Donald Trump surrounds himself with the most out-of-touch extremists he can find – and is already planning to fill his Cabinet with far-right MAGA fanatics ready to push his dangerous agenda. As Trump fundraises with a former Department of Homeland Security official who is an architect of his family separation policy as well as far-right conspiracy theorist and possible future DHS secretary pick Vivek Ramaswamy, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“As Donald Trump tries desperately to raise money tonight by parading around his first-term head of immigration enforcement, Tom Homan, who helped write the book on Trump’s cruel family separation policies that scarred children and sent shockwaves around the country, he is considering installing a terrifying new head of the Department of Homeland Security – Vivek Ramaswamy – if he gets the chance. Ramaswamy cheered on Trump as he tanked the bipartisan border deal while championing Trump’s inhumane and ineffective immigration policies, from mass deportations to the end of birthright citizenship. The fact that Trump is embracing Homan and seriously considering a conspiracy theorist like Ramaswamy for a cabinet position charged with homeland security underlines that Trump is unhinged, unserious and unfit.” 

Vivek Ramaswamy supported Donald Trump’s efforts to tank the toughest, fairest bipartisan border deal in decades that is supported by two-thirds of Americans.

Ramaswamy: “We don’t need a new border law.”

Ramaswamy: “The border bill in Congress is a joke.”

Trump: “Please blame it on me.”

Trump: “I think [Republicans] are making a terrible mistake if they vote for the bill.”

New York Times: “Republicans Against Border Enforcement”

Rolling Stone: “Border Patrol Supports ‘Strong’ Immigration Deal. Republicans Don’t Care”

Navigator Research: “Two in Three Americans Support the Bipartisan Immigration Deal”

Third Way: “Voters like the deal, both as a whole and individual components.”

Ramaswamy’s immigration agenda includes his extreme and possibly unconstitutional plan to end birthright citizenship and deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants.

Ramaswamy: “I want to be very clear about this. I think that birthright citizenship does not and should not apply to the kids of parents who entered this country illegally.”

NBC News: “Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says that as president, he would deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants. ‘The family unit will be deported,’ said Ramaswamy when asked by NBC News if the deportations would include American-born children, after a packed town hall here Friday.”

Ramaswamy wants to mass deport entire families. 

Interviewer: “You said you want to deport the entire family unit of undocumented immigrants.” 

Ramaswamy: “Yes, entire family unit.”

Ramaswamy has even pushed for redirecting resources away from our military to the southern border.

Bret Baier, Fox News: “Mr. Ramaswamy, you would not support an increase of funding to Ukraine?” 

Ramaswamy: “I would not and I think that this is disastrous that we’re protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America.”

Ramaswamy wants to eliminate the H-1B visa system for skilled workers, even though his own company frequently utilized and benefited from the program.

Ramaswamy: “[The H-1B system is] bad for everyone involved. … The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it.”

Politico: “GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to ‘gut’ the system for H-1B temporary worker visas if he wins the White House. It’s the very system he’s used in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth. From 2018 through 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in tech and other specialized jobs.”

The Department of Homeland Security was established in the wake of 9/11 – meanwhile, Ramaswamy has repeatedly entertained dangerous 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Politico: “Ramaswamy: I ‘don’t believe’ the 9/11 Commission report”

NBC News: “Vivek Ramaswamy suggests ‘the truth’ about 9/11 is still unknown”

Fox News: “Vivek Ramaswamy on 9/11: ‘I don’t believe the government has told us the truth’”

NBC News: “While visiting the Sept. 11. memorial Monday in Lower Manhattan, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he stands by the comments he had made regarding the terrorist attacks in a recent interview. ‘So today’s not the day to talk about the comments I made, which I stand by. But it is important to have a government that tells the truth to its people, that people can trust, and trust its people back,’ he said while attending the Fire Department of New York’s pipe and drum tribute at Station 10.”