Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy evoked lessons from decades of “American exceptionalism” as he outlined his foreign policy plans for the United States during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library Thursday night.
Speaking before a crowd of about 900 people, Ramaswamy opened up by touting his story of success as “the American dream” but noted that present circumstances might prohibit that dream from being possible for his two young children. Amid pressing scrutiny over his foreign policy plans, Ramaswamy detailed what he believes the U.S. must do to shore up its prosperity.
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Ramaswamy fashions his foreign policy as a “modern Monroe Doctrine,” in which the U.S. is happy to work with other countries that serve its long-term interests and will “cut them off” if they don’t.
The conservative entrepreneur aims for “realism, not moralism” in his vision of the U.S.’s future, and in his speech, he disavowed “liberal hegemony” and “a rules-based international order.” With common conservative principles leading the way, Ramaswamy wants the driving objective of his foreign policy plans to be “America comes first.”
The GOP presidential candidate summoned past presidents and their contributions to the nation. To Ramaswamy, George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address provides a template for focusing on only the world’s regions where the U.S. has a direct stake. And Richard Nixon, a leader Ramaswamy praised repeatedly, and his visit to China in 1972 illustrated how the U.S. must face its two greatest foes.
“The Russia-China alliance represents the single greatest military threat the U.S. faces today,” Ramaswamy said. And much like Nixon soured relations between China and the U.S.S.R. in the 1970s, Ramaswamy believes Washington can do this with the present-day powers. However, instead of working through China this time, he sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as the key.
With a chuckle, Ramaswamy admitted he is against the bipartisan compromise of the U.S. providing billions in aid to Ukraine. He sees an agreement with Russia as far more essential, but how to achieve this? In his view, Russia can trust the U.S. by trusting that it is following its self-interests, and the U.S. can trust Putin by doing the same.
The presidential contender would ease Moscow’s economic burdens and guarantee the Kremlin that Ukraine will never be a NATO member. In return, he would demand that Russia drop its military presence in the Western Hemisphere and remove its nuclear weapons from Kaliningrad. He said he would “end the war in Ukraine on terms that require Vladimir Putin” to end his relationship with China.
With his opinions on Ukraine clearly stated, it would not surprise many that Ramaswamy is not Taiwan’s biggest defender, either. He believes we must cut the ambiguity with Taiwan and be direct with it. Should its continued aspirations of independence prevail in the island’s next election, it must bolster its defense spending, Ramaswamy said. And semiconductor independence, to him, must be ensured so that the U.S. does not need to rely on an island halfway across the world or China.
Ramaswamy’s speech came just days after he floated a controversial plan to let China attack Taiwan after 2028, when he believes the U.S. could have semiconductor independence.
By preaching a nationalist theme and stressing the U.S.’s need to rid its reliance on other countries, Ramaswamy’s speech followed many conservative tenets. But he refused to follow the rhetoric of decline that many of his Republican foes echo and former President Donald Trump used to help get him elected in 2016.
To Ramaswamy, even if the U.S. is in an identity crisis, especially among the younger generations, that does not mean the ship is sinking. Maybe the stage the U.S. is in is just the adolescence of a relatively young country, he pondered, and what if, with the question of where we are and where we’re going, “we are stronger for it when we reach our adulthood on the other side.”
“I believe we can still be a nation on our ascent. … That is our obligation to the world to be strong at home.”
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Ramaswamy’s speech was part of the Richard Nixon Foundation’s 2024 Presidential Policy Perspective candidate series.
He is rising steadily in the polls, sitting at third place in most national polls behind Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), with a RealClearPolitics average of 6.7%.
