By <a class="c-link lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-color-brand-primary-dark:hover lrv-u-text-decoration-underline:hover lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/nikki-mccann-ramirez/" > Nikki McCann Ramirez</a> <br> Trumpian rich boys <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/elon-musk/" id="auto-tag_elon-musk" data-tag="elon-musk" >Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/vivek-ramaswamy/" id="auto-tag_vivek-ramaswamy" data-tag="vivek-ramaswamy" >Vivek Ramaswamy</a> have become quite chummy since being gifted positions as powerful unelected bureaucrats <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-musk-ramaswamy-doge-project-2025-1235169916/" >influencing the finances</a> of the federal government — but things weren’t always this friendly. <br> According to recordings and social media posts <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/03/politics/ramaswamy-musk-china-doge-kfile/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" >obtained by CNN’s K-File</a>, Ramswamy once described Musk, the Tesla billionaire who is now his co-director at the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/doge/" id="auto-tag_doge" data-tag="doge" >DOGE</a>), as a puppet of the Chinese government. <br> “I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in 2023. “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.” <br> In another 2022 interview, the businessman-turned-Republican politician said that “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.” <br> That same year Ramaswamy bashed Musk after the Tesla owner suggested that Taiwan should become a “special administrative zone” of the Chinese government. Ramaswamy criticized the comment, telling <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesJ6QOZfMM" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" >the UnHerd podcast</a> that Musk “got a nice ‘attaboy’ […] a little pat on the back when his Shanghai factory and regulator in China gave him a nice little tax break within days after him having made that comment about Taiwan.” <div class="admz" id="adm-inline-article-ad-1"> <div class="adma boomerang" data-device="Desktop" data-width="300"> <div style="min-width:50px;min-height:75px;" class="pmc-adm-boomerang-pub-div ad-text" data-priority="10" > <div id="gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody-uid0" class="adw-300 adh-250" data-is-adhesion-ad=""> <script type="application/javascript">
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