Ramaswamy: 'America First' agenda doesn't 'belong to Trump'

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on Sunday that the “America First” agenda does not "belong" to former President Donald Trump, and pledged to “take that agenda even further.”

“’America First’ does not belong to Trump. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the people of this country. And I think we take that agenda even further, if we're doing it based on ‘First’ principles and moral authority, as [former President] Reagan did, rather than on vengeance and grievance. And that's what I'm bringing to this race,” Ramaswamy said in an interview on ABC’s "This Week" with Martha Raddatz.

Ramaswamy’s longshot bid is rooted in conservative principles, and he has risen to modest media fame in recent years as a champion of the political right. He entered the race in February as the first millennial ever to run for president. 

Ramaswamy on Sunday compared his polling numbers to Trump’s in June, 2015 and said they indicate that the entrepreneur could still have a chance to take the lead. 

“In June of 2015, Donald Trump was polling at four percent in eighth place. I'm happy to say that we're ahead of that, and I think we're going to take that same trajectory. I'm the outsider in this race. I think you get to be an outsider once,” he said. “I'm the first millennial ever to run for the GOP nomination for U.S. president. And I'm actually leading us to something.”

“Too long, many other conservatives have been running from something. I'm running to something, what it actually means to be an American. I'm an 'America First' conservative, but I believe that to put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. And I'm seeing the base across this country, hungry for that message, and that's how we're gonna win,” he continued.