Lots of ambitious politicians — like “basic Chinese dictatorship” admirer Justin Trudeau up north or any mainstream Democrat, for that matter — would be positively thrilled to earn the Young Global Leader designation from the World Economic Forum. It’s sort of like the “Top 40 Under 40” for aspirational authoritarian despots.
Vivek Ramaswamy, currently in a solid third place in GOP primary polling as the Trump-adjacent populist alternative to the former president, is apparently not one of the politicians jockeying for favor with the WEF.
Via Fox News:
Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has settled his lawsuit against the “globalist” World Economic Forum (WEF) for “creating a false perception” he was affiliated with the organization, and has promised to donate the settlement money to a conservative nonprofit.
Ramaswamy slapped the organization with a lawsuit in a Cincinnati, Ohio court in April after it failed to remove his name from its 2021 list of Young Global Leaders even though he declined the nomination to the list and requested multiple times for them to remove his name.
“Two years ago, WEF tried to throw false bait by naming me a ‘Young Global Leader’ when I explicitly rejected their ridiculous award. They repeatedly failed to remove my name despite escalating demands. So I sued them. And we just succeeded,” Ramaswamy wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday.
I've been the leading opponent in America of the World Economic Forum's agenda, through two books & my most recent company Strive which finally put BlackRock & the ESG movement on their back foot. Two years ago, WEF tried to throw false bait by naming me a “Young Global Leader”… pic.twitter.com/wRVhLc3x9B
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 1, 2023
In a letter from the World Economic Forum’s lawyers that Ramaswamy also posted an image of to X, written ostensibly to “apologize for this mistake,” the organization’s representatives say that “the Forum acknowledges that this continued inclusion on a [Young Global Leaders material] may have incorrectly implied an association with the Forum, and for that reason, the Forum apologizes for its unintentional error.”
Related: Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Doesn’t Believe Government ‘Has Told The Truth’ About 9/11
The ultimate question is, would Ramaswamy be so adamant about rejecting the much-coveted distinction (among a certain class of politician) if the GOP base, particularly the Trump base that Ramswamy is courting, were not so vehemently opposed to the machinations of the World Economic Forum?
In other words, is Ramaswamy a genuine populist or just playing one for the votes? We must never take off the table the possibility of a Trojan Horse, no matter how shiny the packaging. This isn’t to say, of course, that the candidate is disingenuous — only that due diligence warrants some degree of skepticism until he proves his bona fides in policy prescriptions and, ultimately, execution of those policy prescriptions if he were to assume office. So far, though, in all fairness, he comes off looking pretty good.
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