Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American conservative political commentator, media proprietor, and attorney.

[24][25] On February 7, 2013, Shapiro published an article citing unspecified Senate sources who said that a group named "Friends of Hamas" was among foreign contributors to the political campaign of Chuck Hagel, a former U.S.

University president William Covino canceled the speech three days before it was to take place, with the intention of rescheduling it so that the event could feature various viewpoints on the subject of campus diversity.

[56][57] In August 2016, DePaul University revoked an invitation for Shapiro to address students at the school and barred him from entering the campus owing to "security concerns".

[57] It involved a large police presence, which had been promised by Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ in her August letter that supported free speech.

[61][62][63] On October 7, 2013, Shapiro and business partner Jeremy Boreing co-founded the U.S. media criticism website TruthRevolt with funding from the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

[64] On January 14, 2021, Shapiro was featured as a guest writer for Politico's Playbook newsletter, where he defended House Republicans who opposed the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Matthew Kaminski, editor-in-chief of Politico, refused to apologize and defended the decision to allow Shapiro to write the article, stating that, "We're not going to back away from having published something because some people think it was a mistake to do so.

[83] Shapiro has described the political left as believing in an imaginary "hierarchy of victimhood" in which the opinions of members of persecuted groups like the LGBT community are afforded more credence.

He has argued that the left has dominated American culture through popular entertainment, media, and academia in a way that has made conservatives feel disenfranchised and helped lead to the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

"[83] Shapiro supports a ban on abortion,[87] including in cases of rape and incest, with one exception: when competent medical authority determines that the life of the mother is in jeopardy as a result of the pregnancy.

"[100] In relation to concerns over increased flooding of coastal property from sea-level rise as a result of climate change, Shapiro stated, "You think people aren't just going to sell their homes and move?

"[101] Writing for GQ, in response to that remark, Jay Willis adds, "The possibility that no market will exist for property that is literally underneath the ocean seems not to have occurred to him."

In an opinion piece on the 2020 California wildfires, Shapiro argued that state policies had contributed more to the severity of the fires than climate change.

[105] In August 2016, Shapiro wrote an article for the Daily Wire arguing that Trump, if elected, would not appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

[4] Shapiro supported the Trump administration's ordering of the killing of Qasem Soleimani,[108] recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,[109] as well as the nominations of Brett Kavanaugh[110] and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

[111] However, Shapiro criticized Trump for firing James Comey, for appointing Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon, and for endorsing Roy Moore.

[4] In August 2022, Shapiro argued that "Marxism can't work in America," saying this was because of "high levels of societal income mobility".

[121] In 2018, Shapiro argued that Facebook was targeting conservative sites after the platform implemented an algorithm change, limiting their traffic, and that they are not transparent enough.

[4] In July 2015, Shapiro and transgender rights activist Zoey Tur were on Dr. Drew On Call to discuss Caitlyn Jenner's receipt of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

[129][130] After Shapiro referred to Tur, who is a trans woman, as "sir" and questioned her genetics, she placed her hand on the back of his neck and threatened on air to send him "home in an ambulance".

Later, Shapiro filed a police report accusing Tur of battery and stated that he intended to press charges to "teach the left a lesson".

"[134] Following the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Shapiro appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight on January 10, 2013.

On the issue of gun control, Shapiro called Piers Morgan a "bully" who "tends to demonize people who differ from you politically by standing on the graves of the children of Sandy Hook, saying they don't seem to care enough about the dead kids.

Citing expulsion of Germans after World War II as a precedent,[141] Shapiro insisted that "expelling a hostile population is a commonly-used and generally effective way of preventing violent entanglements."

[146][79][147] In a 2008 Townhall opinion piece, Shapiro expressed support for Israel's settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

[148] In 2019, Shapiro said that Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose comments about American support for Israel were accused of evoking antisemitic tropes, and the white supremacist San Diego shooter, hold "a lot of the same opinions about Jews.

"[151] In an October 2024 appearance co-sponsored by The Daily Wire and the Young American's Foundation at the University of California, Los Angeles, when asked whether or not he'd condone the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces and Netanyahu-led Israeli government amidst the deaths of over 40,000 people in and near the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, including the killing of children, Shapiro stated he "doesn't just condone [their] actions, I celebrate and laud them".

[153] In a 2002 article, Shapiro wrote, "I am getting really sick of people who whine about 'civilian casualties'... when I see in the newspapers that civilians in Afghanistan or the West Bank were killed by American or Israeli troops, I don't really care".

He cited speeches critical of the George W. Bush administration by Democrats Al Gore, John Kerry and Howard Dean as "disloyal" and seditious.