Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy was referred to as a "promising candidate" by Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday after Ramaswamy called to reduce the aid given to Israel by the United States.
Musk reacted to a post shared by former FOX News presenter Tucker Carlson showing a clip from an interview conducted with Ramaswamy.
"Vivek Ramaswamy is the youngest Republican presidential candidate ever. He's worth listening to," Carlson wrote on X.
He is a very promising candidate https://t.co/bEQU8L21nd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2023
In an interview on Rumble, a platform popular with far-right viewers, Ramaswamy said Israel should not get more aid than its Middle Eastern neighbors after 2028, the year that the current US aid package of $38 billion expires.
He said that he would expand the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries. After Israel is “more integrated” with its neighboring countries, Ramaswamy said, Israel should be able to stand “on its own two feet” financially.
Ramaswamy, who seems to have garnered the support of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, is soaring in recent polls and he is now close behind Ron DeSantis. A Fox News survey published Wednesday found 11% of respondents support him, compared to 16% for DeSantis and 53% for Trump.
Elon Musk's antisemitic controversies
Elon Musk had been embroiled in antisemitic controversies as late as this week, when he was called out on X by the Auschwitz Memorial, which said in a post that it had reported an antisemitic message on the site but received a response from X that the content did not violate its rules.
The memorial posted screenshots of the post and what it said was X's reply to its complaint.
Musk has described himself as a free-speech absolutist, but some critics have said his approach is irresponsible.For @X such antisemitic message:"Still about those disgusting Jews.... Sad that no one talks about the 80 million victims of the second war, they are probably "worse" than this Jewish vermin. May they burn in hell, phooey."is no violation of the Twitter rules. @elonmusk… pic.twitter.com/sJdaGL4xf1
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 17, 2023
Researchers have found increasing hate speech and antisemitic content on the platform since he took over, and some governments have accused the company of not doing enough to moderate its content.
Gabe Friedman/JTA contributed to this report.