Vivek Ramaswamy has been a Republican presidential candidate on the rise in recent weeks, with polls suggesting he could emerge as an alternative to former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
An Emerson College poll found Ramaswamy tied with DeSantis nationally ahead of the first Republican primary debate, but both candidates still trailed far behind Trump.
Ramaswamy’s new popularity seemingly caught the attention of Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as did comments he made in an interview with celebrity Russell Brand, The Hill reported.
The presidential hopeful suggested he would stop sending aid to Israel in 2028 when a $38 billion U.S. package is set to expire.
“[C]ome 2028, that additional aid won’t be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we’d actually have in the Middle East by having Israel more integrated in with its partners,” Ramaswamy said.
He called for the expansion of the Abraham Accords and said that Israel should be able to stand “on its own two feet.”
Haley responded on Monday morning on social media.
“[Ramaswamy] is completely wrong to call for ending America’s special bond with Israel,” she said in a post on Twitter. “Supporting Israel is both the morally right & strategically smart thing to do. This is part of a pattern with Vivek — his foreign policies have a common theme: they make America less safe.”
Ramaswamy was also recently criticized after telling CNN he would give parts of Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“This kind of foolish appeasement was attempted in the 20th century, and you can drop a plumb line to the rise of fascism and the Second World War. Never a good idea to give in to liars and bullies like Putin,” James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, told the Washington Examiner.
Still, as previously reported by The Dallas Express, there has been a marked decline among American voters who support spending taxpayer dollars on bolstering Ukraine’s war effort.
Haley said the entrepreneur’s comments were misguided.
“This is part of a concerning pattern with Vivek,” Haley said, per the Washington Examiner. “Between abandoning Israel, abolishing the FBI, and giving Taiwan to China, his foreign policy proposals have a common theme: they make America less safe.”
Haley and Ramaswamy also had an exchange over foreign policy at Wednesday night’s Republican primary debate.
“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don’t do that to friends, what you do instead is you have the backs of your friends,” said Haley, per The Times of Israel.
“You want to go and defund Israel,” Haley said. “You have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”
Ramaswamy responded: “Our relationship with Israel would never be stronger than by the end of my first term, but it’s not a client relationship, it’s a friendship and you know what friends do? Friends help each other stand on their own two feet.”
