If Trump Doesn't Pick Vivek for PressSec Then He's Dead to Me

Vivek Ramaswamy "suspended" his presidential campaign after a disappointing fourth-place finish Monday night, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't end up in the White House next year.

Not the Oval Office. Certainly not in the Executive Residence. But if Donald Trump transmutes from POTUS 45 to POTUS 47 next November, then Ramaswamy absolutely deserves a plum gig in the Re-Trump White House come January.

In fact, if The Donald doesn't name The Vivek as the White House Press Secretary, he'll be dead to me.

I exaggerate, of course, but maybe not by much. Trump wasted some opportunities during his first go-round, particularly with some of his early personnel picks. Choosing Ramaswamy as his White House Pit Bull is an opportunity he maybe can't afford to waste.

Before we get to Vivek's new job, there are a couple of other things I need to quickly mention.

First, please let me say that I harbor no ill will towards Kayleigh McEnany — believe me. She was one of the best White House PressSecs in history, if not the best, combining razor-sharp wit with TV-friendly looks.

"TV-friendly looks" was my attempt at British understatement. How'd I do?

If Trump decided to say, "You're re-hired!" to McEnany, I suppose that, eventually, I'd find it in my heart to forgive him. And when I say, "eventually," what I really mean is, "I'd get over it the first time McEnany's TV-friendly looks were back on TV."

Second, why does the press insist on going with this fiction that candidates ever "suspend" their primary campaigns? Nobody suspends anything. They drop out, period, never to return. The only counterexample that comes to mind is Ross Perot in 1992. If you'll recall, Perot suddenly quit running in July, only to jump back in just as suddenly just five or six weeks before the election.

But as an independent, Perot never ran in any primaries. Also, the skittish He's-In/He's-Out/He's-Back-In thing helped downshift him from "OMG an independent could win" to "AYFKM with this guy?"

Now back to Ramaswamy, who just quit his campaign and endorsed Trump.

As Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know, I wasn't that big a fan of Vivek during his presidential run. He would say some great and outrageous things, sure — some real crowd-pleasers. But let me use some of that British understatement again and say that I found his conservative principles to be of too recent a vintage to truly impress.

But Vivek's superpower doesn't rely on how long he's held his conservative principles or even whether they're genuine. Re-watch this classic moment from two weeks ago showing his Kryptonian-like strength at turning the tables on the mainstream media:

WAPO reporter doubles down: You didn’t say that you condemn white supremacy though.

She immediately regrets it.@VivekGRamaswamy isn’t going to play the game. pic.twitter.com/2NHshriVZa
— Chris Carapezza (@Chris_Carapezza) January 3, 2024

That wasn't a one-off performance, either. Watch again this clip from December, when Ramaswamy turned the tables in a similar fashion on MSDNC press agent Abby Phillip.

There are more examples. You've probably already seen those, too. Two or three times, if you're anything like me.

So do I want this guy with those killer instincts standing behind the Briefing Room five days a week? You're damn right I do. Ramaswamy would be hurling red meat at the DNC's press agents more often than Karine Jean-Pierre checks her crib sheets — and it would be glorious.

But if Kayleigh McEnany were to come back instead... I suppose that would be OK, too.