'US is becoming unrecognisable': Vivek Ramaswamy blasts authorities as Donald Trump indicted

US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Saturday blasted the American authorities for indicting former President Donald Trump.  He said if the authorities can do it to Trump, they can do it to anyone. "Just today, Douglass Mackey was convicted and could be sentenced up to *10 years in prison* for creating satirical internet memes that made fun of Hillary Clinton supporters by telling them they could vote via text message or social media," he said in a tweet.

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Ramaswamy called it a flagrant assault on the First Amendment - one of the ten amendments in the US constitution that make up the Bill of Rights. "Our country is becoming unrecognizable to anyone who understands our Constitution & we don’t have long to fix it," he said.

Earlier this week, Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury for his involvement in paying hush money to an adult star to bury a sex scandal in the run-up to his presidential campaign in 2016. With this, he became the first former president to face a criminal charge. Trump, who is looking to run for another term, is reportedly preparing to surrender on April 3.

However, Ramaswamy, an Indian-origin executive, has come down hard on American authorities for moving against Trump. In a tweet today, he said he will, if elected, end the weaponization of police power in America and hold Congress accountable for taxpayer $$ used as hush money for sexual harassment claims.

Earlier, speaking to Fox News, the Republican Party leader said that there was a need to end the weaponisation of police power to advance political ends. "This shouldn’t be a right-wing or left-wing issue. It's about the survival of the American experiment itself," he said.

Commenting on one of his tweets, India's former chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian took a swipe and asked: "US Democracy under threat?"

In his latest post on his site Truth Social, Trump called the move against him - "an assault on our nation". "Our once beautiful USA is now a Nation in Decline," the former president said, claiming that "radical Left Thugs & Insurrectionists have taken over our Country, & are rapidly destroying it".

"They are using the levers of Law Enforcement, and have completely Weaponized the FBI & DOJ to Interfere with, Rigg, and Steal our once SACRED ELECTIONS. We are now living in a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY," Trump added.