Vivek Ramaswamy teases role in Trump’s second administration: ‘Some great options’

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has hinted at a possible role in Donald Trump’s future cabinet, saying he has “some great options” ahead of him.

The biotech CEO appeared on ABC This week On Sunday, he was asked by Jonathan Karl whether he would be part of a second Trump administration, one that will likely build the Trump transition team around political candidates who value loyalty to Trump above all else.

Ramaswamy did not comment on what exact role he might play, but confirmed that he was having “influential discussions” about his future path.

“There are some great options on the table,” Ramaswamy said, as Karl mentioned both the soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat in Ohio, currently occupied by Vice President-elect JD Vance, and the Homeland Security Director position.

“I want to have the greatest impact on this country,” he added.

It is widely believed that the two options suggested by Karl are the two prizes that Ramaswamy is most likely to seek. He remained largely deferential to Trump during his presidential run and clearly sought an alliance with the former president, as election results in Iowa in January made it clear that the former president would bulldoze his way to the nomination.

Ramaswamy, in his own campaign, focused his resources on Iowa to pull off an early upset that would lead to a snowball of support. It never materialized.

As director of the Department of Homeland Security, Ramaswamy would be responsible for implementing and shaping the details of Trump’s immigration policies. The former president pledged this summer to launch America’s first mass deportation program in modern times, with the intention of deporting a million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally if re-elected.

In Ohio, however, Ramaswamy may have a more direct path to building his own political stardom. His home state has trended worse in recent election cycles, in large part because Democrats in the DNC and elsewhere in Washington cast the state as a lost cause in the presidential race. Meanwhile, the party has also lost two Senate races in Ohio in as many election cycles.

With Vance’s election as vice president, his Ohio seat will become vacant in January and the state’s Republican governor will fill it with an appointment. A special election will then be called in 2026 to determine who will finish Vance’s term.

As a senator, Ramaswamy could develop his own political brand in the Senate without the burden of becoming the face of Trump’s immigration and border control policies for years to come, among other duties. But in return, Ramaswamy would have to expand his fundraising apparatus to the point where he could defeat a Democratic candidate in 2026, although it is questionable how competitive that race would even be.

As one of the Republican Party’s few truly young national figures, Ramaswamy is better prepared than most to build his brand over the next four years.

Since Ramaswamy has never really emerged as a rival to the president-elect in the way that Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis did during the primaries, it could well be that Ramaswamy will soon find himself in the spotlight.