Ex-DOGE lead Vivek Ramaswamy defended his New York Times opinion piece titled ‘What Is an American?’ and stirred a row with social media, accusing the Republican politician of dismissing his Indian-origin race and blurring the grey line by saying “either you’re an American, or you’re not”.Ramaswamy posted on X describingg what he feels is the true ‘American identity’: “American identity isn’t a scalar quality that varies based on your ancestry. It’s binary: either you’re an American, or you’re not.” He added that an American is someone who believes in “the rule of law, in freedom of conscience & freedom of expression, in colorblind meritocracy, in the U.S. Constitution, in the American dream, and if you are a citizen who swears exclusive allegiance to our nation”.The comments were meant to back his NYT essay, in which he warns of two incompatible visions on the American right. One is rooted in “lineage, blood and soil”, a view being popularised by the Groyper right and increasingly embraces a white-centric identity. The other vision is based on shared ideals rather than ancestry.In the piece, Ramaswamy quoted founding father Ronald Reagan like he usually does in his speeches and posts: “Americanness isn’t a scalar quality that varies based on your ancestry. It’s binary: Either you’re an American or you’re not.” Furthermore, he wrote that someone can live in France, but “anyone from any corner of the world can come to live in the United States and become an American”. Social media response to Vivek saying ‘either you’re an American, or you’re not’:
- Indians will never be Americans dumb**s
- By what process do you propose to disenfranchise and/or deport people who do not believe in these things and therefore, according to you, are not Americans?
- American identity is White. You are NOT American. You are Indian and are going back.
- Wow thank you for telling us what OUR identity is Mr 2nd Gen immigrant. How on earth did we build a mighty globe spanning empire without this insight?
- You are a big pharma conman and not American. It’s called The American dream, because you have to be asleep to belive it.
- Non immigrant visa parents do not birth US citizen children. Neither of your parents had permanent residency status or citizenship on the day of your birth.
- You’re literally a brown anchor baby that made his wealth scamming Americans.
Ramaswamy also described facing racist, xenophobic abuse online, including slurs and calls to deport him “back to India”, despite being born and raised in Cincinnati. He even addressed how right-wing influencer Nick Fuentus called his wife Usha, who is also of Indian-origin, a “jeet”.The GOP leader also proposed solutions for the American economy, including condemning extremist rhetoric on the right without hesitation, lowering the cost of living, giving young Americans a stake in wealth creation through stock market investments, and launching a large national project to restore a shared sense of purpose.