Former Trump Press Secretary McEnany Praises Ramaswamy: ‘He’s Smart, He’s Authentic’

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday compared Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to former President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.

“He’s smart, he’s authentic, and he is the O-word: an outsider,” said McEnany on Fox News. “Remember Donald Trump 2016, he was the outsider, he’s authentic, he’s real. That’s what Vivek has.”

Like Trump, Ramaswamy has no prior political experience and worked as a businessman before running for president. An unknown before the primary, he has consistently polled third in polls of likely Republican primary voters, with one recent poll even showing him tied for second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

McEnany said that Ramaswamy succeeds in large part to his success at retail politics, saying that “people love” the videos he posts to social media of his behind-the-scenes life, such as playing tennis and exercising with his wife. She warned that Ramaswamy will have to change his tune on foreign policy to succeed in the Republican primary–particularly on Israel and Taiwan, which he believes the United States should stop supporting.

“He's got to separate himself from those comments,” McEnany said of Ramaswamy’s approach to foreign policy at the first Republican primary debate. “And he's got to be the same authentic person we've seen.”