Jimmy Kimmel trolls Ramaswamy for kissing Trump’s ‘orange a**’
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel trolled Vivek Ramaswamy during his show on Tuesday night for kissing Donald Trump’s “orange ass”.
Shortly after coming fourth place in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Mr Ramaswamy announced that he was officially retiring his presidential run and backing Donald Trump for president.
“We did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight ... as of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign,” he told his supporters.
“There’s no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country,” he added.
“As I’ve said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race and I called Donald Trump to tell him that. I congratulated him on his victory and now going forward he will have my full endorsement for the presidency, and I think we’re gonna do the right thing for this country,” he said.
Mr Ramaswamy has spent much of his presidential campaign praising the former president, describing him as “the best president of the 21st century”.
Following his loss in Iowa, the 39-year-old entrepreneur said he called Mr Trump, who won 51 per cent of the vote, to congratulate him on his win.
“Even though he was running against Trump, he never missed an opportunity to plant one on his big orange ass,” said Mr Kimmel.
“And that call went straight to voicemail,” Mr Kimmel joked. “He’s never going to hook up with you, dude. It’s just not gonna happen.”
The HBO host also took the opportunity to troll Mr Ramaswamy for his performance in Iowa, where he won just eight per cent of the vote, coming behind Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
“It wasn’t for a lack of trying,” Mr Kimmel said of Mr Ramaswamy’s performance. “He spent a lot of time in Iowa, and before voting began yesterday he went on Twitter to remind voters how much is at stake. As Iowans got ready to vote in the caucus, he wrote: ‘There are two genders. And no, a man cannot become a woman.’”
“What is that, note to self?” Mr Kimmel wondered, before adding that “neither of them voted for [Ramaswamy].”
On Tuesday night, Mr Ramaswamy joined the former president on stage at a rally in New Hampshire, where they teased the possibility that he is tapped to be his running mate.
Back in August, Mr Trump had told a conservative TV host that he was mulling Mr Ramaswamy as a potential contender.
However, in a blistering attack on Saturday on his Truth Social platform ahead of the Republican Iowa caucuses, Mr Trump accused Mr Ramaswamy of being “sly”, having “deceitful campaign tricks” and not fitting his Maga mould.
Mr Ramaswamy has previously suggested that he wouldn’t be interested in being anyone’s VP, saying he is not a “plan B person”.
Meanwhile, fellow GOP primary candidate Nikki Haley hasn’t ruled herself out of the vice president role.