Ben Shapiro, the man who talks faster than most people think, has decided that Vice President JD Vance is basically a Democrat now. That is certainly a take.
As Trending Politics reported, Shapiro went after Vance following the VP's nearly three hour sit down on Joe Rogan's podcast this week, and he did not hold back. "I tuned into Joe Rogan yesterday and heard Bernie Sanders' economics, Barack Obama's foreign policy, and Ro Khanna's conspiracy theories. And then I realized JD Vance was talking. I want a candidate in 2028 who doesn't mirror the Democrats — and who can win," Shapiro wrote on social media. "Mr. VP, this is not the way."
Now, Shapiro is many things, but subtle is not one of them. He expanded on the criticism during his YouTube show, where he did that classic move of complimenting someone right before dragging them through the mud. Vance is "charming and articulate" and "a very nice person," Shapiro said, even throwing in a kind word about Second Lady Usha Vance. Then came the "but." There is always a "but."
"Would we like a Republican Party that is essentially a horseshoe Democratic Party? I'm asking because that's kind of what the VP sounded like on Joe Rogan," Shapiro said. He added that Vance "made a strong case against free markets and meritocracy" and "promoted a conspiratorial view of the world." Shapiro called the whole thing "weird and concerning."
The specific thing that seems to have gotten under Shapiro's skin was Vance's suggestion that some Israeli officials opposed a proposed U.S. Iran memorandum of understanding because they preferred the conflict to continue. "There are some people within their system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely," Vance told Rogan. "Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely."
So basically Vance said something that challenged a foreign policy position Shapiro holds dear, and now the VP is suddenly indistinguishable from Bernie Sanders. That is quite the ideological leap, but okay.
Here is the thing Shapiro might want to consider: Vance is widely viewed as the clear 2028 frontrunner among the GOP's actual voter base, regardless of what the talking heads think. President Trump himself praised both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio when asked about 2028 on the New York Post's "Pod Force One" podcast. "I like them both," Trump said, adding, "and I like them together." Trump has even floated the idea of a Vance and Rubio ticket.
So we have the sitting president endorsing Vance, the voter base backing Vance, and Ben Shapiro standing in the corner yelling that the guy is actually a secret Democrat. This is the kind of internal party drama that keeps political junkies fed. Shapiro questioning whether the VP of a Republican administration is sufficiently Republican is the sort of content that writes itself, and yet here we are, writing about it anyway.
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