MAGA influencer says VP’s inner circle may destroy his 2028 aspirations

10h

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner for lawmakers on the newly renovated Rose Garden patio, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 5, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Major MAGA podcaster Ben Shapiro has thrown cold water on Vice President JD Vance's political future, telling former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch on her podcast, “the idea that JD can somehow just pick up the [Donald] Trump coalition and then carry it across the finish line, that is almost never true in politics."

There was never a budding bromance between the ultra-conservative right-winger and Vance, who, in August, referred to Shapiro as a "bad impression of Obama" during a television appearance — prompting a strong public rebuke from Shapiro.

Shapiro responded by calling Vance a "total phony baloney" who is not being honest with himself or the American people.

“There’s already a battle going on for what comes next after Trump,” Shapiro told Loesch.

The Republican infighting, he said, could pose a problem for Vance.

“There’s a conspiratorial wing of the Republican Party that says they actually want to seize away from Trump, his own movement."

"This is people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker [Carlson], some of these folks," he continued. "And then you have folks who are sort of more libertarian-minded likeElon [Musk] who are trying to grab control of the movement and move it in that direction.”

But it's Vance's inner circle, Shapiro says, that could also hinder his 2028 aspirations. Among that circle is ultra-conservative billionaire Peter Thiel, who bankrolled Vance's ascent to the White House.

"There are some uneasy seams inside the JD Vance coalition between sort of the [Peter] Thiel libertarians and the Tucker isolationists, and kind of big government’s Appalachia types,” Shapiro said.