Ramaswamy vows to restore American values, close border if Trump is elected

Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy vowed Tuesday night to help fight to restore American values and freedoms if former President Donald Trump is re-elected in November.

From the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the entrepreneur from Ohio and founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences said Republicans must do more than criticize President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, they must fight for their own vision.

"We're in the middle of a national identity crisis right now," Ramaswamy said. "Faith. Patriotism. Hard work. And family have disappeared, only to be replaced by race, gender, sexuality and climate. But we're not going to win this election just by criticizing the other side. We're going to win this by standing for our own vision of who we really are."

Quoting Martin Luther King Jr, Ramaswamy described what he thinks it means to be a Republican.

"It means we believe in the ideals of 1776," he said. "It means we believe in merit, that you get ahead in this country not by the color of your skin, but on the content of your character, and your contributions."

The son of legal immigrants, Ramaswamy addressed the ongoing border crisis, arguing the first act of someone entering the country cannot be by breaking the law.

"That's why we seal the southern border on day one," he said, adding that a new Trump administration will return foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally "to your country of origin not because you're all bad people, but because you broke the law."

Under Biden, more than 12 million people have entered the U.S. illegally, The Center Square previously reported. Republicans have sounded the alarm about known or suspected terrorists who have illegally entered since 2021.

Ramaswamy has been an ardent supporter of Trump and his border policies, even when he was running against the former president during the GOP primary. Ramaswamy dropped out of the race in January and endorsed Trump, who made his first appearance of the night at the end of Ramaswamy's speech. Bandage again on his right ear covering the gunshot would he suffered just three days prior at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump again received a loud ovation.

On Monday, Trump transitioned from being the presumptive nominee of his party to the official nominee and he announced U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate.