Vivek Ramaswamy wants Elon Musk to be his presidential adviser—and likes the chainsaw approach he used at Twitter

Of course, Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur, remains a long-shot contender, but on Wednesday he overshadowed Florida governor Ron DeSantis and other rivals at the GOP’s opening presidential primary debate. Not present on the stage was former president Donald Trump, who skipped the debate, citing his lead in polls.

At a town hall in Iowa on Friday, a voter asked Ramaswamy to whom he would turn for guidance if he became U.S. president. That seems a particularly relevant question for Ramaswamy given his age—and the fact he’s never held elected office. 

“Now is not the time for on-the job training,” former vice president Mike Pence said of Ramaswamy during the debate. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people without experience.” 

But in answer to the question on Friday, Ramaswamy replied that he wants to bring in people with “a blank fresh impression.” Then he named the Tesla CEO, saying, “I’ve enjoyed getting to know better, Elon Musk recently, I expect him to be an interesting adviser of mine because he laid off 75% of the employees at Twitter. And then the effectiveness actually went up.”

Chris Kelly, an early investor in Musk’s SpaceX, said last November of the Twitter revamp, “The massive cutbacks and chainsaw that Elon Musk has taken to the company does not bode well for its future.”

But in an interview with Fox News earlier this month, Ramaswamy said that what Musk did at Twitter “is a good example of what I want to do with the administrative state … Take out the 75% of the dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.”

Musk, after taking over Twitter last October, slashed jobs and alienated advertisers as he dramatically reshaped the service. He rebranded the service to “X” a month ago.

Ramaswamy also referenced Musk in February, tweeting, “Just as @elonmusk did at Twitter, as President I will release the ‘state action files’ from the federal government – exposing every instance where the feds pressured companies to take constitutionally prohibited actions. Roll that log over & see what crawls out. Won’t be pretty.”

Musk commented on an Aug. 17 tweet by Ramaswamy in which the candidate listed some of his views, among them “There are two genders,” “reverse racism is racism,” and “The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.”

Musk replied, “He states his beliefs clearly.” And while calling Ramaswamy a “very promising candidate” earlier this month, Musk shared a video of Tucker Carlson interviewing the candidate. Carlson relaunched his show on Musk’s platform after parting ways with Fox News earlier this year.