According to recordings and social media posts […], Ramswamy once described Musk […] as a puppet of the Chinese government.
“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.”
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.”
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 the UnHerd podcast 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.”
In that same interview, Ramaswamy said that Musk — and Apple CEO Tim Cook — were beholden to the “same master”: The Chinese Communist Party.
Ramaswamy Once Called DOGE Partner Elon Musk a ‘Circus Monkey’ for China – (Archived)