(Beth Clifton collage)
Ramaswamy offered the chance, albeit slim, of cuts in subsidies for animal agribusiness and animal-based biomedical research & testing
WASHINGTON D.C.––Vivek Ramaswamy, the “Great Veggie Hope” of animal advocates in the second Donald Trump presidential administration, suffered a first-round knockout from the administration on Trump’s first day in office.
Resigning as co-chair with fellow billionaire Elon Musk of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency, Ramaswamy threw in the towel, accepting a TKO––a “technical knockout”––rather than take a further beating from head butts by Musk and Trump himself.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Trump & Trumpists took personally Ramaswamy’s remark about Americans venerating mediocrity over excellence
Ramaswamy, who made his money through pharmaceutical industry investments, “stepped down from his position after reportedly upsetting Trump with a post saying American culture “venerated mediocrity over excellence,” wrote Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez for the business magazine Fortune on January 21, 2025.
Ramaswamy took a previous hard hit from Trump, Ramaswamy remembered, when “After Trump reportedly told Ramaswamy he would be a good fit for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. vice president J.D. Vance, fellow Republican Mike DeWine instead appointed Ohio lieutenant governor Jon Husted to the position.”
Ramaswamy is now said to be contemplating running for governor of Ohio in 2026.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Can a vegetarian be elected in Ohio?
Trump , in debate against former U.S. vice president Kamala Harris, alleged on September 10, 2024 that “In Springfield, Ohio, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Though this allegation was thoroughly refuted, Ramaswamy might, if elected nearly two years from now, hope to manage somehow to influence Ohioans away from eating any animals.
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy’s contending role as a “Great Veggie Hope” has ignominiously ended, much as a long succession of boxing “Great White Hopes” were sent back to obscurity by the fists of former heavyweight champions Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammed Ali, until time and changing U.S. racial attitudes rendered the whole concept of a “Great White Hope” irrelevant.
Vivek Ramaswamy.
High hopes dashed
Ramaswamy, 39, of Indian ancestry, is a lifelong vegetarian. In 2020 Ramaswamy opined that, “I believe it is wrong to kill sentient animals for culinary pleasure,” as the Wall Street Journal reminded readers in 2024.
On November 5, 2024, one day before the U.S. national election, Ramaswamy reportedly posted to X, formerly Twitter, “Animal cruelty will eventually become a genuine concern for conservatives. It’s already happening. Count me in.”
Among prominent animal advocates, Simple Heart blogger Wayne Hsiung in particular held out high hopes for Ramaswamy.
“On the right,” Hsiung wrote on November 22, 2025, “Vivek Ramaswamy, one of Trump’s most influential surrogates, recently posted that it “shouldn’t be a partisan issue to end animal cruelty.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Skepticism
Slaughter-Free America blogger Jon Hochschartner on November 23, 2024 expressed skepticism that Ramaswamy could, or would, accomplish anything under Trump to “in some way benefit other creatures.”
ANIMALS 24-7 on December 2, 2024 headlined Trump names veggies Ramaswamy & Gabbard + vivisector Oz to inner circle, but cautioned, “Regardless of whatever Ramaswamy may hope to do in the Trump administration, the odds are against his accomplishing much against any entrenched animal industry.”
Science magazine, however, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, on December 10, 2024 bannered “Scientists fear big cuts to animal research under Trump 2.0,” with the subhead “New political environment could provide opening for groups that want to eliminate animal studies.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Grimm’s fairy tale
Anticipating such a development, Science deputy news editor David Grimm profiled the work of “former Republican strategist Anthony Bellotti” and his right-leaning antivivisectionist “self-described ‘taxpayer watchdog’ called the White Coat Waste Project.”
Explained Grimm, “With a goal that appealed to conservatives—ending supposedly profligate and unnecessary federal spending on animal research—the organization found its ideal moment under Trump.”
ANIMALS 24-7 summarized the Grimm article in Trump administration government cuts may bring reduction of animal testing.
Commented lifelong Ohio animal rights advocate David Sickles, “The humane movement should clearly be focusing our attention on Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Wayne Hsiung & friend.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Nothing more wasteful than funding animal cruelty”
“Trump wants to cut waste – and there’s nothing more wasteful than funding animal cruelty,” Hsiung noted as recently as January 17, 2025, citing the anticipated influence of “the vegetarian Ramaswamy.”
Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for A Humane Economy, apparently had not yet heard that Ramaswamy had counted himself out of the Trump administration in blogging on January 21, 2025 that the “Department of Governmental Efficiency Can Save Billions by Slashing Spending for Animal Cruelty.”
In theory, that remains true, but even with Ramaswamy co-chairing the Department of Governmental Efficiency,” five of Pacelle’s recommendations of “six areas of potential action for the DOGE working in cooperation with federal agencies and Congress” have little or no chance of going anywhere, given the political and economic alliances that put Donald Trump back in the White House, with Republican majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
Barred owl. (Beth Clifton photo)
“Stop Biden plan to kill owls”
The first Pacelle recommendation, to “Stop Biden Plan to Kill Nearly Half a Million Forest Owls,” actually has a chance.
ANIMALS 24-7 has detailed the owl-killing plan many times since it first surfaced in 2015, most recently on January 4, 2025 in Hey Musk & Ramaswamy: save $1.35 billion! Ax the barred owl-killing scheme!,
In truth, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scheme to kill barred owls to enhance the survival prospects of endangered spotted owls first surfaced during the Barack Obama administration, failed to advance, remained pending throughout the first Donald Trump administration when it could have been nixed, but was not, and advanced to imminent likelihood during the last year of the Biden administration.
Because Donald Trump can credibly blame the Obama and Biden administrations for the proposed owl massacre, he can perhaps be persuaded to cancel it.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“End the Milk Mandate”
The second Pacelle suggestion, to “End the Milk Mandate in the National School Lunch Program” would economically hit hardest the dairy farmers in California, Wisconsin, New York, Idaho, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Trump and the Republicans won all of those states in November 2024 except California and New York, and in those states, won overwhelmingly in the dairy farming counties, while losing the urban areas.
If Trump wants to keep the narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives, he cannot afford to lose the California and New York dairy farming counties in the 2026 midterm election.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Cut Spending on Animal Tests”
The third Pacelle recommendation, to “Cut Spending on Unreliable, Risky Animal Tests,” might sound as if it has a chance, especially if science skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed to head the Department of Health & Human Services.
However, this was a goal that the pharmaceutical billionaire Ramaswamy was expected to pursue through budget cuts.
Meanwhile, despite White Coat Waste Project success in persuading the previous Trump administration to scrap several high-profile animal testing programs, animal use in biomedical research and testing actually appears to have increased, not entirely because of the crash program to develop vaccines to fight COVID-19.
(Beth Clifton photo/collage)
“Replace Wild Horse Roundups”
Pacelle’s fourth recommendation, “Replace Wild Horse Roundups with Cost-Effective Fertility Control Programs,” like the recommendation to “End the Milk Mandate,” is likely dead on arrival, for much the same reason.
Wild horse roundups are strongly favored by politically influential ranchers not only in the “red states” where the Bureau of Land Management conducts the round-ups, but also in the “red” rural counties of otherwise “blue” states including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, where BLM wild horse roundups also occur.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Fertility control would be far more cost-effective and humane, but would leave tens of thousands of wild horses on BLM land leased to ranchers indefinitely.
The majority of ranchers leasing BLM land have long made clear that given a hypothetical choice between sharing the grass and water with fertility-controlled horse herds and not having to share grass and water with horses at all, not having to share grass and water is their preferred option.
Fertility control in place of roundups most likely will have to be mandated by an administration not beholden to “red state” ranchers.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Cut lethal programs of USDA Wildlife Services
Pacelle’s fifth recommendation, to “End the Federal Subsidy for Killing Wildlife,” means axing the funding for lethal control programs conducted by USDA Wildlife Services.
Yet again, these are programs strongly favored in “red states” economically and politically dominated by agribusiness.
One previous Congressional attempt to cut back lethal federal wildlife control led to the agency formerly called Animal Damage Control, managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, being transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Ronald Reagan administration, under which it was renamed USDA Wildlife Services.
A Congressional attempt to terminate USDA Wildlife Services during the Bill Clinton administration then backfired when the agency was given further authority, and budget, to try to eradicate “invasive species,” whether or not those species pose any actual threat to agriculture, human health and safety, or endangered wildlife.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“End Bird Depopulation Programs”
The final Pacelle recommendation for Trump administration budget cuts is to “End Bird Depopulation Programs that Drive Up Egg and Poultry Prices.”
Pointed out Pacelle, “Since the onset of the bird flu (H5N1) outbreak three years ago, the USDA has ordered the killing of 135 million poultry on more than 1,400 farms across 50 states. More than 100 million of the culled birds were laying hens and 17 million were turkeys.
“The USDA has also spent more than $2 billion in containment and indemnification costs,” Pacelle mentioned, while ignoring “the key transmission threats for further spread of H5N1, especially by cockfighting.”
All very true; see “Depopulation” cannot stop H5N1, vet reform group & Pacelle warn.
But so long as the USDA compensates poultry growers for their losses to “stamping out” efforts to eradicate H5N1, the poultry industry cannot be expected to favor a turn away from “stamping out” in favor of vaccination.
And so long as the Trump administration and Republican majority in Congress are politically beholden to “red state” agribusiness, those indemnification payments are not going away.
Republican Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt consorts with the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Move against cockfighting must come from Congress
Neither is the Trump administration likely to encourage a crackdown on cockfighting without at least a strong nudge from Congress.
Donald Trump, during his previous presidency, did sign legislation that extended the federal ban on cockfighting to Guam and Puerto Rico.
Pacelle, through lobbying, can claim a great deal of credit for winning both the original federal law and multiple strengthening amendments to it, including the extension to Guam and Puerto Rico.
But Guam and Puerto Rico are U.S. overseas territories, not states that voted for Trump. States that did vote for Trump include practically the entire “cockfighting belt,” encompassing the whole of the former Confederacy, several Midwest “red states,” and much of the Southwest.
(Beth Clifton collage)
The FIGHT Act might provide the needed nudge––if passed
The needed nudge from Congress might come from eventual passage of the “Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act,” promoted by Pacelle with bipartisan support in the 118th Congress, likely to be reintroduced early in the 119th Congress, now underway.
The Trump administration might then grow the spine to stand up to cockfighters.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
Meanwhile, though, it is worth noting that among those vociferously applauding online at Donald Trump’s re-election and inauguration were prominent members of the so-called “Gamefowl Commissions” and “Gamefowl Breeders Associations” lobbying to undo the prohibitions on cockfighting in multiple “red states.”
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The post First round KO: great Trump administration veggie hope Ramaswamy appeared first on Animals 24-7.
