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MAGA YouTuber criticises Vivek Ramaswamy over NYT essay
Conservative commentator Ryan James Girdusky targeted the Ohio gubernatorial candidate during a podcast discussion on national identity.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Wed, 24, Dec 2025
- 01:37 EST
- 21
MAGA Youtuber Ryan James Girdusky / Ryan James Girdusky via X
MAGA-aligned YouTuber Ryan James Girdusky sharply criticised Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during a recent podcast, responding to Ramaswamy’s New York Times opinion piece on what it means to be American.
In the article that divided Republicans, he noted that the right is dividing into two irreconcilable visions of what it means to be American, with direct consequences for citizens of immigrant origin.
He noted that one side defines 'Americanness' through "lineage, blood and soil", while the other prioritises an ideals-based understanding of the nation.
ALSO READ: Ramaswamy says identity politics endanger immigrants
Girdusky commented on the NYT opinion piece and said, "Vivek oftentimes lies in interviews about his parents' origin story during presidential debate. He said they came to this country with nothing, but they came to this country with a work visa and his father was an engineer and his mother was a doctor.So pump the brakes on that idea of rags to riches."
He also questioned Ramaswamy's American identity and said, "Vivek, for all his comments about how someone becomes an American and is an American, was not born to American citizens. His mother and father were here on work visas. She did not take a test, as Vivek said, to show how much she agreed with the ideology of the founding fathers or colorblind meritocracy or the free market. She just got a job and had a baby, and that baby got citizenship."
There’s a group of people online that believe Vivek’s vision of America as an idea is the best way to defeat Groypers.
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) December 23, 2025
I promise you, you are all wrong. You might as well be working to enlist more Groypers personally. pic.twitter.com/eMKzpaQXGD
Ramaswamy, in his article, had argued that such rhetoric reflects a "blood-and-soil" ideology, under which even native-born Americans of Indian descent are seen as permanently foreign and unwelcome. He framed this hostility as part of a larger trend where extremism is becoming normalized online, including growing acceptance of antisemitism and ethnic slurs among some young conservative activists.
Girdusky also levelled personal criticism at Ramaswamy, describing him as deceptive and untrustworthy. Using a metaphor, he said Ramaswamy resembled “the Nigerian prince of the Republican Party,” accusing him of making misleading promises to voters. He added that Ramaswamy had, in his view, spread falsehoods among voters and within the Republican Party.
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