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The Ben Commandments

The sudden, precipitous decline of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire—with its sweeping layoffs and a steep drop-off in audience—has actually been a long time coming. And while it’s easy to point to MAGA’s shift away from Israel, its co-C.E.O.’s dream of producing an Arthurian fantasy series isn’t helping either.

Ben Shapiro
Ben’s business is indeed feeling strain, and some of that can be attributed to the aforementioned “vibe shift” among the MAGA base, as well as platform changes and algorithmic dynamics. Photo: Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
May 8, 2026

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On Thursday, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, two of the nation’s preeminent conservative culture-war entrepreneurs, came together on Megyn’s eponymous podcast to discuss the war in Iran and indulge in a little intraparty sniping at the “neocons” in the punditocracy. Megyn played a clip of Ben Shapiro promoting further U.S. military strikes, arguing that it exemplified “the pressure Trump is under from Shapiro, [Mark] Levin,” and others to forgo a peace plan and fight “until there’s nothing left.”