Vivek Ramaswamy, the millionaire entrepreneur and author of Woke, Inc., told National Review on Monday that he is "strongly considering" a run for president and expects to make a decision "very soon."

Ramaswamy said he's been drawn to the idea of running to address a "national identity crisis" that has left Americans hungry for purpose, meaning, and identity.

"We are at a point in our national history when the things that used to fill that void — faith, patriotism, hard work, even family — have disappeared," he said, adding that in its absence, "wokeism, climate-ism as an ideology, radical gender ideology, Covidism" have become secular religions that fill that "black hole of identity."

Conservatives have gotten too good at pointing out the problem and "trying to stamp out the poison without actually addressing the real problem," said Ramaswamy, who has been dubbed the “CEO of Anti-Woke Inc." The solution, he says, is to "fill that identity void with a vision of American national identity that runs so deep, that it dilutes the secular agendas to irrelevance."

Those such as President Biden who deliver a vision of national unity by beginning in the middle and calling for compromise are doing it wrong, Ramaswamy said. In order to build unity, the country must return to the "extremism of the ideas that set America into motion: free speech, unbridled meritocracy," he said.

"I think most people believe these ideals and most people think their neighbors and their colleagues believe these ideals to be true as well, but they can’t be sure anymore, because they don’t feel free to talk about it," he said. "And so that’s been one of the hallmarks for me, is to start talking openly, again, to lead the way by actually doing it."

Ramaswamy founded biotech company Roivant Sciences in 2014 and served as its CEO until 2021. That year, he published Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam, which says that despite “rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally-friendly world,” stakeholder capitalism “robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.”

In May 2022, Ramaswamy announced the launch of his new financial firm, Strive, which would focus on "excellence capitalism" rather than encouraging American corporations to get involved in social or environmental issues.

The Ohio-based firm was created to solve what it says is a fiduciary problem created by investment companies such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, which have used clients' funds to "exercise decisive influence over nearly every U.S. public company to advance political ideologies that many of their clients disagree with."

"Over the last two years, I have traveled the country and listened to the concerns of everyday Americans who want to be heard in the places where they shop, work and invest," Ramaswamy said in a statement at the time. "We want iconic American brands like Disney, Coca-Cola and Exxon, and U.S. tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and Google to deliver high-quality products that improve our lives, not controversial political ideologies that divide us. The Big 3 asset managers have fueled this polarizing new trend in corporate America, and that's why we're going to compete with them head-on to refocus American companies on the shared pursuit of excellence over politics."

In September, Ramaswamy published his second book, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.

He told National Review on Monday that he has been working to create a space for open conversations about a return to American ideals in recent years.

"I wasn’t free to speak as an elite CEO or the other environments I had been in, but I purposefully stepped aside from my job as a CEO to make this my mission over the last three years, to start talking openly," he said.

He wants to "revive the American dream in the 21st-century context," a vision that is of personal importance to Ramaswamy who has "lived the full arc of the American dream" as a first-generation Indian American. Ramaswamy, who attended Harvard for undergrad before attending Yale Law, is the son of a General Electric engineer and a geriatric psychiatrist.

The new American dream, he said, "ought not just to be about money," but instead should focus on reviving the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.

It's time for a return to "merit in every sphere of our lives," he said, including in determining who gets to enter the country.

The return to merit will involve "unapologetically dismantling affirmative action" and creating sunset clauses for federal bureaucrats so that the people who run the government are people whom Americans have elected, not "an appointed permanent state that's insulated from accountability with civil-service protections."

But Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old Ohio native, does not support presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s calls for a mental-competency test for politicians over 75 years of age. He said Americans should decide who runs the government. "This idea of making this about biographical issues, rather than about the content of vision, I think would be a mistake," he said, adding that a competency test is a show of identity politics rather than a practical solution.

“It’s very sad to see what’s happened with [Senator] John Fetterman. I’m not criticizing him personally for his struggles, but I’m criticizing the fact that he was elected,” he said, adding, “but he wouldn’t have been captured by a competency test over age 75, because he’s not over age 75.” Fetterman, 53, experienced an ischemic stroke on May 13 and has been suffering from lingering side effects ever since. Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive inpatient care for clinical depression last week.

Ramaswamy would be a long-shot candidate in what is likely to be a crowded Republican primary. Though only former president Donald Trump and Haley have formally announced 2024 bids, he would likely be the youngest candidate to enter the field, if he decided to run. But leaning into identity politics, be it based on race, gender, or age, is something the conservative movement should avoid, he said.

“I think that we in the Republican Party need not fall prey to the same problems on the other side. I don’t care whether you kick with sneakers or kick with heels,” he said, a reference to Haley’s announcement video in which she said, "I don't put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you're wearing heels."

“I don’t care if you’re a man, woman, gay, straight, black, or white, these things shouldn’t matter,” he said. “I think what matters is, what is your conviction in the ideals that define what it means to be American? And what are you going to do to defend them and to fight for them and to revive them, and to preserve them for the next generation?”

Only once the U.S. finds a united identity can the country begin to take on its external threats, Ramaswamy said.

China, he noted, is at the top of the list of threats. Taking on China will be a “historic challenge for America, because unlike the Soviet Union, China puts the shoes on our feet and the phones in our pockets.”

“I think that we can declare independence from China before it’s too late, even if that will involve some short-term sacrifice,” he said. “But, back to that first point — we can only make a sacrifice if we know what we are sacrificing for.”