Ramaswamy says DOGE hostility comes from ‘irrationality,’ defends Trump, Musk

Although he walked away from running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy believes he knows the root of the hostility facing Musk and his waste-slashing agency. 

“It comes from a place of irrationality. For the last several years, people have had Trump Derangement Syndrome. That derangement syndrome has now expanded to include Elon and others,” Ramaswamy said Thursday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.” 

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Since taking office, President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE agenda have faced mounting scrutiny from several Democrats and media outlets.

The latest wave of criticism facing the Tesla founder concerned his South African heritage.

“The View” co-host Joy Behar corrected herself on Thursday after claiming that Elon Musk was “pro-apartheid,” conceding that she really had no idea whether he was or not. 

During the first segment of Thursday’s show, Behar described Musk as “the guy, who was not born in this country, who was born under apartheid in South Africa, so has that mentality going on. He was pro-apartheid as I understand it.”

“I think this is just perfectly wonderful for Trump. He can take a nap and let this foreigner — foreign agent, you know, an enemy of the United States — do his job,” she added. 

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that Musk, who was born in South Africa, is a naturalized citizen of the United States earlier in the discussion, after Behar made the claim. 

“I’m getting some flack because I said that Musk was pro-apartheid. I don’t really know for sure if he was,” Behar said at the start of their second segment. “He grew up in that time when it was full-blown before the great Nelson Mandela fixed that. He was around at that time — maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. He might have been a young guy too, so don’t be suing me, OK, Elon?” 

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Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, sparked a firestorm on social media over comments questioning Musk’s allegiance to the United States given that he has been a citizen for “only” 22 years.

“Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years,” Kaptur said outside the Capitol on Wednesday. “And he’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question, with the damage he’s doing here, when push comes to shove, which country is his loyalty to? South Africa? Canada? Or the United States? And he’s only been a citizen, I’ll say again, 22 years.”

Kaptur, who has served in Congress since 1983, drew criticism on social media from conservatives accusing her of hypocrisy and using language that Republicans would be pilloried for using. 

Despite the latest wave of criticism, Ramaswamy praised the Trump administration for “leading us to a golden era for America.”

“That new golden age in our country will also be a golden age for federalism. Just kick it down to the states. That’s what our founders envisioned,” Ramaswamy told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “Get it out of Washington, D.C., and I think that’s going to be good not just for Republicans, but for Democrats across the country as well, who deserve transparency into how their taxpayer dollars are being spent and who deserve to have lower taxes as a consequence of that waste, fraud and abuse no longer existing in the system.”

The multi-millionaire entrepreneur also said he wants to see DOGE reforms “become lasting changes, codified through legislation.”

“We got to make sure that these are permanent changes, and I’m confident,” he said. “The steps are taken out of the gate. You got to go fast. You got to go quickly when Donald Trump was given the mandate that he’s been given. The mandate the voters gave Donald Trump was not for incremental change around the edges. The mandate last November was a mandate for sweeping, positive change in the country.”

The Ohio GOP hopeful also responded to those claiming the administration is “moving too fast,” arguing the problem is the previous “four years.”

“The problem is we had four years of open borders, overspending, victimhood culture, woke indoctrination, racial preferences,” Ramaswamy said. “Against that backdrop, ballooning, national debt, foreign wars popping up left and right, the largest infiltration of illegal immigrants into this country in American history. If you don’t move fast against those four years, that’s exactly what Donald Trump’s doing, and it’s how we’re going to win our country back.”

Ramaswamy officially declared his candidacy for Ohio governor Monday at a rally in Cincinnati after months of speculation. 

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is term-limited and ineligible to run again once his second term expires in January 2027. The governor’s race will be held in November 2026.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan, Landon Mion, Andrew Mark Miller and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.