, die er führen muss, in der Weise, in der er weiß, dass das Land gehen muss, ohne von der Peanuts-Galerie, Mikro-Mann, Mikro-Wissen, was diese Entscheidungen sind. Er weiß, was er tut.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber auf einem hohen Niveau, ich gebe Ihnen das generelle Prinzip, der US-Präsident führt den Exekutiven Bereich des Governments. Just because something has budgeted does not mean that he has an obligation to spend it on a wasteful, fraudulent or abusive application of that budget. So this gets into, I mean, I don't know if this is too technical or whatnot, but the Impoundment Control Act.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Okay, that's an act passed in the 70s that said the US president has to spend certain money if it's been impounded. verabschiedet von dem Kongress. Andererseits heißt es Impoundment, wenn er nicht das Geld verdient. Und der Impoundment Control Act stoppt ihn davon.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn man die Statut bemerkt, die eigentlich existierende Regel bemerkt, ist es ziemlich klar, dass Wastefraud oder Verbrechen nicht in dieser Kategorie sind. Die Idee, dass nur weil man das Budget verabschiedet hat, nicht bedeutet, dass diese Agentur das Geld verdienen muss, wenn es zu einer Wastefall- oder Fraudulenz geht. or an abuse of expenditure. No, that's already a carve-out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
So that already is a great place to start. Waste, fraud, abuse, the president has the authority to do it and the president has the authority to delegate the exercise of that authority, which is what he's done here through the creation of Doge. And I think it's a brilliant move within the bounds of law.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
And that's not even touching the separate view that I think a lot of thoughtful legal minds have, that the Empowerment Control Act itself might be unconstitutional. Without even going there, right, which I think there are strong arguments for that, Waste-Fraud-Absturz ist etwas, das kein Präsident bereits beurteilt hat. Jetzt gehen wir zu einem anderen Punkt. Viele Leute wissen das nicht.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Eine gute Menge des Geldes, das jedes Jahr verwendet wird, ich glaube, es geht um etwa 500 Milliarden Dollar, wurde in der ersten Zeit nicht von dem Kongress beurteilt, was wirklich verrückt ist. Also, wenn der Kongress es nicht beurteilt hat, dann ist es auch verrückt, dass man es weiterverwenden muss.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, diese zwei Dinge, Waste-Fraud-Absturz, sind viel mehr massiv, viel mehr verwandt als die meisten Amerikaner erwarten. Aber ich bin froh, dass die Lichter gebracht wurden, damit das Sonnenschein nicht leuchtet, in der Bürokratie. Und das ist so, wie man eigentlich Verantwortung und Veränderung bekommt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber kombinieren Sie das mit exekutiver Aktion, um zu sagen, dass wir das Geld nicht sparen müssen, wenn es ein Argument für Waste-Fraud-Absturz gibt. Übrigens, die Statue sagt, dass all diese Sachen selbst unconstitutionell sein könnten.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber mehr wichtig ist, dass Sie einen US-Präsidenten haben, der tatsächlich die Show läuft und die Schüsse anruft, den gewählten Leiter der Menschen in diesem Land, anstatt eines ungewählten Bürokraten, der seine Vergewaltigung ohne Verantwortung umfasst. Das ist keine Demokratie.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich meine, die grundlegende Prämisse einer Demokratie, und Sie wissen, Sie haben immer gesagt, dass die Leute, die technisch sind, eine konstitutionelle Republik sind. Ja, okay. Ich liebe das, aber ich spreche nur aus einer rückgängigen Sicht, D-Demokratie.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die grundlegende Prämisse einer Demokratie ist, dass wenn jemand in einer Regierung eine Entscheidung macht, die dich verbindet, okay, die dich stoppt, etwas zu tun, oder wenn jemand in einer Regierung eine Entscheidung macht, die dein Geld spart, das sie effektiv mit der Macht der Regierung von dir ausgetauscht haben,
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
dass wenn sie einen guten Job nicht machen oder Sie mit dem nicht stimmen, Sie sie aus dieser Position auswählen können. Das ist nur ein Stichwort für Demokratie. Wenn jemand Regeln macht, die Sie verbinden, oder Ihr Geld auszahlen verwendet, können Sie sie auswählen. Wenn das nicht existiert, dann leben wir nicht in einer Demokratie. Wir leben in etwas anderem, insgesamt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Also wurde die Vereinigung der Vereinigten Staaten auf diese Idee gegründet, dass die Leute, die wir auswählen, die die Regierung auswählen, eigentlich diejenigen sind, die die Regierung auswählen. That's not the case today. That's bluntly not the case today. The people who make most of the laws, they call them rules, but they function with the effect of law.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
People can have their lives ruined over them. The people who make those rules were never elected to their position in the first place. They're unelected bureaucrats. And so the idea that those decisions made by those bureaucrats are somehow untouchable, I think, is something that says we don't actually live in a democracy. We live in some sort of technocratic, bureaucratic democracy.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich denke, wir haben eine amerikanische Revolution gewonnen, um das zu verurteilen. Und ich denke, wir leben in einem 1776-Moment, in dem wir das Monarchie immer wieder verurteilen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
You see the way things have worked even in the last two weeks. Spotlight, President Trump makes the decisions. President Trump makes the decisions with executive authority going as far as he can. Waste, fraud, abuse, that's the categories. And then any spending cuts beyond that have to come from Congress.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wie funktioniert das? Ich lasse Präsident Trump den Weg führen. Ich denke, das wird durch einen positiven Schock gemacht. Ich meine, das ist ein positiver Begriff. Ich meine, im besten Sinne des Wortes. Aber in manchen Fällen muss man die Aktionen lauter sprechen als die Worte. Was ich sagen kann, ist, dass ich in den Monaten, die ich verbracht habe, die Grundlage für das gemacht habe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es gibt viele verschiedene Dimensionen. Es gibt die Technologie-Elemente. Es gibt die Spenden-Elemente. Es gibt die legalen, konstitutionellen Regulierungs-Elemente. Jede hatte ihre Bereiche des Fokus. Für meine Bereiche des Fokus, wie wir gesagt haben, denke ich, ist das Wahlrecht das beste Nächste, um es zu realisieren.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
But for a lot of these other turning off agencies, deleting their actions, I think a lot of that is well thought out. But I think it's best done through actions rather than words. And so I predict that there will be continued additional successes, bold moves, moves that will not always be... von der Legacy-Presse, die Washington, D.C. betreffend ist.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber ich denke, sie wird von der Mehrheit der Menschen in diesem Land applaudiert.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
I mean, let's just take the category of what we think of the initial phase of the presidency is undoing damage of the last administration. Because there's a category of just what did Biden do that needs to be undone? And I always say Biden, it's not really Biden, but the machine that manages Biden. What did the Biden administration do that needs to be undone?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
I mean, that's the first three to six months of work of this presidency, right? I mean, this is the... Das Verteidigungsgericht gab Präsident Trump ein Mandat, und es war ein Mandat, um den Schaden der letzten vier Jahre zu überwinden. Ich sage nicht, dass das einfach sein wird, aber das ist in manchen Fällen die einfachste Part. Ich denke, es gibt zwei Phasen zu diesem nationalen Revival.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Die erste Phase ist, den Schaden der letzten vier Jahre zu überwinden. Das ist die Phase, von etwas auszulaufen, so schnell wie wir können. Ich denke, es wird die zweite Phase sein, die dann schwieriger wird. Das ist... Wir gehen nicht nur von etwas, sondern wir gehen auch zu etwas. Was sieht die alternative Vision des Landes aus? Was kommt danach?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Viele der erfolgreichen Exekutivordnungen in den ersten paar Wochen waren effektiv das Ende der DEI und der Affirmativen Aktion und der rassistischen Quotasysteme in der Regierung. Das hat einen schrecklichen Effekt auf den Privatsektor, weil es dann an die gouvernementlichen Vertreter geht, die nicht mehr von der gleichen Sache verbunden sind. Das ist nicht nur ein kleiner Teil der Wirtschaft.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
20 Prozent der US-Gesellschaft arbeitet für eine Firma, die von den Regulierungen von den Regulierungen der Regierung verfügbar ist. Sie sind jetzt frei von diesem DTI-Regime. Also ist vieles wie, zum Beispiel, das Verhalten, was unter Biden passiert ist. Und einfach schnell und furchtbar, das so schnell wie möglich zu verhindern.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Einiges, was Biden gemacht hat, war Regulierung durch Fiat, Spenden durch den Exekutivbereich. Wenn du über Doge fragst, ist eines der Bereiche, um zu schauen, ist sogar all das Geld, das Biden nach der 11. Stunde nach der Wahl ausgelöst hat.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich will nicht, dass Ohio Silicon Valley wird. Und ich will nicht, dass Ohio Texas oder Florida wird, auch wenn das gut gelagerte Staaten sind. Ich will, dass Ohio die beste Version von sich selbst ist. Ich meine, was Silicon Valley für die amerikanische Wirtschaft in den letzten 20 Jahren war, denke ich, kann die Ohio River Valley für die nächsten 20 Jahre sein.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Es wird nicht durch Bits sein, das ist Silicon Valleys Modell, sondern, wie ich es nenne, durch Atome, durch Produktion von Sachen, von aktuellen tangiblen Dingen, die wir benötigen, und der Verteidigungsindustrie. Und wenn man sich auf unsere Verteidigungsindustrie anschaut, auf die Wettbewerbsinnovation, Ohio ist ein guter Staat für das. Große Flächen, es gibt keine Spazeporte in der Stadt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Eine gute Geschichte mit John Glenn, dem ersten Amerikaner, der die Erde orbitiert. Neil Armstrong, der erste Mensch auf der Welt, der den Mond gehen konnte. Das waren die Ohioer. Sie haben eine tolle Tradition dort. Produktion, auch in Biotech und medizinischer Produktion, ganze Möglichkeiten. Ich denke, es ist ein Krypto-Staat, der den Weg in Krypto- und Bitcoin-Innovation führt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Du gehst die Distanz. Ich möchte, dass Ohio an der Leitlinie ist, AI auch zu benutzen, nicht nur um Jobs zu nehmen, was die Leute sich überlegen, sondern tatsächlich um Jobs zu machen. Wenn du Arbeitskräfte trainierst, um AI zu nutzen, erhöht du die Produktivität. Silicon Valley ist konzentriert darauf, Algorithmen zu trainieren.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, wenn du dich konzentrierst darauf, Menschen zu trainieren, um AI zu nutzen, kannst du tatsächlich in einer Art und Weise, die diese Jobs nicht auslöst. Ich will Ohio nicht imitieren Silicon Valley oder versuchen, etwas zu sein, das es nicht ist, oder Texas oder Florida zu versuchen. Wir haben vier Saisons dort oben. Es ist ein echter Staat. Es gibt eine Realität dazu.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
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Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und wo auch immer es herkommt, die Kulturen der Verletztheit, ich denke, wir müssen es übernehmen und uns als wirklich gewalttätig sehen. Wir sind die Unbefragten. Wir sind die Menschen, die niemanden stoppen könnte. Wir sind ein Land, das auf die Idee von Merit und Meritokratie gebaut ist. Das ist Amerika. Das ist, wofür Donald Trump gerade steht. Und wir können das nicht vergessen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und ich hoffe, dass... Ich hoffe, dass jemand nicht diesen Austausch drei oder vier Jahre später und sagen, oh je, ich wünschte, wir hätten das früher erledigt. Ich hoffe, dass wir nicht da sind. Die Left-Wing-Viktim-Hood-Narratives haben dieses Land zerstört. Ich will nicht sehen, dass diese wieder aufstehen. Wo kommt der neue Club her? Where did the victimhood stem from?
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
From government handouts? I think it stemmed in part from the Great Society in the 1960s, which was built on the idea of a victimhood narrative. And the thing about victimhood narratives that make them alluring is that there's always some truth at the kernel of it to justify it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
In the case of the Great Society, it's patently true that black Americans did not have not only the same opportunities that white Americans did. Black Americans were ein Jahr vor damals, in den Vereinigten Staaten in Amerika. Es gibt also eine Grundlage dafür.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Aber an einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt wird es tatsächlich unproduktiv, mit deinen Augen auf die Rückseite deines Schauspielers zu fahren, wie ich es vorhin gesagt habe, und diese Verletzung zu verringern, als zu fragen, wie wir alle aufsetzen können.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das, was die große Gesellschaft gemacht hat, die sogenannte große Gesellschaft unter Lyndon Johnson, das größte Missverständnis der politischen Agenda in der amerikanischen Geschichte, was it created a new culture of dependence on the government that was justified by this victimhood narrative. But it didn't just start with, it started with Black America, but it eventually pervaded
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn du eine 100-Mile-Radius in Columbus gehst, ziehst du einen kleinen Kreis um, das ist eine Krossektion des Landes. Ich bin in Cincinnati geboren. Ich habe mein erstes Geschäft in New York gebaut. Bevor wir Kinder hatten, wollte ich nach Ohio zurückgehen, weil wir unsere Kinder in Manhattan nicht aufbauen wollen. Ich will es nicht als etwas anderes bezeichnen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
basically all swaths of America, to expand the permanent existence of the state that created a new culture of an expectation of what the citizens' relationship with the state really was. And you go back to, this is Lyndon B. Johnson, who pushed this. His predecessor, of course, was JFK, who famously said, you know, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Beautiful sentiment. I think what the Great Society created was the need for a new kind of Declaration of Independence in the country. Für uns, um zu sagen, frag nicht, was dein Land für dich tun kann, sondern was du für dich selbst und deine Familie tun kannst.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das wäre in vielen Fällen der beste Weg, wie ein Amerikaner sein Land servieren könnte, indem er nicht auf diese Regierung abhängig sein muss. Besonders relevant heute, wenn du eine 36-Trillionen-Dollar-Nationaldeckung hast und wächst, wo die Interestspayments auf diese Nationaldeckung die größte Linie auf unserem föderalen Budget sind.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich denke, dass die Unabhängigkeit von der Regierung ein wichtiger Teil dieser Wachstums-Kultur ist. Ein Teil davon wurde einfach populär. Ich denke, dass die Wachstums-Kultur eine Währung geworden ist. Es wurde populärer für eine junge Person oder was auch immer, eine Wachstums-Kultur zu bezeichnen. Du bekommst mehr Sachen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
I had a friend who was an interviewer for Harvard's application essays, and she just comes back and says, oh my God, all I hear is the first thing they introduce themselves is what type of adversity or struggle they have faced in some sort of discrimination or some type of family sob story.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Not to say that some of them aren't real, but that's what became rewarded more so than the actual achievement itself, apparently in Harvard admissions interviews. So if you reward victimhood, you get more of it. And the more you describe yourself as a victim, the more likely you are to see yourself as one.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
So it became a self-reinforcing culture where that was what was rewarded instead of excellence. And I think the way we turn this around is just as a country, yes, from the government, but also just as a culture. We revive a culture that once again rewards excellence over victimhood in all domains.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Academics, math, reading, science, sports, physical excellence, excellence in music, the arts, all of it. Das ist Amerika. Das ist, wer wir am besten sind. Und ich denke, unsere Partizipations-Trophy-Kultur gegenüber unserer Wettbewerbs-Trophy-Kultur, die sich in den letzten 20 Jahren oder so erzeugt hat, ich denke, wir müssen zurückkehren zu dieser Kulturen der Exzellenz.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Und wo auch immer es herkommt, links oder rechts, das ist das, was ich möchte, das ist die Wettbewerbs-Kompetition. Wettbewerbs-Kompetition und Meritokratie. Lass uns das wiederholen. Excellent.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich will es als die beste Version von uns selbst sein. Aber ich will es den Menschen, den Patrioten aus dem ganzen Land öffnen, zu sagen, dass wenn man in einem Staat lebt, in dem man die ökonomische Exzellenz bewältigen kann, ein Staat in einem
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
eine Art spezielle Regulierungs- und Wirtschaftszone für viele dieser Industrien, zu sagen, dass man Regulierungs- und Wirtschaftszustände nicht in den Weg bringen will. Gut, komm nach Ohio. Wenn du in ein Land kommen willst, in dem deine Kinder eine gute Bildung auf Lesen, Schreiben und Mathematik bekommen können, Das ist ein großes Problem in unserem Land.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich will, dass diese Leute reinkommen, aber ohne die Probleme zu erstellen, die Sie in den Wohnungsmärkten gesehen haben, in Plätzen wie Tennis-Eve und in Märkten wie Austin. Wie machen Sie das? Zuerst gehen wir zurück zur Philosophie, was viele dieser inflationären Spiken auslöst, nämlich die Nutzungskonstriktionen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
So part of the reason housing costs have gone up so much is that we don't actually permit new house construction or new home construction at the rate that we should. Because there are barriers, especially even in single family home type communities to say that if there's a family home of a certain size,
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
und der Laufraum ist weniger als eine bestimmte Menge, ein halbes Hektar oder was auch immer, man kann keine neue Wohnung bauen, das kostet insbesondere junge Familien aus dem Markt, weil man eine Anstrengung auf Erzeugung hat. Also meine generelle Philosophie ist, wir wollen die Erzeugung von allem erhöhen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Army-Navy-Game.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Das betrifft die Erzeugung von Wohnungen, es betrifft die Erzeugung von Energie, es betrifft auch die Erzeugung von Menschen. Because that is actually something that allows a business to grow, is if you have talented people in your state, American patriots to hire, that's great.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
But if you increase the supply of both energy and housing and everything else required for those people to live affordable lives, that's how you match the demand going up. You've got to also match the supply going up of those things too. And I don't think those things have been done as well in some of these states that... Wir sind attraktive Orte, um zu leben, aber wir haben den Influx.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Man muss sich vorbereiten, um wirklich zu erhöhen, zum Beispiel die Anzahl der Wohnungen, wirklich die Anzahl der Energie zu erhöhen, in einer Weise, die diese Kosten reduziert.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ist da eine Art und Weise, das zu tun? Ja, ich meine, es hängt auch davon ab, wo du bist in der Reise der Staaten. Wenn man sich anschaut, wo Nashville 15 Jahre zuvor war, ist es nicht genau da, wo es heute ist. Also, wenn du dich nicht vorbereitest für diesen Influx, könnte es einen betroffenen Effekt haben. Alles ist gleich.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Willst du ein Staat sein, in dem die Leute wollen, in dem sie gehen wollen, als in einem, in dem die Leute gehen wollen? Du willst wahrscheinlich in einem Staat sein, in dem die Leute gehen wollen, weil sie dort für gute Gründe gehen wollen. Das gleiche gilt für das Land. Willst du in einem Land sein, in dem
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn man die Grenze unter Biden öffnet, würde man sehen, dass die Leute einen Weg gehen wollten und nicht den anderen. Man würde lieber in einem Land leben, in dem die Leute kommen wollen, aber man muss sich selbst schützen. Auf der Ebene einer Nation bedeutet das, dass die Grenze hart ist. Auf der Ebene eines Staates bedeutet das, dass man die Person ist, die man ist, und den Nordstern vertraut.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Komm schon, bist du für einen Gouverneur in Ohio oder was ist hier los? Ich muss warten, bis ich es formal erläutern kann, aber das ist die Richtung, in die ich gehen soll. Am Ende Februar haben wir eine große Erkennung. Ich liebe es, ich liebe es.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
In einer Weise, die sagt, wir sind froh, wenn mehr Leute hier fliehen wollen, aber es ist Teil der Mission, wer wir eigentlich sind, anstatt zu verändern, wer wir sind. Du wirst dann ein Staat sein, von dem die Leute irgendwann ausgehen wollen. Also in der Länge her ist es ein ziemlich guter Metrik, wenn die Leute in statt ausgehen wollen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich würde gerne Ohio als ein Staat der Exzellenz führen wollen. Wirtschaftliche Exzellenz und Bildungsexzellenz. Wenn du neun Städte hast, die Nullkosten-Städte sind, wenn du ein Staat sein willst, in dem die Leute eigentlich floggen wollen, Ich denke, die Leute sollten das machen können. Die Landwirtschaftsbeteiligung, das ist in vielen Ländern tatsächlich so, wird immer mehr.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Wenn man eine hohe Landwirtschaftsbeteiligung hat, sagt das, dass man das Land nicht einträgt. Das Land wird von der Regierung permanent gesichert. Und du hast ein paar Schäkel, die Leute stoppen, neue Unternehmen zu starten. Die meisten sind in Texas gestartet, weil es vielleicht die am liebsten ist, für einen Entrepreneur, gerade jetzt, ein neues Unternehmen zu bauen, ist in Texas.
Shawn Ryan Show
#169 Vivek Ramaswamy - Making Ohio Tax Free, DeepSeek, DOGE and the Education Crisis
Ich will, dass es in Ohio ist.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Yeah, look, I looked at my impact on the future of the country. I had run for U.S. president. And one of the things I reflected on, Ben, is many of the issues that I discussed, even on my presidential campaign, have to now be addressed by the states, by strong governors. Then you look at what President Trump is doing in Washington, D.C.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
I think he's going to be very successful in the next two years. But that means a lot of those programs, from education to health care, are going to be shifted down to the states and to the people where they belong. So if you skate to where the puck is going in terms of driving a real change in the country, I think the center of gravity in politics is going to move to the states.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Saving the country is going to belong to the states after President Trump has done his part. And then for me, there was the broader question of just staying in public service and public life. There's obviously, in many ways, you could wake up many days and say there's better ways to live than that. I came from the business world and we live a blessed, comfortable life.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
But my reason for remaining in this is that, first of all, I believe in excellence. I want my home state. I was born and raised here. I'm raising my two sons here. I want my state not just to be one of the best in the Midwest, but the best in the country. And there are just so many basic fixes that you could bring to a state like Ohio.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
They're just really basic that would accomplish that, that I felt a sense of duty to do it right here at home. And you and I, we've both lived the American dream. My wife's lived the American dream. We want our kids to live that same American dream. And we're pretty passionate about having an impact. And we're grateful for what the country and the state have given us.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And so in some sense, this is just our way of giving back.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Yes, it's not California. It doesn't require a U-turn. But I would say it is a conservative state. You're right in its electorate. It's time for the state to actually be governed like a conservative state. And there I see room for progress and actually stepping on the gas. Thinking about the basic table stakes on economic policies, you got to be a zero tax state.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Find a path to become a zero tax state. There's eight other states that have done it. There's no reason we can't do it right here in Ohio. bring down the property tax burden. I think with my own instincts in the long run, I'd love to see that get to zero, but at least bring it down to a reasonable place. Slash and burn the regulatory state.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
In some ways, I want to see Ohio become a special economic zone for the rest of the country at the heart of the Midwest. For really any entrepreneur, for industrialization, for production, the natural gas timelines for building a new pipeline in the state, we've got great natural resources underneath our ground.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Drill Baby Drill belongs in Ohio, and not a lot of people are actually even aware of the natural resources we have. And yet it takes 18 to 36 months to get a new permit when that should be six months or less. And so the sum total of that is when you look at other states across the country, Texas and Florida are number one and number two when it comes to people moving into the state versus out.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Ohio is number 38 today. And I see an opportunity over the next eight, 10 years for Ohio to find its way actually to number one on that list. And that might sound unrealistic today. But if you look at the first Industrial Revolution, Ohio was the leading state in the country. And I think with a strong governor, I'm motivated. I think we can get there again.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
I'd say the other distinctive part of my candidacy, and this is really what gets me going, Ben, is not just making sure that we're at the forefront economically, but to be able to do something that no other state has actually done is leading in the crisis of educational achievement in America. That's a 50-state problem right now. Our kids aren't excelling in math and reading and writing.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Even if we talk about conservative solutions like school choice, which I'm a strong proponent of, ardently in favor of, we also have to take aim at looking at how we revitalize our public schools on their own terms.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And I just, for my part, refuse to stand by and watch idly as China laughs at our gradual decay into oblivion when 75% of eighth graders in this country aren't even proficient in math according to international standards. In fact, there's kids in other countries where English isn't even their first language now doing better on English proficiency than our own kids here.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And just to speak some hard truths, I found that people, frankly, in both political parties, aren't too patient. They don't want to hear this message because it hurts to hear. But if you care about somebody, you tell them the truth. And I think being a true conservative state governed according to conservative principles means targeting that educational achievement deficit. Yes, beat the DEI.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Yes, beat the woke. I mean, I led the crusade on that, and I believe in all of that. But there's a deeper failure here as well as it relates to just raw educational achievement on math, reading, writing, physical education, civic education. And I think we as conservatives need to step up in directly tackling those deficits.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And that's one way where I hope to set the standard for the rest of the country, the Ohio standard, we could call it, for the way the rest of the states, I think, need to catch up as well.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
That's exactly right. And I say that the reason to flash and burn the regulatory state and over bureaucratization and regulation and taxation isn't because that's a more important objective than standing for American workers and manufacturers. It is because it is the best way to lift up American workers and manufacturers. And
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And I'm keen to make sure that our Republican Party doesn't make some of the mistakes as Democrats have made in these blue states in the Midwest as well. The right answer isn't to foster greater dependence on the government and justify that with a new victimhood culture. The right answer is to find a path to independence from the government. That's actually true compassion.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
That's not cruelty, that's compassion. Things like work requirements for Medicaid, for welfare. That's even in the long run been good for the people who receive it. It's not good to be dependent on the government permanently in this handout welfare state that leads to depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide, opioid usage, as we've seen in so much of this part of the country.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And so it's really good for nobody. And the left has made that mistake for years, and we've been good at calling that out, and we should, and we've won. We won decisively in November.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
I think for that victory to mean what it should in the long run, I think we in the Republican Party, in the conservative movement, in the pro-American movement, owe it to ourselves to stick to the principles that made America great the first time around.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And there I see President Trump doing a great job in Washington, D.C., downsizing that federal government, taking aim at the tax rates, taking aim at the type of things that have held back the American economy. But we got to stay true to that North Star rather than getting distracted in other directions, I would just say.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
And the way I want to lead Ohio, I want to embody those same principles of excellence, of dynamism, rejection of victimhood, rejection of dependence on the government, embracing capitalism. Yes, I don't think that's a bad word. capitalism and meritocracy, not crony capitalism, but the real thing.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
I want Ohio to be the state that leads the way where freedom is our heritage, excellence is our destiny. And we got to remember that. I think that's true in America. And I think it's every bit and true here I believe in the heart of America, right here in Ohio.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
It's a state where you have 60% of the population of North America within a single day's drive of where we are right now, led the way in the 19th century, led the way in the early 20th century. I'd like to see Ohio occupy that leadership position again with some friendly coopetition.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Let's just say with Texas and Florida, I'd like to see Ohio be in that vanguard of states that actually shows the country what's possible.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2148 - The Epstein File Release FIASCO
Go to vivekforohio.com. Appreciate support across the country because it's about lifting Ohio up, but it's also about setting a standard for the rest of the country. That's the standard we hold ourselves to. And I appreciate support from anybody, however big or however small. It's a big movement here.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Well, President Trump is going to do a great job in the next two years. But what that means, Charlie, is that a lot of programs from education to health care are now going to go back down to the states and to the people where they belong. That's true federalism. That's what our founders envisioned.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
But that means we're going to need strong governors prepared to take those programs and do the right thing with them. I look at my home state of Ohio. I was born and raised here. I've lived most of my life here. I'm raising my two sons here. We're a conservative state in our electorate. We need to actually be governed like a conservative state.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And if we are, this can be not just one of the better states in the Midwest. I think it can be the best state in the country to raise a family, to start a new business. And also something I'm passionate about, you know this, Charlie, is giving our kids a world-class education starting at a young age so that we're beating China and the rest of the world in leadership.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And I want Ohio to be the model for showing how that's actually done. So in some sense, the federal job's already getting done. I'm happy to see that's happening in spades. But now we need strong leaders at the states, and I was proud to get President Trump's and Elon's and others' endorsements at the national level out of the gate.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
What I want to do is show the rest of the country what's possible with a good state leader. That's what we're in this for.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Sure. So Ohio actually led the way in the first industrial revolution. And at the turn of the last century, Ohio was the wealthiest state in the union and was the third most populous state in the country because of those great natural resources and gifts. Fertile farmland, great natural resources, including oil and natural gas and other minerals underneath our ground.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
We've got 60% of North America's population, not just America's population, North America's population within a single day's drive of where I'm sitting right now in Columbus, Ohio. Those were the advantages we had back then. Six of the top 15 wealthiest cities in the 1950s. Now, that's not long ago. I'm not even talking about the Industrial Revolution. I'm talking about in the 1950s.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Six of the top 15 were right here in Ohio. Toledo was the glass capital. Akron was the rubber capital. Youngstown and Cleveland were the steel capitals of the world. Dayton was the computing power capital. Cincinnati was the leader in consumer products. Porkopolis, powering the food supply of the country. known around the world as the Queen City. That was my hometown.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
This was the place of the pioneers, the explorers. Neil Armstrong and John Glenn gained the self-confidence here as kids to go to outer space, the state of the Wright brothers. So we were the state of excellence in America. I think we can be again because we have all of those same advantages.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Same fertile farmland, same eerie canal to New York City, Ohio River to the Mississippi, same location at the heart of the country. It's also pretty representative of the rest of the country. It's not a monolithic place. You got from the inner cities to suburban communities, to rural communities, to the foothills of Appalachia.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
You go within a 200 mile radius of where I'm sitting right now, you travel that area, you've traveled the entire cross section of the entire country. So in some deep sense, it is a representation of America and who we are. And what I think, Charlie, and here's where I'm going to lead us, and this is why I think I require, in my calling, to be the next governor.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
If Silicon Valley led the way in the American economy for the last 10 years, I want to make sure it is actually the Ohio River Valley for the next 10 years. And that's not hyperbole. It's not going to be rubber production next time around, probably, but it'll be the sectors of the future.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Semiconductor production, nuclear energy, biotech, Bitcoin, defense industrial base, using AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs, which is something I think we can do through workforce training and education. So it's a modern day Northwest ordinance. That's the way I look at it. And I'm glad to see people around the state. And we have- I mean, people haven't heard of this in a governor's campaign.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
I was honored, Charlie, to see. I was shocked, actually. We had thousands of people turning out in my statewide tour in a gubernatorial primary where the election's over a year and a half out. There's an enthusiasm for bringing back not the Rust Belt, but what I'll call the Platinum Belt. And I bear that responsibility, and I think we're going to get that job done.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Look, I think there's been a traditional fear in Ohio that governing like a conservative state will somehow lose us elections. You go back to 2000, very close state, swing state. Ohio used to be a swing state in the presidential elections. It's not quite right now. So I think the fear amongst Republicans in Ohio is that governing like a conservative state might lose us those close elections.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
I view it the other way around, Charlie. That's not going to lose us elections. It's going to win us elections because it'll lift up more people from poverty. It'll put more money in people's pockets and revive that sense of civic pride in our young people.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And the fact that Ohio was a state that had some trouble along the way, and I don't want to go into the particular politics of blaming individuals, but let's think about boys competing in girls' sports. Let's think about preventing genital mutilation and chemical castration in kids.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
The fact that some of the leadership of the state had trouble, conservative leadership of the state might have had trouble with those issues, I think shows us playing a little bit behind the ball compared to states like Texas and Florida that are governed like conservative states. But I'm not worried about the past. I want to actually chase the future. We're going to win elections decisively.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Think about opportunities in the next few years. Not a lot of people are aware of this, but say Section 287G. What is that? That allows local law enforcement to help ICE with mass deportations, with actually going after illegal immigration in our country.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
President Trump is going to drive his agenda forward, but to really see it through, we're going to need strong governors who are aligned with that agenda to act accordingly. And I think that in our population, the way it is now, look at the margins President Trump's won by. And actually, he's won this state by bigger margins than even people running down ballot of him.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
I think that signals the mandate to say that people are behind the conservative pro-American agenda. Now, my job as the governor of this state is to explain it to people. Frankly, I think there's a lot of independents, libertarians, orphaned Reagan Democrats, other orphaned Democrats, politically homeless people here who may not have thought of themselves as that Republican coalition quite yet.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
But if you explain it to them, if you actually show up, if you don't go through the traditional media filters, but just show up in person. I mean, we're drawing thousands of people. Great, I'll use that to our advantage to go to all 88 counties and explain it without filters in between. I want a big tent coalition where a lot of those former Democrats and current independents come along with us.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And if they don't want to call themselves Republicans right now, I'm fine with that. But I want to create a governing coalition that doesn't compromise on those core principles. That's actually going to make us even more successful in winning, I hope, in a landslide next year in the general.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And that's what I'm shooting for, is not just running for the Republican primary, but to win a general election that brings the majority of the rest of this state along as well.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
I love it. And you're all over this, Charlie. So on the AI data center piece, you're right. It's an opportunity. One thing that we just have to do is bring down the permitting timeline for new power plants and new natural gas pipelines to make sure that we're not only ready, we're ready to be the leadership position of the country. And that's achievable.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
But the other piece of this, as you really put your finger on this, is a lot of people have focused on training the AI algorithms. Of course, we've put hundreds of billions, really trillions of dollars into that enterprise.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Beyond just training the AI, I think the underappreciated opportunity is training workers on how to use that AI to apply it to their respective fields, to their hospitals, to nurses, to financial services, to construction design, to really every domain where we're increasing the productivity of the worker.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And that shifts the conversation and it shifts the focus from is AI going to take jobs to just say, actually, AI is going to make jobs that didn't exist. That's not going to happen automatically. I think it's going to have leaders who have to shape that future.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
If you're just a price taker on the future, you might have a result from AI in your economy that doesn't look good for American workers or manufacturers. But if you have a leader who's focused on training and making sure we're empowering our workers to use that AI, this is going to be a boom for our workers. It's going to increase wages.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And I think we need a leader who at least understand what that future looks like and I hope shows the rest of the country, sets an Ohio standard of how we actually do this well.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
There's two prongs, Charlie. The first one we talk about and I think have executed well nationally on, Ohio I think I want to say execute on as well, is school choice. Not just in name, but true universal school choice. Not just private schools, not just charter schools, but also homeschooling as a viable option for any parent who demands it. Give kudos where it's due.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Arizona, Iowa, certain other states have gone the full distance here. I want to see Ohio go to that full length as well. That being said, there's also a separate frontier here where I want Ohio to lead the way amongst all states and especially conservative states to set a standard. We have to also make sure our public schools are equipped to compete with the best of the alternatives.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
And we're gonna start by doing something in this state that hasn't been done in any other 50 states. There's smaller things. We're going to put every police officer, at least one police officer, at least in every school. A lot of other basic fixes on safety and other areas. But the big one is implementing merit-based pay for every teacher, administrator, principal, superintendent.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Your pay will be tied to your performance. And the fact that that's a foreign idea in our public schools shows how broken our public schools really are. We're not attracting the best people to go into education anymore. They might go become a computer programmer in Silicon Valley or a banker on Wall Street. Now that's what they may aspire to.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
They should aspire to be educators, but we're not rewarding them. Other countries like Finland or South Korea, when you set up the right incentives for educators, you have some of the best and brightest graduating from the nation's own high schools going into education.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
A lot of our young people would be passionate about being teachers, but for the fact they're not gonna be able to live the same American dream pursuing that path, that's wrong. And that means the best public school teachers will get paid more, but it means a lot of the dead weight and a lot of the wasteful expenditures in those public schools need to be eliminated to make that possible.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
So I'm not picking a fight with anybody, the teachers unions or anybody else, but I'm not gonna back down from one if that's what's necessary to do what's right. Some other basic fixes, get the cell phones out of the schools, get civic education back into the schools.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
You and I talked about this a couple of years ago, I'm gonna make it reality in Ohio where every high school senior who graduates from high school will be required to pass the same civics test that we require of every naturalized citizen in this country. It's just common sense.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
If someone's coming to this country from a foreign country, they better darn well know how many branches of government there are. A little bit about the civics and history of the United States' foundation and our founding fathers and our constitution. But so should our own high school students graduating from right here, where 80% of them or more do not today. You know, a little bit of tough love.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Bring back physical education, including the presidential fitness test. Remember that. We're going to bring that back in our public schools as well, including the pull-ups. And that doesn't mean everyone's going to pass, but it sets a standard.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Because as we know, and the Maha movement's been great in highlighting this, the best way to save on health costs in the long run is to have that healthier population in the first place.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
So when you think about academic health, math, reading, writing, critical thinking, physical health, civic health, mental health, even financial literacy, incorporating that into K-12 education, we're gonna be the state that I believe leads the way. Catching up on school choice, we're gonna do that here, but leading the way is, in addition,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
on setting a standard, expecting more of ourselves in our K through 12 public education as well. And I think that is how we're going to address this achievement crisis and make sure that China isn't laughing at us. To the contrary, we're going to be the country that leads the way in the world when it comes to quality education, starting at a young age.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
Look, vivekforohio.com, I'll take every bit of support. Even if it's $1, it doesn't matter. It's a national movement that we want to build here of excellence, led by the states. President Trump is doing his part. He's reviving our conviction in America. We need a leader here in Ohio, here in the heartland, here in the Midwest. who revives our conviction in our state and in our states.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
I'm proud to have President Trump's endorsement, but to carry his agenda forward, we're going to need strong governors in the heart of the country to do it. So if you're able to volunteer and come here, we would love that. And if you're not, those who are able to support us at VivekForOhio.com, we welcome it, and we're going to set a new standard for the country. It's good talking to you, man.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vivek's Vision for Ohio
For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.
The Dan Bongino Show
We Are NOT Falling For This Again (Ep. 2391)
is about to pass a bill that blows away your taxpayer money, but they made it over 1500 pages long so you wouldn't read it. I did you a favor, I read it for you. It's supposed to be about keeping government operations open and providing disaster relief aid to hurricane victims, which I'm sympathetic to.
The Dan Bongino Show
We Are NOT Falling For This Again (Ep. 2391)
But if you read the bill carefully, it contains pay raises for members of Congress, and I'm not making this up, an expansion of their federal health benefits. It contains all kinds of special interests and pork funding, including opening up a new stadium in Washington, DC. It renews the Global Engagement Center, which is a key node of the censorship industrial complex.
The Dan Bongino Show
We Are NOT Falling For This Again (Ep. 2391)
And the worst part is they didn't want you to know about any of it. And that's why they made this a last minute jam job. The reason I'm co-heading Doge is I think we need outsiders to bring actual accountability to Washington, D.C. So feel free to call your congressman and let him know how you feel about it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Good to have you. Good to have you made back. I enjoy being on here every time, man.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
I appreciate it, man. Actually, it's funny. When we bumped into each other in the amusement park, it was my son's fifth birthday the day before my campaign launched, and we knew we wouldn't be able to give him a proper party.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So he wanted to go down there, and we celebrated with him properly, took the day off from all phone calls, focused on the family, and then, yes, we launched the campaign in full force. And, you know, I don't like to go at half speed. So we're going to be going and crisscrossing all the 88 counties of the state.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
I declared last night and I was proud within an hour of formally declaring my campaign that night to see President Trump's endorsement. And the truth is, President Trump is saving our country at the level of Washington, D.C. He's going to do his job in the next two years.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
But if he gets that job done, that means a range of programs from education to health care are going to flow back down to the states. and to the people where they belong. That's the good news. But the work that we have ahead of us is also real. That requires actual governors.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
who are ready to use that power in the right way to stand for the right principles, to actually fix the educational achievement crisis in our country. That's a big one, Dan. We're 75 percent of eighth graders right now can't even do proper math at an age appropriate level. We're going to fix that, but it's going to take strong governors to do it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And that's why I'm looking to lead the way right here in Ohio.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Absolutely. I actually do think of this as a national security issue in the long run, Dan. And so when we frame in terms of school choice, I agree that you can feel a little bit parochial. School choice is important. We've got to go the full distance for homeschooling as an option. That's a first principle also, just based on the liberty.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Parents should be determining the education of their children and should be empowered to do it. And I'm in favor of that. But I think we also have to go further to the place where maybe some conservatives haven't yet gone. which is to say, how do you also equip our public schools to compete with the best of the alternatives? And there it is, often the teachers' unions who are standing in the way.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So one of the things that I'm going to do in the state of Ohio is we will implement merit-based pay for every teacher, for every principal, for every superintendent in the public schools of this state, where the best ones who are delivering results for kids end up getting paid more than they are right now.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
But that comes at the expense of really clearing the brush and cutting a lot of the other dead weight that's around. get the cell phones out of the schools, actually implement a curriculum centered on math, reading, and writing proficiency.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
There's kids in other countries right now, Dan, I'm not making this up, where English isn't even their first language, now doing better on English proficiency than our own students here. That's unacceptable to me. You have civic education in this country which needs to come back.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
We require a citizenship test of every legal immigrant who comes here to know something about the country, and that's a good thing. Turns out that 80% of people who graduate from high school would fail that test right now.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So on my watch as governor, we're going to make sure that every high school senior who graduates from high school has to pass the same civics test that every legal immigrant has to pass in order to become a citizen. And I think that that's a beautiful thing because you can't love a country unless you know the first thing about that country.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So civic health, physical health, academic health, mental health, all of it, This is about standing for the next generation, and I do think about that as a future security issue and a competitiveness issue versus China and other countries around the world. But they don't have federalism like we do, so it can't be done in Washington, D.C. It has to be states that lead the way.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
That's right. And this is such a perfect example because we're talking about what's going on in Washington, D.C., where I helped get Doge off the ground. President Trump and Elon are doing a fantastic job. It's bureaucracy that is the enemy of the people. I believe that. Whether it's the federal government, whether it's the state government, whether it's the level of the managerial class.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
We talk about these public teachers unions. It's a funny thing because the individual people who are in that often are very good people. I think about my sixth grade teacher, Ms. Kinney, at a public school that I went to in Cincinnati where I grew up. She changed my life for the better. She allowed me to see potential in myself that I never saw.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
But right now, we're not attracting the very best like her because there's no meritocracy in compensation. You brought up South Korea. The same thing is true in Finland. They pay a court to merit-based pay, according to actual performance, they attract the very best, in many cases, to the education profession, as we should here as well. And it's shocking that none of our 50 states do it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So I want Ohio to be the first state in the country that brings meritocracy to compensation and education with some of the other changes, and that'll set a national standard is the way I look at this. It's not actually, turns out, a parochial state issue when you see it that way. It's about setting a national standard for and doing it through state leadership.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And I do think that that's the way things work in America, is education's local, but it's a national threat unless we address it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Look, I don't think efficiency is a partisan issue. It shouldn't be. It's not a Democrat or a Republican point. And so I think you could imagine red states that need to be run better. I don't think there are that many blue states that are run efficiently, but in principle there could be.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Look, I think efficiency is just something that every citizen of a state, every taxpayer in a state should want. Right now, Texas and Florida, Dan, are the top two states that people move into. And I think that's one good metric of the success of a state, how many are moving in versus out. Right now, I think Ohio is around number 38.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So what I want to do by the end of this is I want Ohio to be at the top of that list. And I think a big part of that is allowing people to keep what they earn. Florida, Texas, and six other states like them are zero-income tax states. I'd like to take Ohio to become a zero-income tax state.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
I think that's equally just about putting more money in people's pockets as it is making sure that government runs as efficiently as possible. And the beautiful thing is that also takes aim at then the over-regulation of the private sector. It shouldn't take 18 or 36 months to build a new natural gas pipeline.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
For example, in Ohio, a state that has great natural gas underneath the ground, that should be six months or less. So I believe every man-made problem has a man-made solution. I love, I absolutely love and fully support what President Trump and Elon are doing, and I think it's important to be aggressive. Take it on bureaucracy.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
There's a reason why many Republican presidents even have talked about it but never actually have seen it happen. So I love what they're doing. I'm going to bring my... unique style and approach to applying that to Ohio. I think about that less as what are we cutting and what are we actually bringing. What we're bringing back is the American dream. That's what we're bringing back.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
What we're bringing back is a meritocracy. What we're bringing back is a place where any young kid can achieve the maximum of its potential and make as much money or achieve as much success in any domain as he wants to without apologizing for it by playing by the rules without the government getting in the way. That's what we're shooting for.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And I think sometimes when we explain this, especially to our Democrat friends or folks in the inner cities of Cincinnati to Cleveland to Columbus, I think one of the things I've found is that most people, not all people, but most people are actually pretty reasonable if you explain it directly to them, not through media filters, but explain to them why you're doing exactly what you're doing.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And that's going to be one of the things I'm going to try to do well, hopefully, as the next governor of this state.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Absolutely. And that's one of the things that President Trump did an amazing job of. Half the job is just showing up, actually. You have a historical generation of Republican politicians that have often been afraid to go into the inner cities or afraid to go into minority communities. President Trump did the opposite. He explained it directly to them, and it was successful.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And you and I, we crisscrossed at some of those events. Even one of the things I focused on this last cycle over the last year was helping President Trump get a lot of the youth vote. We saw the youth vote come in droves to Republicans this time around. I traveled countless campuses across this country, really, again, explaining things to young people in terms that they actually find relatable.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
So we've got to do a better job of that as a party today. And one of the beauties of where we stand in this one is where the polling is. And I was close to 60 percent before I declared. And with President Trump's endorsement and a bunch of other national and statewide endorsements that have since come in.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
I want to use this year, instead of doing a normal primary where you're, you know, nicing each other in a Republican primary and wasting a bunch of time and money doing that, to instead spend that time going to the inner cities, going to the foothills of Appalachia, going to counties that traditional Republicans may not have visited for a long time, and actually have open conversations with young people on university campuses, from the inner city of Toledo to Cleveland to Cincinnati to Columbus,
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And to be able to explain to them, you know what, we may not agree on everything, and that's okay because we love diversity of thought, but if you care about economic excellence, more money in your bank account, more money in your kids' investment accounts, about giving your kids the same shot at the American dream that people like you and I, Dan, have lived, then you know what, in some sense we're on the same team.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
Get on the bus and let's go, and you'll have a seat at the table even if you don't agree with everything we do. And I do think that that actually allows us to get more done, actually, which is what I want to now do at the state level. So President Trump's doing his job in Washington, D.C., and reviving the conviction in America that we were missing.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
I want to revive our conviction in Ohio for the people who live here. But also, it's not just that. It's about setting a standard for the other states as well. And that, too, I think is going to be how we save the country.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Vince Coglianese, Tim Burchett, Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy
And congratulations to you too, man. I'm proud of you and the country's lucky to have you. Thank you.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Look, I think that Donald Trump is doing a great job as U.S. president, but that means that a lot of federal programs are going to come down from Washington, D.C., from education to health care, back to the states and to the people where they belong. That's one of the things I saw in my early effort in helping get Doge off the ground is the same thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Federalism is the way forward to our golden age, and that is going to require strong governors to actually step up and do their job in leading and managing education, for example, in the right way. And so I was born and raised in Ohio. It's where I'm raising my two sons today.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I think it's one of the better states in the Midwest, but I want to lead Ohio to be the top state in the country to raise a young family, to grow a business, and to live the American dream that I have. That's why I'm in it.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I have to admit, I think the job is going to be far easier for me at the state level than it is doing it at the federal level, which is a gargantuan project. But I do think that giving taxpayers the transparency, first of all, how their money is being spent, fixing the regulatory state, all that's required. At the level of Ohio, I think this is actually –
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
immediately achievable in ways that improve people's lives, right? I'm into bringing the American dream back to Ohio. How do we do it? Flash every bit of red tape in the state. I mean, think about the over-regulation that comes from that bureaucracy. That is the easiest thing we could fix right out the gate. 18 to 36 months for a natural gas pipeline, that should be six months or less.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I haven't met a single person in Ohio. I haven't met a single person in the country, Glenn, who says that we have too little red tape. I've met a lot of people, especially business owners, who will tell you that there is too much red tape.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And so I do think that this idea that this is just an academic project, no, it's not just academic solutions to address a deficit number or a debt number or a GDP number.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I think these are vital improvements to our economic and social fabric so that little league teams no longer have to shut down because they can't find a local company to sponsor them because they went to another state with a more favorable regulatory environment.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So a mom doesn't have to think twice before having a second or third kid for fear of the cost of a bigger car because the tax rate's too high in the state. So one of the things I want to do is to drive the income tax rate down, eventually down to zero, like eight other states that have done the same thing. Back to property tax burden. It's your land, not the government's.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It is your money, not the government's. And I don't think that those should be controversial things to say.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Well, property tax in Ohio, so this is a problem in our state in particular, have gotten way too high. So many people are paying as much money on their property Interest plus principal repayment as they are on their property tax. And it makes you feel like you're not owning your land anymore. Your owned land feels like you're leasing it from the government, which is un-American. Oh, yes.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So that's exactly what we're taking aim at. I have to tell you, I think property cuts. It's about putting the money back in the pocket of people's hands.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I mean, it's actually funny you say that. John Locke was one of the intellectual progenitors of our country's founding, as you're well aware, and the ownership of private property was foundational to the formation of the United States of America. And so I think we would do well to remember those basic time testing principles.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Capitalism is the greatest system known to man to lift us up from poverty. We've started to apologize for that as well.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
No, I want Ohio, and look, I say this for Ohio, but I say this because it has a national significance too, Glenn, is I want Ohio to set the standard for the rest of the country where we embrace property rights, where we embrace capitalism and meritocracy instead of apologizing for it. And the beauty of our system is that so much of saving our country
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
actually has to come from the level of the states, has to come from the people. That's what James Madison envisioned. That's what our founding fathers envisioned. So I think federalism is the way. The path to our golden age runs through federalism. And that's why, look, I think that saving this country is a team effort.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
That's why I chose to run for this position after great conversations with President Trump, with Elon. Frankly, both of them, they came out within hours of my announcement, within an hour or so. to both endorse, and I was proud to receive their support, and others statewide here as well. But that's because this is going to be a team effort to save the country.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And I do think leadership at the level of the states, especially starting a year or two from now, after a lot of those programs have been pushed back down to the states and the people where they belong, I do see a bit of a leadership gap there, and that's a big part of why I was called into this. And we're going to set a national standard. We can call it the Ohio standard.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
We can call it a modern-day Northwest ordinance. But a conservative state, when governed according to conservative principles, actually, can be a magnet for the rest of the country.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Your friendship is worth a lot to me. And we'd love to have you in Ohio. We'll turn that into a Midas touch.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Either you're playing from the front and you're shaping that change or else you're going to be shaped by that. Right. And it is a leader. And it's huge.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Absolutely. So did you think about a position from the perspective of state leadership, right? As the next governor of Ohio, I want Ohio to be the state where we use AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs, right?
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And what I mean by that is there's a lot of focus on a lot of investment across the country and the world into algorithmic improvement, into actually improving the computational power driving new AI algorithms. And that's important. But where I don't think we've invested enough is how to apply that AI, how to use that next generation of intelligence.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
to apply it to their respective fields, from healthcare to financial services to construction design. And there you're talking about using skilled workers who are already in the state. They don't have to be programming the next generation of AI. We've trained the AI.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
What I want to do is to train the human beings on how to use that AI and apply it to enhance their own productivity on their own terms. And I think that last part is really important, Glenn, as we're headed to the future of The future is coming, whether we like it or not. Do you want to be dragged by it or do you want to shape it?
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And I want to be a leader who helps us shape it to harness the power of that.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
sure sure so i think one of the things we need to do is invest in workforce training and education and allow the private sector to already do it by getting out of the way eliminate occupational licensing requirements but also i want this to be the state where two things are true glenn and too often even on the right sometimes we make this an either or i want this to be the state where we say both of these paths are open i want ohio to be the top state in the country when it comes to our universities for somebody who wants to become an engineer or a doctor or a computer programmer
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
That's great. That should be open to them here. And that goes through a traditional bachelor's degree and maybe PhD degrees, too. And that's great. It's not that that's elite and bad. That's that's a good thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
But we also want to be the state that has two and one year and even six month or nine month vocational programs that train people to be an electrician or a welder or a builder and give them also in their respective fields, even the training needed, know how to use that AI, how to use that next generation of technology to apply it to their respective fields.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
That's what true modernization looks like. So I don't want to fall in this camp and say, oh, well, that technological revolution is for somebody else. No. How do we harness the fruits of that to actually improve our own lives, even in fields that weren't traditionally thought to necessarily be technologically forward fields? I want to change that attitude. And, you know, it's not either or.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It's not one is more elite than the other. We're all elite in the way I look at it. But I don't refer to the other professions as the trades profession. I call them the professions because that's what they are. They deserve the same degree of dignity and respect. But at the same time, it's not going to be by chasing our past. It is going to be by leading us to chase our future.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So I do think that requires a new generation of leadership. And at the state level, it's a big part of why I'm stepping into what I see as a leadership vacuum.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Well, the truth is one of the paths is grow, grow, grow. It goes to that spirit that you talked about. That's where I think as a great leader of a state, you can at least help in that regard where if you're depressing economic growth, then your debt-to-GDP ratio becomes even worse because your GDP growth rates are lower.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So one of the areas to focus on is just robust economic growth through mass deregulation, through mass unlocking of private sector potential, through slashing and burning bureaucracy wherever necessary. And that's one positive side.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
On the other side, though, Glenn, and you raise a good point here, I would just say there are ways to rationalize the budget that actually lift people up in the process. I'll give you one example, and I'm going to lead the way here in Ohio on this front, is reattaching work requirements to welfare, Medicaid, and other forms of aid. I think it is not compassion.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It is cruelty to increase somebody's dependence on the government. The way we're going to save our country is not through greater dependence on the government, but independence from it. We're not victims. We have this victimhood mentality that then justifies that dependence. We're done with that victimhood culture. We got to move on. We're victors, not victims. We don't whine. We win.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
You help somebody stand up on their own two feet. That's a great way. You're looking at a lot of the spending in Medicaid, a lot of spending in welfare. That's a great way to bring down spending.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
But even more importantly, it is an even better way to help those Americans to actually realize the American dream rather than to be permanently dependent on a state that serves as a ceiling for what they're able to achieve in their lives. And a lot of that does have to be done and led at the state level. The federal government, there's a role to play.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
But I think there's also an important role for what does a leader look like who has the spine to step up and actually do that. Ohio is a state that doesn't have work requirements attached to Medicaid right now. That needs to change. And so that's the way I'm looking to lead is to bring back that culture of work, end the war on work. And that does two things.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
One is it enhances economic productivity and GDP growth. The other thing it does is it brings down our debt and our spending. But the third and most important thing it does is it brings back our sense of national spirit and self-worth and individual self-confidence for so many who have lost that in this culture of victimhood and entitlement and dependence on the government.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It's time for us to graduate from the era of dependence and move back to our era of independence. Think about that as a modern day declaration of independence from the government, a modern day Northwest Ordinance centered right here in Ohio. That's where I want to lead us.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And I personally think, Glenn, a lot of politically homeless people, independents, libertarians, not just Republicans, maybe even some orphaned Reagan Democrats. will come along with us for this ride, and I think that's a good thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I appreciate that.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It means a lot to me. And we'll hopefully set a good example and learn some lessons from Texas as well.
The Glenn Beck Program
It's Time We Treat the Cartels the Way They Treat Us | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
70%.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Well, look, I think that Donald Trump is doing a great job as U.S. president, but that means that a lot of federal programs are going to come down from Washington, D.C., from education to health care, back to the states and to the people where they belong. That's one of the things I saw in my early effort in helping get Doge off the ground is the same thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Federalism is the way forward to our golden age, and that is going to require strong governors to actually step up and do their job in leading and managing education, for example, in the right way. And so I was born and raised in Ohio. It's where I'm raising my two sons today.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I think it's one of the better states in the Midwest, but I want to lead Ohio to be the top state in the country to raise a young family, to grow a business. and to live the American dream that I have. That's why I'm in it. Yeah.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I have to admit, I think the job is going to be far easier for me at the state level than it is doing it at the federal level, which is a gargantuan project. But I do think that giving taxpayers the transparency, first of all, how their money is being spent, fixing the regulatory state, all that's required. At the level of Ohio, I think this is actually –
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
immediately achievable in ways that improve people's lives, right? I'm into bringing the American dream back to Ohio. How do we do it? Flash every bit of red tape in the state. I mean, think about the over-regulation that comes from that bureaucracy. That is the easiest thing we could fix right out the gate. 18 to 36 months for a natural gas pipeline, that should be six months or less.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I haven't met a single person in Ohio. I haven't met a single person in the country, Glenn, who says that we have too little red tape. I've met a lot of people, especially business owners, who will tell you that there is too much red tape.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And so I do think that this idea that this is just an academic project, no, it's not just academic solutions to address a deficit number or a debt number or a GDP number.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I think these are vital improvements to our economic and social fabric so that little league teams no longer have to shut down because they can't find a local company to sponsor them because they went to another state with a more favorable regulatory environment.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So a mom doesn't have to think twice before having a second or third kid for fear of the cost of a bigger car because the tax rate's too high in the state. So one of the things I want to do is to drive the income tax rate down, eventually down to zero, like eight other states that have done the same thing. Back to property tax burden. It's your land, not the government's.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It is your money, not the government's. And I don't think that those should be controversial things to say.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Well, property tax in Ohio, so this is a problem in our state in particular, have gotten way too high. So many people are paying as much money on their property Interest plus principal repayment as they are on their property tax. And it makes you feel like you're not owning your land anymore. Your owned land feels like you're leasing it from the government, which is un-American.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So that's exactly what we're taking aim at. I have to tell you this. I think property cuts.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I mean, it's actually funny you say that. John Locke was one of the intellectual progenitors of our country's founding, as you're well aware, and the ownership of private property was foundational to the formation of the United States of America. And so I think we would do well to remember those basic time-tested principles.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
capitalism is the greatest system known to man to lift us up from poverty we've started to apologize for that as well no i want ohio and and look i say this for ohio but i think because it has a national significance too glenn is i want ohio to set the standard for the rest of the country where we embrace property rights where we embrace capitalism and meritocracy instead of apologizing for it and the beauty of our system is that so much of saving our country
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
actually has to come from the level of the state, has to come from the people. That's what James Madison envisioned. That's what our founding fathers envisioned. So I think federalism is the way. The path to our golden age runs through federalism. And that's why, look, I think that saving this country is a team effort.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
That's why I chose to run for this position after great conversations with President Trump, with Elon. Frankly, both of them, they came out within hours of my announcement, within an hour to both endorse. And I was proud to receive their support.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
and others statewide here as well, but that's because this is going to be a team effort to save the country, and I do think leadership at the level of the states, especially starting a year or two from now, after a lot of those programs have been pushed back down to the states and the people where they belong, I do see a bit of a leadership gap there, and that's a big part of why I was called into this, and we're going to set a national standard.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
We can call it the Ohio standard. We can call it a modern-day Northwest ordinance, but A conservative state, when governed according to conservative principles, actually, can be a magnet for the rest of the country.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Either you're playing from the front and you're shaping that change or else you're going to be shaped by that change. Right.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Absolutely. So it's interesting about a position from the perspective of state leadership, right? As the next governor of Ohio. I want Ohio to be the state where we use AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs. And what I mean by that is...
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
There's a lot of focus on a lot of investment across the country and the world into algorithmic improvement, into actually improving the computational power driving new AI algorithms. And that's important. But where I don't think we've invested enough is how to apply that AI, how to use that next generation of intelligence.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
to apply it to their respective fields from health care to financial services to construction design. And there you're talking about using skilled workers who are already in the state. They don't have to be programming the next generation of AI. We've trained the AI.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
What I want to do is to train the human beings on how to use that AI and apply it to enhance their own productivity on their own terms. And I think that last part is really important, Glenn, as we're headed to the future. The future is coming, whether we like it or not. Do you want to be dragged by it or do you want to shape it?
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And I want to be a leader who helps us shape it to harness the power of that.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
sure sure so i think one of the things we need to do is invest in workforce training and education and allow the private sector to already do it by getting out of the way eliminate occupational licensing requirements but also i want this to be the state where two things are true glenn and too often even on the right sometimes we make this an either or i want this to be the state where we say both of these paths are open i want ohio to be the top state in the country when it comes to our universities
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
for somebody who wants to become an engineer or a doctor or a computer programmer. That's great. That should be open to them here. And that goes through a traditional bachelor's degree and maybe PhD degrees too. And that's great. It's not that that's elite and bad. That's a good thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
But we also want to be the state that has two and one year and even six month or nine month vocational programs that train people to be an electrician or a welder or a builder and give them also in their respective fields, even the training needed, know how to use that AI, how to use that next generation of technology. to apply it to their respective field.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
That's what true modernization looks like. So I don't want to fall in this camp and say, oh, well, that technological revolution is for somebody else. No. How do we harness the fruits of that to actually improve our own lives, even in fields that weren't traditionally thought to necessarily be technologically forward fields? I want to change that attitude. And, you know, it's not either or.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
It's not one is more elite than the other. We're all elite in the way I look at it. But I don't refer to the other professions as the trades. I call them the professions because that's what they are. They deserve the same degree of dignity and respect. But at the same time, it's not going to be by chasing our past. It is going to be by leading us to chase our future.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
So I do think that requires a new generation of leadership. And at the state level, it's a big part of why I'm stepping into what I see as a leadership vacuum.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
Well, the truth is one of the paths is grow, grow, grow. Goes to that spirit that you talked about. That's where I think as a great leader of a state, you can at least help
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
in that regard where if you're depressing economic growth then your debt to gdp ratio becomes even worse because your gdp growth rates are lower so one of the areas to focus on is just robust economic growth through mass deregulation through mass unlocking of private sector potential through slashing and burning bureaucracy wherever necessary and that's one positive side on the other side though glenn you raise a good point here
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I would just say there are ways to rationalize the budget that actually lift people up in the process. I'll give you one example, and I'm going to lead the way here in Ohio on this front, is reattaching work requirements to welfare, Medicaid, and other forms of aid. I think it is not compassion. It is cruelty to increase somebody's dependence on the government.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
The way we're going to save our country is not through greater dependence on the government, but independence from it. We're not victims. We have this victimhood mentality that then justifies that dependence. We're done with that victimhood culture. We got to move on. We're victors, not victims. We don't whine. We win. You help somebody stand up on their own two feet. That's a great way.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
You're looking at a lot of the spending in Medicaid, a lot of spending in welfare. That's a great way to bring down spending. But even more importantly, it is an even better way to help those Americans to actually realize the American dream rather than to be permanently dependent on a state that serves as a ceiling for what they're able to achieve in their lives.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And there are a lot of that does have to be done and led at the state level. The federal government, there's a role to play. But I think there's also an important role for what does a leader look like who has the spine to step up and actually do that? Ohio is a state that doesn't have work requirements attached to Medicaid right now. That needs to change.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And so that's the way I'm looking to lead is to bring back that culture of work, end the war on work. And that does two things. One is it enhances economic productivity and GDP growth. The other thing it does is it brings down our debt and our spending. But the third and most important thing it does is it brings back our sense of national spirit and self-worth and individual self-confidence.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
For so many who have lost that in this culture of victimhood and entitlement and dependence on the government, it's time for us to graduate from the era of dependence and move back to our era of independents. You think about that as a modern day declaration of independence from the government, a modern day Northwest ordinance centered right here in Ohio. That's where I want to lead us.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
And I personally think, Glenn, a lot of politically homeless people, independents, libertarians, not just Republicans, maybe even some orphaned Reagan Democrats, will come along with us for this ride, and I think that's a good thing.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
I appreciate that. Best of luck. That means a lot to me. And we'll hopefully set a good example and learn some lessons from Texas as well. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
We will pay peanuts for it and we can make billions.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Sen. Mike Lee & Vivek Ramaswamy | 2/26/25
1860.