Not long ago, he was the king of conservative media. A lot has changed in 2026, writes columnist Ross Barkan.
There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media. His company, the Daily Wire, dominated social-media feeds and podcast apps; in the run-up to the 2020 election, it was ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for.
Shapiro himself was ubiquitous, a right-wing star who had risen to fame before Donald Trump and seamlessly adapted to the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party. He was a digital battering ram against the Democrats and the progressive left. He seemed guaranteed, like Fox itself, for an indefinite run at the top of the media heap.significant layoffs.
Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are Daily Wire YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts.
If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the Daily Wire’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and— the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency, especially among the young media consumers who once fueled the Daily Wire’s runaway growth. There are two realities to Shapiro conservatism in 2026: It retains a significant foothold among Republican elites,Shapiro, who is an Orthodox Jew, is fiercely pro-Israel.
His support for Israel and hatred of the Palestinian cause are issues that define him as a public political figure. He is an unequivocal backer of Netanyahu’s Israel and a committed, conventional neoconservative; he has been predictably thrilled by Trump’s war against Iran. Also a fiscal libertarian and social conservative, Shapiro once sat at the happy median of the Republican voter and could claim, at least in the 2010s, that he understood the beating heart of campus conservatism. No longer.
The anti-Israel, antisemitic Groypers, led by Nick Fuentes, are in ascendance. Candace Owens, who once worked with Shapiro at the Daily Wire, now boasts a YouTube channel that’s, where she’s indulged in anti-Israel conspiracy theories, warred with Charlie Kirk’s widow, and even broken with Trump without suffering any financial consequences. Beyond Owens and Fuentes, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly have found massive audiences with their own brand of conspiratorial commentary that marries Israel skepticism and isolationist advocacy.
Carlson and Kelly have both loudly opposed the war in Iran; Trump now reviles them, but neither ex–Fox talking head has backed down. Carlson seems to be As the recent state elections in Indiana show, Republicans who break with Trump can still suffer. He remains godly among the MAGA faithful. It remains to be seen if the Carlson or Owens projects have an electoral future.
What is clear, however,that there’s an online constituency for what they do, whereas Shapiro’s will have an expiration date. Gen-Z conservatives have no great affection for Israel. In the Groyper tent, this can be chalked up to Jew hatred.
But the story is far more complicated among the millions of young right-leaning voters who simply don’t understand how Trump could campaign on America First while standing up a foreign policy that is clearly subservient to the whims of the Netanyahu government. In 2025, a pundit who claimed Netanyahu would be dictating the terms of an Iran bombing campaign to Trump might have been accused of trafficking in antisemitic tropes.
Instead, we’ve learned that’sThe reality of two wars — Israel’s bombing of Gaza following the October 7 attacks and the ongoing bombardment of Iran — cannot be waved away by the likes of Shapiro, whose propagandist talking points have grown stale. There are young conservativesto call Israel’s actions in Gaza genocidal or question how establishing a violent apartheid state in the West Bank is furthering American interests.
This doesn’t mean there’s any groundswell of sympathy for the Palestinians among right-wing Gen Z, but it does preclude the ironclad support for Israel that Shapiro has always insisted is essential for any conservative. The chaos in Iran, meanwhile, has only damaged Shapiro’s standing further. Republican voters overall still back Trump and the war, but support for MAGA is— which is to say, Shapiro’s audience. What is America First about incinerating an Iranian school for no real reason?
, and they’ll have another two and a half years to impose their will on the country and the rest of the world. Attempted regime change in Iran and Venezuela were great neoconservative projects. Marco Rubio might be the most important official in the Trump Cabinet, and there are signs he’s displacing J.D. Vance as the front-runner for the 2028 nomination.
Who, though, will actually own the future? What will the GOP look like in 10 or 20 years? Will your prototypical Republican be a Shapiro Republican — libertarian on economics, interventionist on foreign policy, and extremely pro-Israel? Or will they look very different, closer to a Carlson or an Owens or even a Fuentes?
The collapse of the Daily Wire can be seen as a dire warning for traditional Republicans. Young conservatives are now looking on as the Iran war rapidly devolves into a quagmire and seeing all the damage it has wrought. They view this as an outgrowth offoreign policy, and they don’t like it. In a post-Trump future, they’ll have little desire to repeat these interventions.
Like the Rockefeller Republican of yore, the Shapiro Republican could go extinct entirely. Manage preferences.higher educationFaculty are voting on whether to make dramatic changes to how top undergrads are evaluated. Here’s the proposal and why it’s so contentious. The entourage includes Wall Street bigwigs, “Tim Apple,” Brett Ratner, and … Secretary of State Marco Rubio cosplaying as a captured Nicolás Maduro?!
White House officials are “frustrated” that she feeds Trump offensive Truth Social content, like the racist Obamas post and Jesus picture.decision should have been timed to be implemented next year. Apparently, the Court couldn’t wait to blow up the Voting Rights Act. The CEO’s proposal and media blitz didn’t sway the board, but Cohen could still take his bid directly to shareholders.
As Trump talks “treason,” acting AG Todd Blanche says reporters “should not be surprised” to be subpoenaed in a leak probe. As Democrats face the possibility of a GOP “lockout” in November, there’s a new push to repeal the state’s nonpartisan primary system. The UFC is holding a cage match to celebrate America’s 250th birthday . Here’s what we know about plans, tickets, and the fight card.
New reporting features former colleagues and teammates of Chirayu Rana dishing on a scandal that’s taking the firm into fresh tabloid territory. Biden is trying to block the Trump administration’s plan to release potentially sensitive interviews he did with the ghostwriter of his memoir. In Monday’s testimony, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pushed back on Elon Musk’s claims that his firm enabled Sam Altman’s and OpenAI’s for-profit pivot. New York
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
TOLDJA: Ben 10 Beats Absolute Batman, Top Ten Hottest Comics This WeekLast week, Bleeding Cool reckoned that Ben 10 1 would be the hottest comic book. We reckoned right.
Read more »
Cartoon Network Revival Recreates Goofy Villain as Terrifying NightmareOne of Ben 10's greatest villains is looking horrifically different.
Read more »
Ben McCollum Extension Shows Unwavering Commitment to Iowa BasketballAfter interest from other elite programs, the Iowa basketball team rewarded Ben McCollum for his success with a contract extension.
Read more »
Hard Carry Media & Unanimous Media Announce New Sports VentureHard Carry Media announced it has partnered with Stephen Curry and Erick Peyton's Unanimous Media to launch an all-new sports content venture.
Read more »