'The first rule of MAGA': Why 'Trump apologists' are finding reality 'increasingly untenable'

14 May 2025

The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro speaking at the GOP Florida Statesman's dinner on September 15, 2023 (Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock.com)

Right-wing media pundit Ben Shapiro is very much an example of what writers at The Bulwark (a website run by Never Trump conservatives) call an "anti-anti-Trumper."

Shapiro isn't ultra-MAGA in his views like "War Room" host Steve Bannon or the staff at Breitbart Media, but he isn't in the Never Trump camp either. Never Trumpers, in 2024, argued that while they had some policy disagreements with then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris, they considered them far preferable to Trump; "anti-anti-Trumpers" like Shapiro, in contrast, weren't MAGA but considered Trump preferable to Democrats.

Yet some of Trump's policies — steep tariffs, a fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin, protectionism, isolationism — fly in the face of what pre-MAGA conservatives preached for decades.

In an article published on May 14, Salon's Amanda Marcotte stresses that Shapiro finds himself in a difficult position: He's under pressure to shill for Trump even when it comes to positions he strongly disagrees with.

"No one was more relieved than Daily Wire commentator Ben Shapiro when Donald Trump announced a 90-day 'pause' on Chinese tariffs," Marcotte explains. "Scare quotes around 'pause,' because there will still be a 30 percent tariff on Chinese goods, which economist Paul Krugman characterized as 'really, really high.' But Shapiro has been getting a lot of grief in recent days from his audience for ever-so-slightly acknowledging a reality everyone outside the MAGA bubble can see: Trump's tariff impulses — which hardly rise to the level of 'policy' — are both stupid and dangerous."

Shapiro, Marcotte notes, awkwardly tries to defend Trump's worst positions by blaming other MAGA Republicans.

"The first rule of MAGA is, 'Trump is never, ever wrong,'" Marcotte observes. "Understanding this, Shapiro tried to avoid blaming the president for his own decisions, instead focusing his ire on White House advisor Peter Navarro…. Shapiro is smart enough to know that a 30 percent tariff is still wildly inflationary, but he caved to pressure to return to the North Korea-style praise of Trump as the ultimate genius."

Marcotte points out that Shapiro is hardly the only right-wing media pundit who finds himself in this position.

"Shapiro is one of the most prominent and frankly hilarious examples," Marcotte writes, "but his dilemma is felt throughout the massive world of professional Trump apologists. Even for people who have years of practice declaring Trump a 'genius' while he prattles on about bleach injections or pet-eating immigrants, it's getting harder to feign ignorance about basic realities…. Shapiro's dilemma reflects a tension that is increasingly untenable for much of the right-wing media, including Fox News."

Marcotte adds, "They make a handsome living by telling Trump voters soothing lies, about how they were always right and the liberals were always wrong and Trump is actually a genius."

Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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