“Ramaswamy is Trump 2.0” Ramaswamy’s Bold Pledge: Termination of Govt. Employees with Odd Social Security Numbers

Michelle MeyerNov 16, 2023

Minute Read

Like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy is not a politician – he’s a businessman and his inexperience is beginning to show.

Cutting Government Spending

Editorial credit: Aaron of L.A. Photography / Shutterstock.

Ramaswamy had promised to cut both government spending and the federal workforce. Now, he’s given some clarification on how he intends to achieve this if elected president – by firing government employees based on their social security numbers.

A Mass Layoff

“One day one, instantly fire 50% of federal bureaucrats. Here’s how – if your SSN ends in an odd number, you’re fired,” Ramaswamy said on social media. The entrepreneur claimed that this wouldn’t violate “civil service rules” as it would be a “mass layoff.”

An Unrestrained Chainsaw

Ramaswamy continued: “This avoids civil service protections. No bureaucrat can claim their firings were politically motivated. Further firings can be executed with a chisel but step one needs to be an unrestrained chainsaw or else it just won’t happen.”

Politics and Business

The presidential hopeful did not address the problematic nature of firing people based on a number assigned to them at birth as opposed to skill and merit. As previously mentioned, Ramaswamy is not a politician. Like Trump, he’s a businessman – albeit a more successful one.

An Unprofessional Comment

Image Credit: Aaron of L.A. Photography/Shutterstock.

This isn’t the first time Vivek’s inexperience has shown. Recently, he thought that it was appropriate to bring Nikki Haley’s daughter up during a debate. “In the last debate, [Haley] made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first,” he said.

An Unprompted Shot

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Following the debate, Jimmy Kimmel made fun of Ramaswamy and called his remark “dumb.” He said: “Vivek did one of the dumbest things a candidate could do. He took an unprompted shot at one of Nikki Haley’s kids.”

A Ridiculous Suggestion

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Regardless of one’s political opinions or associations, Ramaswamy’s promise to fire government employees based on social security numbers is ridiculous. Moreover, it wouldn’t necessarily actually lead to the firing of 50% of them. His inexperience is becoming more and more apparent but, given that Trump seemingly has the support of more than 50% of Republicans, it might not matter.

The Internet’s Response

News of Ramaswamy’s unusual idea was shared across the internet and people flocked to comment sections to give their views on the matter. Largely, they found it to be utterly ridiculous and criticized the entrepreneur for seemingly having no idea what he was doing.

Causing Complete and Utter Mayhem

One social media commenter wrote: “This guy is a total idiot and doing this would cause mayhem. That being said, I’m sure some right-wingers will vote for him and I bet a few of them even work for the government themselves.”

No Positive Outcome

One person couldn’t believe that the GOP was letting Ramaswamy campaign for the nomination: “I struggle to understand why the Republican Party allows such fools to take over their political brand. It has no positive outcome [and only] convinces the general public that racist, hateful, and traitorous behavior is acceptable and even valued.”

The Worst of the Worst

Continuing, the commenter said there are many reasonable conservatives out there: “There are so many alternative politicians to rabid carnival barkers that can elevate the conservative agenda without selling out. Yet every time, the worst of the worst seem to get the most attention and resources.”

State of Birth

Others speculated about Ramaswamy’s intentions: “Interestingly, the main piece of information you can extract from an SSN is the state of birth. Given that most people don’t leave the state they were born in, this means that he’s probably planning on targeting specific states.”

A Flawed Plan

One individual, pointing out flaws in the plan, said: “This is such a mathematically stupid idea as well. You’re assuming that the SSNs of every government worker are evenly distributed between odd and even numbers in every single job, office, etc. What happens if an entire office has agents with odd-numbered SSNs? That’s mathematically very possible, especially in a situation where there are only a few people per job/office.”

Dumbing Politics Down

Another person wrote: “It’s pretty clear he put a whole couple of minutes of thought into this. That’s more than Trump would have… but that’s not saying enough. One of the worst side effects of the Trump presidency, with the way that it dumbed everything down to his base’s attention span, is furthering the belief that any idiot could handle that job.”

A Wild Theory

Others considered the idea of Ramaswamy being a plant of sorts, there to make the other candidates seem reasonable: “This dude is just out here to make the other guys seem plausibly rational. No one can possibly be this stupid.”

Talking Pure Nonsense

Another commenter wrote: “As a Republican, I cannot support this guy. He is talking pure nonsense. Firing people because of their SSN is just straight-up wrong. Why not fire them based on performance and actions?”

Insane, Ridiculous, Stupid

Plenty of people used words like “insane,” “ridiculous,” and “stupid” to describe Ramaswamy’s idea. One such individual said: “This is one of the most insane ideas I have ever heard besides Trump’s self-centered, moronic idea to turn our country into an autocratic country.”

Ramaswamy Is Trump 2.0

Others compared Ramaswamy to Trump: “Ramaswamy is Trump 2.0. A business guy, not a politics guy, who comes out with the most outlandish and ridiculous things. Thank God he’s not polling well… then again, Trump is so yeah.”