MAGA heavyweight Ben Shapiro turns on Trump as he puts POTUS’ ‘crazy’ tariff plan on blast

WASHINGTON, DC: Conservative podcaster and longtime Trump ally Ben Shapiro slammed President Donald Trump's trade policies on Friday, April 4, calling them “probably unconstitutional” and “pretty crazy".

Shapiro voted for Trump, raised money for Trump, and has defended him countless times on his massive platform.

But he doesn't agree with the former real estate mogul on tariffs.

During an episode of 'The Ben Shapiro Show', he told his 7 million YouTube subscribers: “The president’s vision of international trade is, I’m sorry to say, mistaken."

Ben Shapiro's outburst over tariffs

Ben Shapiro’s problem was Donald Trump’s obsession with trade deficits and his full-throttle push for tariffs. Trump has been claiming that America is being cheated by foreign countries. But Shapiro is not buying it, the Daily Beast reported.

“This is pretty crazy,” he said. “We are punishing countries that have a low tariff rate with us.”

Shapiro argued that trade is supposed to be win-win, not some cut-throat zero-sum war. The idea that “somebody is getting screwed” in every trade deal just doesn’t hold up and is "simply not true," he said.

Shapiro's outburst came just one day after Trump celebrated what he dubbed “Liberation Day", on April 2, Wednesday.

According to him, it was the glorious moment when “American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day we began to make America wealthy again".

Trump even whipped out a chart listing foreign countries and their alleged “tariff rates". But Shapiro wasn’t impressed.

“I looked at this, and I thought, ‘Holy c**p. The EU is charging us 39 percent tariff rates on all products?” he said, stunned. “Then I thought... that doesn’t sound correct to me. That doesn’t sound right at all, in fact. That sounds totally wild," he added.

Shapiro said Trump likely confused the trade deficit with tariff rates—two totally different economic beasts that have "nothing to do" with each other, he insisted.

Madagascar meltdown and other MAGA myths

Ben Shapiro came for the aforementioned chart’s numbers on Madagascar.

Trump’s graph apparently included some eyebrow-raising data about the African nation, prompting Shapiro to unload.

“If there is a trade deficit, so the h*** what?” he said. “It’s Madagascar. Our trade deficit with Madagascar is a few million dollars. Is the idea we have to chisel out of the people of Madagascar extra dollars from American products or we are getting screwed by the great and powerful people of Madagascar?.. It makes zero sense," he added.

Shapiro then attacked the core of Trump’s MAGA mantra.

He said the whole tariff push was rooted in “false notions about the American economy,” including the idea that the US is some broken shell of its former self. “This is a myth that is propagated by both parties,” he said.

Shapiro had no patience for the nostalgia-dripping idea that the country should go back to some idealized 1950s manufacturing utopia.

“America does not suck and has not sucked for several decades, economically,” he said.

“'Why can’t I have a factory job just like 1955 Ford?’” he continued, before sarcastically adding, “Yes, I’m sure that you wanted to be in a non-air-conditioned factory, riveting all day... that’s your ideal job. No, it isn’t.”

Shapiro also rejected the claim that trade has gutted the middle class. According to him, things are looking up. “The upper middle class has grown, and wages have gone up,” he said.

Going against the grain

Ben Shapiro knew this was going to ruffle feathers, but he didn’t care. 

“I know this cuts against the conventional political wisdom, which is that the American economy sucks and it’s because everybody is cheating us,” he admitted. 

But he doubled down, pointing out that the economy wasn’t exactly thriving even during times of big trade surpluses.

“I can name you a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America’s balance of trade,” he said, quickly adding, “The entire Great Depression.”