The partnership between tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk as they begin working for Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may be off to an awkward start after CNN dug up some attacks Ramaswamy made about his partner in rooting out what they believe to be government inefficiency.
According to a report from CNN's KFiles, Musk came under fire from his co-chair for comments he made about China's policies with Ramaswamy smearing Musk as a "circus monkey."
The report notes that Ramaswamy has long been a critic of Musk for his support of China's communist government and in 2022 he unleashed a wave of criticism.
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Addressing Musk remark's that "Taiwan should become a special administrative region of China," Ramaswamy stated, "I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China," before accusing, "I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”
In a Fox News podcast, he added, "Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China."
CNN is reporting, "Ramaswamy’s own words could be used by critics to question Musk’s role as a government cost-cutter, given how much his own companies have benefited over the years from billions of dollars in government contracts and assistance."
On that note, the report states Ramaswamy has also previously called out Musk's reliance on government subsidies to become one of the wealthiest men in the world, with the tech entrepreneur also having previously proclaimed, “Both Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding, either through subsidies, through the electric car industry, or through actual government contracting in the case of SpaceX."
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