Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chair of the proposed Department of Government Efficiency alongside billionaire Elon Musk, has a lengthy history of attacking his partner’s ties to China, frequently referring to Musk as a “circus monkey” and a puppet for the Chinese Communist Party.

Vivek Ramaswamy, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead a commission to slash government spending alongside Elon Musk, excoriated his new partner as a pupped of China’s governing Communist Party.

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,

CNN’s KFile dug into Ramaswamy’s long history of attacking Musk, calling him a “circus monkey,” saying his company Tesla is “beholden” to the communist state, and that “Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding.

The partnership between tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk as they begin working for Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may be off to an awkward start after CNN dug up some attacks Ramaswamy made about his partner in rooting out what they believe to be government inefficiency.