Conservative media personality Ben Shapiro revived his criticism of Vice President JD Vance on Thursday, this time with a new twist.

Shapiro, whose clashes with MAGA’s far-right faction have intensified while his own online popularity has waned, accused President Donald Trump’s second-in-command of sounding like a Democrat in an X post knocking his Wednesday appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

“I tuned into Joe Rogan yesterday and heard Bernie Sanders’ economics, Barack Obama’s foreign policy, and Ro Khanna’s conspiracy theories. And then I realized JD Vance was talking,” Shapiro wrote.

“I want a candidate in 2028 who doesn’t mirror the Democrats — and who can win. Mr. VP, this is not the way,” he said of Vance, who is considered a leading contender for the GOP’s 2028 presidential pick.

During his sprawling conversation with Rogan, the vice president kept to the party line as he defended Trump against allegations he was involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, denounced socialism and dismissed the idea Israel influenced the president’s decision to go to war with Iran.

However, Vance also admitted the White House had “screwed up” the release of Epstein files, claimed Republicans have a “cool problem,” and accused people within the Israeli government of “manipulating” U.S. public opinion in hopes of getting the war in Iran to go on “indefinitely.”

Delving deeper into his criticism on YouTube, Shapiro called Vance’s podcast takes “weird and concerning” while suggesting the VP had strayed from true conservative values.

“I’m a conservative. I have always been a conservative,” he said. “I’m not evolving on my views or changing my fundamental principles because they are based on extremely basic fundamental truths about politics and human nature,” he said.

Shapiro previously questioned whether Vance will be the right person to carry the MAGA mantle into 2028, accusing him of being too close with both Republicans’ “conspiratorial wing” and its “libertarian-minded” side. The podcaster, who is an Orthodox Jew, has also sounded alarms about growing antisemitism in the party.

But Shapiro’s own influence in the right-wing world has cratered in recent years.

While his outlet, The Daily Wire, was once one of the most popular publishers on Facebook and his podcast topped the charts, its audience has shrunk dramatically since its peak in 2023, forcing the site to undergo massive downsizing and leaving the future of its business in a lurch.

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