Conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro did a shocking 180 on President Donald Trump Friday, calling his tariffs “probably unconstitutional” and “pretty crazy.”
The political commentator who has voted for and fundraised for Trump is now breaking ranks with the MAGA leader because of differing economic viewpoints.
“The president’s vision of international trade is, I’m sorry to say, mistaken,” he announced to his seven million YouTube subscribers on yesterday’s episode of the Ben Shapiro Show.
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Shapiro said that Trump’s belief that the country is getting swindled by trade deficits is completely false.
“This is pretty crazy,” he said, adding, “We are punishing countries that have a low tariff rate with us.”
He said that trade is a “mutual benefit” and the idea that “somebody is getting screwed” in every trade deficit is simply “not true.”
Shapiro’s comments came only a day after Trump celebrated “Liberation Day,” which he said will “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day we began to make America wealthy again.”
During Trump’s April 2 speech, he held up a chart that depicted the names of several countries and their respecting “tariff rates.” Shapiro said that the math was all wrong.
“I looked at this and I thought, ‘Holy c--p. The EU is charging us 39 percent tariff rates on all products?” he said. “Then I thought... that doesn’t sound correct to me. That doesn’t sound right at all, in fact. That sounds totally wild.”
Shapiro suggested that Trump got the number from the trade deficit instead, which has “nothing to do” with tariff rates.
Shapiro was commended by dozens of viewers, including one who said: “I applaud you being the first right-wing commentator to criticize Trump.”
He also blasted Trump’s mistakes by pointing to the chart’s info on Madagascar. Not only did Shapiro call the correlating percentages ridiculously high, but said if there is a trade deficit, “so the h*** what?”
“It’s Madagascar,” he said, adding, “Our trade deficit with Madagascar is a few million dollars, is the idea we have to chisel out of the people of Madagascar extra dollars from American products or we are getting screwed by the great and powerful people of Madagascar?.. It makes zero sense.”
Shapiro even seemed to rail against Trump’s very basis for MAGA.
He said that Trump’s tariffs that were based on “false notions about the American economy” that included the idea that the economy was failing: “This is a myth that is propagated by both parties.”
Shapiro also isn’t on board with the MAGA-strong wish to return to the 1980s.
“America does not suck and has not sucked for several decades, economically,” he said, disagreeing with the take that the U.S. has been “hollowed out” by de-industrialization and is no longer manufacturing.
“‘Why can’t I have a factory job just like 1955 Ford?‘” he mocked, proceeding to scoff: “Yes, I’m sure that you wanted to be in a non-air conditioned factory, riveting all day... that’s your ideal job. No it isn’t.”
Shapiro additionally opposed Trump’s notion that international trade is destroying the middle class. On the contrary, he said, the upper middle class has grown and wages have gone up.
“I know this cuts against the conventional political wisdom, which is that the American economy sucks and it’s because everybody is cheating us,” he admitted, but stood firm in his belief.
“I can name you a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America’s balance of trade,” he said. “The entire Great Depression.”
