Tesla CEO Elon Musk has praised Indian-American US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. In a post on social media platform X (earlier Twitter), Musk shared an interview of the Republican candidate with journalist Tucker Carlson and called him “very promising”.

In the interview, Vivek Ramaswamy slammed US President Joe Biden and his government on a series of issues from the state of the economy to the country’s reliance on China for semiconductors. The 38-year-old entrepreneur was called the “youngest Republican presidential candidate” by Carlson.

He is a very promising candidate https://t.co/bEQU8L21nd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2023

Musk’s praise for Ramaswamy comes a few weeks after the Republican presidential hopeful had slammed the X owner’s trip to China. Musk visited the communist country for the first time over three years to enhance Tesla’s prospects in the nation. The billionaire’s meeting with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang was criticised by Ramaswamy, as well as Musk’s statement on US and China being “conjoined twins”.

“I’ve been one of the most vocal supporters of Elon Musk’s effort to transform Twitter, but it’s a real risk to the US when the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) turns our most prominent business leaders and celebrities - Tim Cook, Larry Fink, LeBron James, Elon Musk - into puppets to advance their agenda. That tilts the global scales of perception in China’s favour - and sadly, it’s working,” Ramaswamy said.

I’m breaking an unspoken rule in the GOP, but I call it like I see it: it’s deeply concerning that @elonmusk met with China’s foreign minister yesterday to oppose decoupling and referred to the U.S. & Communist China as “conjoined twins.” Tesla’s VP in China reposted that… pic.twitter.com/UD26pweilX

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 31, 2023

Interestingly, Musk had backed Donald Trump’s rival and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the past. DeSantis used Twitter Spaces to announce his entry to the presidential election race.

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Vivek Ramaswamy is one of the three Republican candidates of Indian-origin, alongside Nikki Haley and Hirsh Vardhan Singh. Born to Indian parents who migrated from Kerala to the United States, Ramaswamy is a tech entrepreneur. He graduated from Harvard and Yale universities.

The entrepreneur worked at Wall Street hedge fund manager QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014, as per Business Insider. After leaving QVT, Ramaswamy set up his pharmaceutical firm Roivant.

The Republican presidential hopeful has written books like 'Woke Inc' and 'Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence'.

Ramaswamy was named as one of America's richest entrepreneurs under 40 by Forbes in 2016. He stepped down as Roivant's CEO in 2021 to devote more time to politics and writing.