Vivek Ramaswamy invites a 10-year-old on stage at a Donald Trump rally. Then he tries to lift him up and nearly drops him: ‘Big guy!’

A 10-year-old boy named Hunter ended up on stage with Vivek Ramaswamy on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio, after the gubernatorial candidate spotted his sign in the crowd. According to The Daily Mail, Hunter was holding a message that called him a proud military kid for Trump and said his father was deployed. Ramaswamy was addressing the audience ahead of Donald Trump’s appearance when he asked the boy to come up.

Once Hunter was beside him, Ramaswamy said he would lift him. “I’m gonna’ pick you up!” he said. The lift did not go smoothly. Ramaswamy struggled as he tried to raise Hunter toward the podium, and the boy lurched backward before Ramaswamy caught him and pulled him back into his arms.

With Hunter steady again, Ramaswamy said, “Big guy!” He also brought Hunter’s sister on stage, but he did not attempt to lift her. She stepped to the microphone and chanted “OH.” Ramaswamy then returned to the remarks he had prepared for the rally.

The internet was quick to react

Short clips of the exchange moved quickly across social media, and many users found it hilarious. New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen brought up the infamous 1988 Michael Dukakis photo-op and argued the Ramaswamy moment was even worse.

Political journalist Ben Kew wrote: “Whatever political “it” is, poor Vivek just doesn’t have it.” Decision Desk HQ contributor Nick Field believes this stunt could have a lasting effect on Ramaswamy’s political career. He wrote: “Absolutely brutal video: Terrible decision, terrible execution. This type of video haunts a candidate forever.”

The Vandalia stop is part of Ramaswamy’s run for governor against Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, who previously served as Ohio’s health director during the Covid era. He has a large fundraising advantage and has put more than $12 million into campaign advertising, but the contest remains a close one with weeks still left before Election Day.

Ramaswamy built a biotech business and ran for president in 2024. That profile, the report said, helped him win fast support from Ohio Republicans, some of whom had looked at the state’s usual Republican lean and expected a clearer path to the governor’s office.

Speaking before Trump arrived, Ramaswamy tied his own story to his parents’ immigration from India. “I’m so grateful to this state and to this country for giving a kid like me opportunities that would not have been available to my family in any other country on planet Earth,” he said.

Trump backed him later in the program, according to the same account, while still describing Ramaswamy as “nasty” from their head-to-head stretch in the Republican primary. Images from the rally showed Ramaswamy and Senator Jon Husted applauding as the president spoke.

The event sat just outside Dayton, in a state Trump has been treating as a battleground stop. Ramaswamy’s rally appearances have included interactions with young supporters, as when Trump told a 10-year-old boy he probably wouldn’t have saved him from drowning.

He has said he is running a 32-day push before the November 3 elections, after earlier appearances this week in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. In Ohio, he campaigned for candidates in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races, including incumbent Senator John Husted.

Trump walked on after a Truth Social post announcing that Bayer Pharmaceuticals would build a $2.2 billion manufacturing plant in Ohio. The Ohio rally drew a crowd that heard Trump insist the polls were wrong about the midterms and ask them to pretend he was on the ballot.

He said the project would bring jobs to the area. The plant announcement and the candidate endorsements framed the rest of the program after Hunter and his sister left the stage.