Former President Donald Trump seemed receptive to the idea of having GOP presidential opponent Vivek Ramaswamy as his vice president ― and one critical reason emerged. (Watch the video below.)
“Anybody that said I’m the best president in a generation … I have to like a guy like that,” Trump told Glenn Beck on Blaze TV when asked about Ramaswamy as a potential running mate on Tuesday.
Trump remains the heavy favorite for the Republican nomination, while Ramaswamy is third in many polls.
“He’s a smart guy. He’s a young guy. He’s got a lot of talent. He’s a very, very, very intelligent person,” added Trump, who faces four indictments and possible trials on the campaign trail. “He’s got good energy, and he could be in some form of something. I tell ya, I think he’d be very good. I think he’s really distinguished himself.”
Trump lightly warned Ramaswamy about “getting a little bit controversial.”
“Some things you have to hold in just a little bit,” the former president advised.
Ramaswamy has pledged to pardon Trump if he were to win the presidency and called him “the best president of the 21st century” during the first GOP debate, which Trump did not attend. In a recent interview, the 38-year-old entrepreneur was confronted with the 91 criminal charges that Trump faces. He questioned some of Trump’s decisions but not his criminality.
As for the controversy Trump may have been referring to, Ramaswamy caused a firestorm last week when he framed Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), “How To Be An Antiracist” author Ibram X. Kendi, and other progressive anti-racists as akin to “grand wizards of the modern KKK.”