Ben Shapiro Makes Surprise Announcement For Trump’s 2024 Campaign

Ben Shapiro, the conservative commentator known for his critical stance on Donald Trump during the 2016 primaries, has announced his full-fledged support for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Taking to his widely-followed platform, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” he revealed not only his intention to vote for Trump but also his commitment to financially backing the former president by co-hosting a fundraiser. This marks a significant shift in Shapiro’s political stance, given his previous reluctance to support Trump outrightly.

“As most of you know, I’m voting for Donald Trump in November. I’ve said so many, many times at this point, but I’m not just voting for Donald Trump,” Shapiro said. “Next week, I will be co-hosting a fundraiser for him. Now, this may come as a surprise to some of you. I want to tell you why. As you know, I didn’t support Trump in the primaries.”

“I don’t endorse candidates in Republican primaries, but I do tell you who I would have voted for. And I told you I would have voted for Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida if given the choice. But Ron DeSantis isn’t the nominee. Donald Trump is the nominee. And he’s facing Joe Biden who is the worst president of my lifetime,” he continued.

WATCH:

He continued to critique the Biden administration, listing specific failures and comparing them unfavorably to the Trump era: “Because Donald Trump is the nominee against Joe Biden, I won’t just vote for him. I will walk over broken glass to vote for him. Actually, I will go into my own pocket to support him, which is what I’m doing. My calculus is really simple. America was better off under Donald Trump than it is under Joe Biden.”

“I’ve been open in my criticisms of Trump on both character and policy, and I’m not gonna stop criticizing Donald Trump when I disagree with him,” Shapiro said. “I always will be honest about that, and I always will. That’s my job. It’s the job of all Americans because Donald Trump as a presidential candidate works for us.”

Shapiro’s views on Trump have been evolving. Initially, he was critical of the former president during the 2016 Republican primaries, skeptical about Trump’s conservative credentials and disagreeing with his approach to politics and governance. However, once Trump was elected, his stance became more nuanced. Shapiro has often said he would praise Trump when he believed the president was right and criticize him when he thought he was wrong.

“But Donald Trump is the man standing between America and a second Joe Biden term. And a second Joe Biden term means America is in dire, dire trouble. It is that simple. I encourage all of you who, like me, would have preferred another nominee for the GOP to recognize this is now a binary race. It is Trump or it is Biden.”

Through his broadcast, Shapiro stressed the gravity of the election, casting his support for Trump as a decision made in the best interest of the country, despite his reservations about the former president’s character and policies.

The unexpected endorsement comes from one of the conservative movement’s most influential voices.