Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has expressed skepticism about Senator JD Vance’s potential to successfully lead the MAGA movement after Donald Trump. Speaking on Dana Loesch’s radio show Tuesday, Shapiro warned that Vance may struggle to unify the diverse factions that form the Trump coalition.
“The idea that J.D. can somehow just pick up the Trump coalition and then carry it across the finish line, that is almost never true in politics,” Shapiro stated.
He compared Trump’s broad, personality-driven appeal to that of Barack Obama, noting that just as Hillary Clinton failed to retain the Obama coalition in 2016, Vance could face similar challenges in bridging the divides within the modern Republican party.
Shapiro argued that a power struggle for the future of the party is already underway. “There’s already a battle going on for what comes next after Trump,” he said, identifying a “conspiratorial wing” of the party that includes figures like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson, as well as a “more libertarian-minded” group exemplified by Elon Musk.
This internal friction extends to Vance’s own base, which Shapiro described as having “uneasy seams” between “[Peter] Thiel libertarians,” “Tucker isolationists,” and “big government’s Appalachia types.”
Recent events have highlighted these tensions, as Vance has drawn criticism from fellow Republicans. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky recently criticized Vance for stating he “doesn’t give a s—” if a potential Trump administration’s destruction of a Venezuelan boat with suspected drug traffickers is labeled a “war crime.”
Vance also attacked senators who questioned HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his confirmation hearing. On X, Vance wrote that senators who support “off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children” were “full of s—.” While his post appeared to target Democrats, Kennedy also faced sharp questioning from Republicans, including Senators Bill Cassidy and John Barrasso.
Source link
