In his first opportunity to address his high-profile departure, Ramaswamy denied he had a falling-out with Elon Musk, the co-creator of DOGE.

In a lengthy post on X in December, Ramaswamy waded into the political discussion on American versus foreign-born workers and railed against a culture that he said had misplaced priorities. “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer)” he wrote.