--- title: Location of Ramaswamy Policy Speech Says a Lot About GOP Race description: Ramaswamy says he will use the speech to explain how he would eliminate the Dept of Education and other agencies without congressional support canonical: https://time.com/6313369/vivek-ramaswamys-speech-trump-think-tank/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-13T10:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-09-13T16:13:38.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Location of Ramaswamy Speech Speaks Volumes About GOP Race og:description: Ramaswamy says he will use the speech to explain how he would eliminate the Dept of Education and other agencies without congressional support og:url: https://time.com/6313369/vivek-ramaswamys-speech-trump-think-tank/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19baf8a7bdb0bca2/698a405316d8845195c3c36b/GettyImages-1674143750.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Visits "Varney & Co" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Location of Ramaswamy Speech Speaks Volumes About GOP Race twitter:description: Ramaswamy says he will use the speech to explain how he would eliminate the Dept of Education and other agencies without congressional support twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19baf8a7bdb0bca2/698a405316d8845195c3c36b/GettyImages-1674143750.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Location of Ramaswamy’s Next Speech May Matter More Than What He Says ## Video: Watch: Trump and 18 Co-Defendants Mug Shots In Georgia 2020 Election Case [Watch (HLS stream): Watch: Trump and 18 Co-Defendants Mug Shots In Georgia 2020 Election Case](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Om9Xen1b.m3u8) (1:29)  _Published 2023-08-25. Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by a grand jury in Georgia this week in connection with their alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Sep 13, 2023 4:13 PM UTCPublished: Sep 13, 2023 10:00 AM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy visits Fox Business Network Studios on September 11, 2023 in New York City. Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy visits Fox Business Network Studios on September 11, 2023 in New York City.John Lamparski—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Sep 13, 2023 4:13 PM UTCPublished: Sep 13, 2023 10:00 AM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Later this morning, Vikek Ramaswamy will stride into the lobby of a seven-story building on the boulevard between the Capitol and the White House to deliver what his campaign advisers call a major policy speech. The biotech investor intends to get in specifics of how exactly he plans to exploit the full powers of a [unitary](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq9nc) and nearly [unlimited](https://markrozell.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Rozell%5Fand%5FSollenberger%5FUE%5Fand%5FBush%5FLegacy%5FChapter%5F2013.pdf) executive branch in ways that Donald Trump fell short of doing, like shutting down the FBI and the Department of Education. This is not surprising policy fare coming from a presidential candidate in 2023\. What is more notable is the location. Rather than traveling to an early primary state to spell out how he plans to scrap a huge portion of the federal workforce without consulting Congress, [Ramaswamy](https://time.com/6305440/vivek-ramaswamy-interview-republican-primary/) is rolling out his framework at the offices of a think tank widely seen as largely existing to serve as a White House-in-waiting for his chief rival. That’s right. Ramaswamy is speaking at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit helmed by his loyalists and headquartered kitty-corner to his former flagship D.C. hotel. Officially independent of the Trump campaign and nominally [nonpartisan](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/22/trump-alumni-think-tank-joins-forces-with-america-first-works-dark-money-group.html), it nonetheless draws funding from his super PAC (along with [anonymous](https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumpworld-think-tank-america-first-policy-institute-is-barely-paying-its-bills) megadonors) and counts former top Trump aides like [Linda McMahon](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-political-insider-mcmahon-avoids-social-security-2010sep17-story.html) and [Larry Kudlow](https://time.com/5231532/donald-trump-china-tariffs-trade-war/) as leaders. But much like The Center for American Progress was [seen](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/hillary-clinton-donors-center-american-progress-114458) as ClintonLand in Exile, America First is Trump’s [hot plate](https://time.com/6201278/trump-america-first-policy-institute-republicans/) for the smarties who might, in the next term, finish the unfinished job. This one is, to its credit, doing some legitimate [scholarship](https://time.com/6199797/trump-first-speech-washingon-comeback/). ### More From TIME Even as he is chasing the same prize as Trump, the fact that Ramaswamy is dropping by a surprisingly large organization that has proven safe harbor for Trump’s policy-minded braintrust should he return to power is remarkable. That the seeming contradiction doesn’t matter will undoubtedly fuel suspicion that Ramaswamy is a sleeper Trump ally who’s not sincerely aiming to win the GOP nomination. After all, from the start, the first-time candidate has been in [lockstep](https://time.com/6265036/vivek-ramaswamy-trump-defense-indictment/) with the Trumpian elements of a party he hopes to lead, either this cycle or down the line. Maybe he’s a [plant](https://twitter.com/bdomenech/status/1695592497643225331); maybe he’s something else. Ramaswamy isn’t doing this for giggles. Perhaps the most cold-eyed sniper in the field, Ramaswamy has been Trump’s most loyal defender, if not apologist. Trump remains the frontrunner—he’s 40 points ahead of any rival in the national [aggregate](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/2024%5Frepublican%5Fpresidential%5Fnomination-7548.html), including ahead of the 38-year-old Ramaswamey—and he clearly is not going to be partnering up with his first Vice President, a perceived [disloyal](https://time.com/6180484/mike-pence-georgia-kemp-trump-2024/) Mike [Pence](https://time.com/4793901/vice-president-mike-pence/). For some contenders, the race is more an opportunity for the candidates to audition as Trump’s running mate or members of a potential Cabinet. For Ramaswamy, it’s a hyperloop of a launch for someone who has hitched his wagon to the star of anti-wokeness. A Wall Street _Journal_ [poll](https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-is-top-choice-for-nearly-60-of-gop-voters-wsj-poll-shows-877252b6?mod=article%5Finline) showed 55% of GOP primary voters have a favorable view of Ramaswamy, while 26% hold an unfavorable opinion of him—leaving him with plenty of potential for growth, certainly better than the likes of [Pence](https://time.com/4606111/mike-pence-is-no-ordinary-wingman/) or ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. And with Trump’s legal [woes](https://time.com/6304861/why-donald-trumps-indictment-georgia-carries-most-risk/) showing no signs of abating, it’s not foolish to think that being a Trump understudy in a Trumpist party is a smart way to replace the former President at some point in the future. Trump, Trump, Trump has been the drumbeat of the GOP since he coasted down that faux-gold escalator, scratching the master recording of American politics. Again: Trump, Trump, Trump. Even Trump’s most compatible competitors are gauged against him as the barometer for what it means to be a modern Republican. The conservative [movement](https://time.com/6311494/mike-pence-populism-donald-trump-gop-future/) has set its own course, but it’s not apparent that it has a future beyond the Capitol Hill think tanks that date back to the 1970s and ‘80s. For much of the current GOP, the defining factor is rooted in what started on the soundstage of _The Apprentice_, bloomed in the grievance graveyard of Trump’s 2016 [campaign](https://time.com/4529433/inside-donald-trump-total-meltdown/), and metastasized in his White House. Two [impeachments](https://time.com/5887675/whistleblower-complaint-trump-impeachment-deja-vue/), one failed [insurrection](https://time.com/5927664/capital-siege-trump-supporters/), four [indictments](https://time.com/6269056/trump-indictment-not-celebrity-trial/)—and counting—have left Americans exhausted, but as many of them are ready to vote for him as for incumbent President Joe Biden, according to [polling](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/general-election-trump-vs-biden-7383.html). Which brings us back to Ramaswamy, a tech bro of the first order who may be the shrewdest analyst of the contemporary Republican Party. Even when you catch Ramaswamy from a distance or in profile, it’s easy to think he’s wearing a Trump cap on his noggin. A second glance [reveals](https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/the-brash-strategy-that-made-vivek-ramaswamy-a-fortune-ef6b8cdb) he’s promoting “truth”—still not a far reach from Trump’s own social media [platform](https://time.com/6216670/trump-truth-social-struggles/), TRUTH Social. Given a chance to even ding Trump, Ramaswamy can only muster that he’s America First 2.0—positioning himself as the heir to the modern Trumpist reboot of rhetoric that has far, far darker [roots](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/americans-and-the-holocaust/560495/) than 2015. And that, right there, is why Ramaswamy is heading to Trump’s _de facto_ donor HQ in downtown D.C. He may arrive with hat in hand. But he may well walk out having left a good impression—either of himself or of the man he hopes to follow. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6313369/vivek-ramaswamys-speech-trump-think-tank/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6313369/vivek-ramaswamys-speech-trump-think-tank/"},"headline":"Why the Location of Ramaswamy’s Next Speech May Matter More Than What He Says","datePublished":"2023-09-13T10:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-13T16:13:38.000Z","description":"Ramaswamy is expected to use the speech to explain how he would eliminate the Department of Education and other agencies without congressional support","url":"https://time.com/6313369/vivek-ramaswamys-speech-trump-think-tank/","keywords":["The D.C. 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