Vivek Ramaswamy Secretly Thinks Elon Musk Is in “China’s Pocket”
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk may be on the same team now that Donald Trump has named them co-chairs of the still-in-the-works Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, but behind closed doors, Ramaswamy has reportedly spent years bad-mouthing the Tesla CEO.A new report by CNN’s K-File uncovered audio and video recordings in which Ramaswamy openly derided the SpaceX founder, routinely referring to Musk as a “circus monkey,” while accusing him of “bending the knee to Xi Jinping” when it came to international economics.“I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in May 2023, while discussing Musk’s decision to build a battery plant in Shanghai. “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”Ramaswamy’s more pointed critiques honed in on Musk’s comments about Taiwan, after the carmaker drew praise from Chinese officials in 2022 for claiming that the former Chinese colony should become a “special administrative zone.” That, according to Ramaswamy, was little more than a successful political ploy for Musk to obtain regulatory approvals and tax breaks from the Chinese Communist Party for his Shanghai factory, which singularly accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global sales in 2023.Musk’s apparent aptitude for political games for the benefit of his own companies ultimately calls into question his appointment to a (still nonexistent) agency with high ambitions of cutting government spending, and whether he’ll follow through on those claims or simply restructure the government from the inside to line his own wallet.“Both Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding, either through subsidies, through the electric car industry, or through actual government contracting in the case of SpaceX,” Ramaswamy said in 2022 on a Fox News podcast. “Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China.”In a lengthy 2023 post on X in which Ramaswamy openly targeted Musk, the biotech billionaire wrote that “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.”In a statement to CNN, Ramaswamy said that the pair had “aired some of these issues” the first time they spoke.“I love him and respect the hell out of him, and I’m proud to call him a friend. The only country he puts first is the same one I do: the United States of America,” Ramaswamy told the network.
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk may be on the same team now that Donald Trump has named them co-chairs of the still-in-the-works Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, but behind closed doors, Ramaswamy has reportedly spent years bad-mouthing the Tesla CEO.
A new report by CNN’s K-File uncovered audio and video recordings in which Ramaswamy openly derided the SpaceX founder, routinely referring to Musk as a “circus monkey,” while accusing him of “bending the knee to Xi Jinping” when it came to international economics.
“I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in May 2023, while discussing Musk’s decision to build a battery plant in Shanghai. “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”
Ramaswamy’s more pointed critiques honed in on Musk’s comments about Taiwan, after the carmaker drew praise from Chinese officials in 2022 for claiming that the former Chinese colony should become a “special administrative zone.” That, according to Ramaswamy, was little more than a successful political ploy for Musk to obtain regulatory approvals and tax breaks from the Chinese Communist Party for his Shanghai factory, which singularly accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global sales in 2023.
Musk’s apparent aptitude for political games for the benefit of his own companies ultimately calls into question his appointment to a (still nonexistent) agency with high ambitions of cutting government spending, and whether he’ll follow through on those claims or simply restructure the government from the inside to line his own wallet.
“Both Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding, either through subsidies, through the electric car industry, or through actual government contracting in the case of SpaceX,” Ramaswamy said in 2022 on a Fox News podcast. “Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China.”
In a lengthy 2023 post on X in which Ramaswamy openly targeted Musk, the biotech billionaire wrote that “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.”
In a statement to CNN, Ramaswamy said that the pair had “aired some of these issues” the first time they spoke.
“I love him and respect the hell out of him, and I’m proud to call him a friend. The only country he puts first is the same one I do: the United States of America,” Ramaswamy told the network.
