MAGA Pundit Issues Dire Midterm Elections Prediction For The GOP

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has joined the growing chorus of Republicans predicting disaster for their party in the 2026 midterm elections. During a conversation with Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, he conceded that the Republican Party should prepare for defeat.

Shapiro made the statement Thursday on his podcast, after Newsom initiated a quick Q&A session, asking the Daily Wire co-founder, “Frankly, the Republicans don’t stand a chance in these midterms, do they?”

“I think they’re going to be in a very difficult position in the midterms,” Shapiro said. “They’re in power, they have a slim majority—that’s enough to put them in a very difficult position.” There aren’t many undecided districts left due to redistricting, but the remaining districts appear to be leaning increasingly toward the Democrats.

Newsom questioned the extent of the Republicans’ mistake in opposing the extension of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act during last year’s budget impasse, prompting Shapiro to acknowledge that it was “clearly” a “political defeat” for the party. Shapiro also stated that the Republican Party would face more difficulties in the midterm elections because President Donald Trump “is not running,” an argument the president himself used as an excuse after the Democrats’ landslide victory in key districts during the November runoff elections.

Before the 2016 presidential election, Shapiro vowed he would “never” vote for Trump, calling him a “liar” and an “ignorant” man devoid of “common sense” and dangerously contributing to the polarization of the racist far right, before ultimately endorsing him in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

On Thursday, Shapiro criticized Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on U.S. imports and expressed concern that Trump’s ongoing mass deportation program was “virtually impossible.”

Reacting to Trump’s threat to seize or annex Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, Shapiro said: “I don’t understand why we’re trying to make Greenland our 51st state. It seems to me we already have defense agreements. I think it’s ridiculous.”

“However, European leaders did not seem to find Trump’s remarks about Greenland absurd. Last week, Greenlandic party officials sharply criticized the leader of the “MAGA” movement, and on Tuesday, a senior Greenlandic government official said that “the children are scared” of a potential conflict with the United States.

Shabiro is not the only conservative to have warned of a possible Republican defeat in the midterm elections. Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, her former colleague Bill O’Reilly, and Republican strategist Karl Rove have all expressed concerns about a possible political upheaval.”