Vivek Ramaswamy praised Ann Coulter Wednesday for telling him that she would not have voted for him on the grounds that he is “an Indian.”
After giving a warm introduction to Coulter— “somebody I’ve been fascinated by for a long time”—on his “Truth Podcast” for an episode on “the N Word: Nationalism,” Ramaswamy then listened as Coulter returned the favor.
“I too am a fan of yours, though I’m going to make a point of disagreeing with you so that it will be fun,” she said. “You are so bright and articulate—and I guess I can call you articulate since you’re not an American Black, can’t say that about them, that’s derogatory.”
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Ramaswamy laughed at the comment, but then sat stony-faced as she addressed his heritage. After explaining that she agreed with what Ramaswamy had said during his failed campaign for the 2024 GOP nomination “more than most other candidates,” she went on: “I still would not have voted for you because you’re an Indian.”
“We’ll get back to that,” she added.
Coulter first went on a rant about nationalism, arguing that “Hitler had soup—that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have soup,” and claiming that the “only people who are not allowed to be proud of their ethnic group do tend to be Anglo Saxons.” She did not give an account of what role she believes soup played in the Third Reich as compared with nationalism.
Returning to her comment about Ramaswamy, who was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrants, she said: “There is a core national identity that is the identity of the WASP, and that doesn’t mean we can’t take anyone else in—a Sri Lankan, a Japanese, or an Indian—but the core around which the nation’s values are formed is the WASP.”
“We’ve never had a president who didn’t have at least partial English ancestry, never,” Coulter continued. “We’ve only had one Catholic president,” she added, apparently forgetting about either President Joe Biden or John F. Kennedy. “There was only one Catholic signatory to the Declaration of Independence. They were all not only protestants, but pretty much Presbyterian.”
Ramaswamy and Coulter then agreed they both oppose the idea of dual citizenship, with Ramaswamy arguing that the “essence of citizenship is which nation to whom you had your undivided loyalty.” “You and I agree on so much there,” he added, “But where I—I wouldn’t say ‘lose you’—but I may fail to fully understand you is, on that axis of citizenship, what does ethnicity have to do with the matter?”
Promoting the episode on X, Ramaswamy reiterated that he disagreed with what Coulter said, but nevertheless commended her for saying it. “‘@AnnCoulter told me flat-out to my face that she couldn’t vote for me ‘because you’re an Indian,’ even though she agreed with me more than most other candidates,” he wrote. “I disagree with her but respect she had the guts to speak her mind. It was a riveting hour.”
