New York

Former US president Donald Trump targeted his rival Vivek Ramaswamy, urging his supporters to not 'waste' their vote on the rookie in the presidential nomination race. Trump's statement comes a couple of days prior to the Iowa caucuses and signals a shift in strategy against Ramaswamy. 

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Up until now, Trump had been rather unreactive on Ramaswamy and kept his distance from the Republican challenger. However, with Ramaswamy building up steam in his campaign and flicking away some of the established leaders, Trump has been forced to take evasive actions. 

"Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, "the best President in generations," etc. Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. 

Trump was reportedly miffed by Ramaswamy's campaign wherein he is handing out shirts that say 'Save Trump, Vote Vivek' on them. Ramaswamy posted a picture of his young supporters posing with him, wearing the shirt, on social media, which caught the attention of Trump. 

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"Very sly, but a vote for Vivek is a vote for the "other side" — don't get duped by this. Vote for "TRUMP," don't waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA," Trump added. 

While Trump kept the attack fairly docile, his campaign advisor Chris LaCivita took it a notch above, calling Ramaswamy a 'fraud'. 

"Here is a great picture of this campaigns number one FRAUD. Trump doesnt need "saving"," wrote LaCivita on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

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"Here’s the plot : @VivekGRamaswamy is a fraud …and a classic conman…a classic “pump and dump” scheme on the MAGA movement," he added. 

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After Trump's attack, Ramaswamy doubled down on his admiration of the former president, dubbing him as the "best president of the 21st century" who he respected the "hell out of". 

However, he issued a word of caution by adding: "I’ve defended him at every step against the unjust persecutions,” he said in a statement. “But open your eyes to the hard truth: This system will stop at nothing to keep this man away from the White House. Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”

Also read | Donald Trump mocks Biden with 'White House Senior Living' campaign video

Iowa caucus

After several rounds of debates, the Iowans will cast the first votes in the 2024 presidential nomination process on Monday (Jan 15).

According to the Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll released on Saturday night, Trump was leading in the state with 48 per cent votes, with Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis occupying the subsequent spots with 20 and 16 per cent votes, respectively.

Ramaswamy occupied the fourth position with only eight per cent votes to his name. 

(With inputs from agencies)