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Among political pundits, there are two stylistic categories of commentary. First, there are the day-to-day pundits — the folks who help us make sense of daily events. Rush Limbaugh was the all-time GOAT, but there are still plenty of able-bodied pundits of this ilk plying their trade: Ben Shapiro, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, Mark Levin, Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, and Mike Gallagher.
With these guys, you already know what you’re gonna get. Take Shapiro, for instance: He’s a mainstream, buttoned-up, free trade Republican. That’s his worldview. So no wonder he’s been highly critical of Trump’s tariff policy:
Mediaite: Ben Shapiro Hammers Trump’s Tariffs, Warns They Are Likely Unconstitutional And Based on Backwards Logic
TheWrap: Trump Tariffs Disturb His Own Supporters in Conservative Media: ‘Really Problematic’
AP News: Joe Rogan, Dave Portnoy and Ben Shapiro are among Trump backers now questioning tariffs
Wall Street Journal: Dave Portnoy, Ben Shapiro and Other Podcasters Criticize Trump’s Tariffs
The Independent: Even Ben Shapiro slams Trump over tariffs in new video
The Daily Beast: MAGA Star Ben Shapiro Turns on Trump Over His ‘Crazy’ Tariffs Plan
Daily Mail: MAGA ally Ben Shapiro turns on Trump with stinging tariff takedown
Media Matters: Ben Shapiro: Trump’s tariffs are “the single greatest increase in taxes — because tariffs are a tax — in modern American history”
Shapiro isn’t a cheerleader. (Frankly, he doesn’t have the legs for it.) He’s a day-to-day commentator: He views the world through a very rigid, very specific ideological prism, and his daily commentary reflects it.
Day-to-day political pundits usually have a good batting average. Their credibility is predicated on their accuracy, and that’s critical for the longevity of their careers: If someone like Shapiro continually describes a world that his audience flat-out doesn’t recognize, the audience will leave him.
The second class of political pundits has lousy batting averages. They’re wrong a lot! But they’re also home run hitters. Sure, they might lead the league in strikeouts, but every now and then they’ll blast a ball out of the park.
Unlike someone like Shapiro, these guys are penny stocks. Most of the time, their opinions are worthless — but when they’re right, it’s gonna be one helluva moon shot.
Alex Jones is the king of this category, but he’s not alone: Steve Bannon dabbles in it, and Glenn Beck has long kept an oar in apocalyptic waters.
Another one is Peter Zeihan, who focuses heavily on demographics, trade trends, and national resources.
He’s anti-Trump. (One of his big swings and misses was his guarantee that Trump had “no chance” of winning the presidency in 2024.) But sometimes he’s eerily prescient: A full decade before Russia invaded Ukraine, he argued that a Russia-Ukraine war was always inevitable, and for demographic reasons, it had to happen when it did.
(Perhaps more concerning, he’s equally adamant that Russia cannot — and will not — stop at Ukraine, and therefore a larger war with NATO is extremely likely.)
Zeihan’s opinions on China are just as striking: He predicted that China is on the verge of collapse and within 10 years will no longer even be a functioning country.
Clearly, this flies in the face of the long-established “conventional wisdom,” where China was the new global superpower — and the United States was the nation in decline.
As Zeihan describes it:
[T]he most recent full data to be released by the Chinese in the last two three months tell us that the birth rate has dropped in China by nearly 70% since 2017.
