Trumpian rich boys Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have become quite chummy since being gifted positions as powerful unelected bureaucrats influencing the finances of the federal government — but things weren't always this friendly.
According to recordings and social media posts obtained by CNN's K-File, Ramswamy once described Musk, the Tesla billionaire who is now his co-director at the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as a puppet of the Chinese government.
“I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in 2023. “I have no reason to think Elon won't jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”
In another 2022 interview, the businessman-turned-Republican politician said that “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.”
That same year Ramaswamy bashed Musk after the Tesla owner suggested that Taiwan should become a “special administrative zone” of the Chinese government. Ramaswamy criticized the comment, telling the UnHerd podcast that Musk “got a nice 'attaboy' […] a little pat on the back when his Shanghai factory and regulator in China gave him a nice little tax break within days after him having made that comment about Taiwan.”
In that same interview, Ramaswamy said that Musk — and Apple CEO Tim Cook — were beholden to the “same master”: The Chinese Communist Party.
In May 2023, Ramaswamy posted a video on Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) criticizing the billionaire for meeting with China's foreign minister. “It's a real risk to the US when the CCP turns our most prominent business leaders & celebrities – Tim Cook, Larry Fink, LeBron James, Elon Musk – into puppets to advance their agenda,” he wrote. “The US needs leaders who aren't in China's pocket.”
In another post written that June, Ramaswamy bashed Musk's posture as a “free speech” crusader given his capitulations to China. “The crusader for 'free speech' (@elonmusk) kisses the ring of the world's biggest censor: Xi Jinping.”
The quest for power, however, can make friends of the staunchest rivals. Musk and Ramaswamy both threw their support behind President-elect Donald Trump's campaign to retake the White House, and were rewarded for their obeisance with influential positions in Trump's new administration. The pair have been tasked with heading DOGE, a so-called department (which has not been sanctioned by Congress) tasked with taking a chainsaw to government spending and — as Trump put it — “dismantling Government Bureaucracy.”
Many are skeptical of the true impact the department will have. Musk holds lucrative federal contracts and benefits from government subsidies that support the development of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. There is well founded concern that the “department” may be used to suppress competition to Musk's corporations, especially given that Ramaswamy has already vowed that DOGE will “carefully scrutinize” federal loans granted to competing EV companies by the Biden administration. Musk has also hyped up the prospect of his involvement in efforts to revoke large swaths of regulatory oversight that affect his companies.
The influence Musk and Ramaswamy will have within the Trump administration will, in virtually any scenario, be lucrative for them personally. If Ramaswamy once doubted Musk's loyalty to the nation, he now knows his position in Trump's good graces is best assured by towing the GOP line. “I love him and respect the hell out of him,” Ramaswamy told CNN on Wednesday. “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.”
