‘Reinstate Trump, otherwise…’: Vivek Ramaswamy issues ultimatum after Colorado top court ruling

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy vowed on Tuesday to pull out from the GOP primary ballot in Colorado if the state’s Supreme Court does not let former US President Donald Trump contest in the US Presidential Elections next year.

“I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).

Ramaswamy, 38, also urged other Republican candidates like Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to withdraw from the Colorado polls immediately if the court doesn’t reinstate Trump on the ballot, “or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal manoeuvre which will have disastrous consequences for our country,” he said on X.

The top court on December 19 declared Trump ineligible for the US President’s office under the Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, due to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

Ramaswamy termed the court’s order as “un-American and unconstitutional”.

“This is what an actual attack on democracy looks like in an un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado.”

“Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now deploying a new tactic to bar him from ever holding office again: the 14th Amendment,” his post further read.

The biotech entrepreneur told ABC News that while it would be easier to win without the front-runner in the race, the state’s top court ruling against Trump strikes him as “appalling for the future of our country.”

“And to tell you the truth, it would be a lot easier for me to get elected if Trump wasn’t in this race, but that’s not – it’s not about me, and it’s not about another candidate,” Ramaswamy said.

“This is wrong. And I think that this is a flagrant violation of the rule of law,” he said.

Later, responding to how withdrawing from the ballot would affect his path to the nomination, Ramaswamy predicted that every remaining Republican candidate would follow suit.

“I think every Republican will end up withdrawing, which means that won’t affect anyone’s path to the nomination,” he said.

Following Ramaswamy’s statement, the Colorado Republican Party responded in a post on X, saying that he would not need to withdraw from the contest because they’d be shifting from the state-run primary to a party-run caucus if the ruling was to stand.