NEW YORK: Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has offered his one-time "nasty" rival Vivek Ramaswamy a position in his administration if elected, putting "him in charge of one of these big monsters" in government.
Trump, who took his campaign to Scranton, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of President Joe Biden, on Wednesday said the "smart as hell" Indian-American entrepreneur gave him tough competition and was "nasty" when they vied for the party nomination.
"He's really smart, and I hope he's going to be involved in our administration, " he said. "We can put him in charge of one of these big monsters [in government] and he'll do a better job than anybody you can think of."
Ramaswamy, a warm-up speaker for Trump's next rally in nearby Reading, compared him to George Washington, the Father of the Nation, in the style of the former president's hyperbole.
Trump, who followed, expanded on his earlier remark in Scranton saying that "he's going to be a part of something that's going to be really big".
To cheers from the audience, he said, "I don't want to tell him yet exactly [his position]. We're gonna pick the right [one]."
Trump said he didn't want to disclose the job he had in mind because "I don't like talking first. I like to win. We gotta win".
He said, "Somebody said, 'Oh, sir, who's going to be Secretary of State'. I said, 'Do me a favour. Let's win first. Okay'?"
Trump and Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris, the US Vice President, are sparring at the polls' margin of error with a 2 per cent lead for her nationally.
This was Trump's second campaign trip within a week to the state that he lost narrowly in 2020 after winning it in 2016.
On Saturday, Trump addressed a rally in Butler, where he was wounded in a sniper attack in August. He addressed the two rallies on Wednesday.
At the earlier rally in Scranton, Trump recalled the fight for the party nomination before Ramaswamy dropped out to support him.
"I had to compete with this guy, and I thought it would be easy, but it wasn't. He was nasty. He was quick. He's smart as hell. And he knew things which a lot of people didn't know and didn't understand, " he said.
"He did amazingly well, because he started really as a rookie, right? And he got up and he wiped a lot of very smart politicians off the stage, " Trump said.
"And then one day he came up to me, he goes, 'You know, I don't think I'm gonna beat you', " he said.
While running against Trump, Ramaswamy had accused him of "making false promises", of being "downright abhorrent" for not accepting his defeat in the 2020 election, and "sore loser".
Trump accused him of doing "deceitful campaign tricks", and not being a true member of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
In his speech at Reading, going over the top like Trump, Ramaswamy said "it is a 1776 moment in this country", the year the American Declaration of Independence was made and the Revolution against British rule began.
"We need our George Washington to cross the Delaware, " he said in comparison to a pivotal moment in the American Revolution. "When George Washington did it, they shot bullets at him."
"Donald Trump is the George Washington of our moment, " he said hinting at the assassination attempts.
As an Indian-American Hindu, Ramaswamy poignantly said, "The best days are still yet ahead of us, so we will look our kids in the eye and mean it when we tell them that no matter who you are or where your parents came from, or what your skin colour is, that you get ahead in the US with your hard work, your commitment, your dedication."
Ironically, though, in the current presidential race, Harris epitomises that.
The other Indian-American who ran for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, has said she's on "standby" to campaign for Trump.
"He's aware that I'm ready if he ever needs me to do that, " she said on a TV programme in August, but hasn't yet been invited to speak at any rally.