Shapiro has been a consistent critic of the Trump administration’s tariff regime, especially with regard to the tariffs Trump announced on the April 2 so-called “Liberation Day.” 

• Shapiro said, “The tariffs are in fact a tax on American consumers. They drive up the prices.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 3/3/25]
• Shapiro said, “If the idea is that tariffs themselves enrich the American people, that is against pretty much all economic knowledge for the last couple of centuries or so.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 3/12/25]
• After Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping new tariffs, Shapiro said the tariffs are “a massive tax increase on American consumers,” adding that “it is designed to be so.” Shapiro also said that Trump had imposed his “Liberation Day” tariffs “probably unconstitutionally.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/3/25, 4/3/25]
• Shapiro said Trump’s tariffs are “the single greatest increase in taxes — because tariffs are a tax — in modern American history.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/7/25]
• Shapiro acknowledged that “thanks to the tariff war, particularly, the economy is, in fact, slowing.” Shapiro also claimed that “the underlying health of the Trump economy was good” before the tariffs. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/18/25, 4/22/25]
• Shapiro said, “China is perfectly happy” with Trump’s trade war. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/30/25]
• After Trump dismissed empty shelves and higher prices, Shapiro called Trump’s comments a “tremendous commercial for Democrats.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/1/25]
• Shapiro said Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro “should be nowhere near trade policy.” Shapiro also called Navarro “a dotard and a fool,” and has called on Trump to fire him. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/9/25, 5/6/25]
• Shapiro criticized Trump’s announcement of tariffs on foreign films, calling it “very badly calibrated.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/5/25]

Shapiro has criticized the Trump administration's approach related to Russia's war in Ukraine.

• After Trump suggested in remarks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine had started its war with Russia, Shapiro said he had “moral objections” to Trump’s comments, adding, “Ukraine absolutely did not start the war.” [NBC, 2/18/25; The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/19/25]
• After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator,” Shapiro said those comments were “wrong” and “not true.” [BBC, 2/18/25; The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/20/25]
• Shapiro called Trump’s decision to pause military aid to Ukraine “not a particularly good move.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 3/4/25]

Shapiro has made several disparaging remarks regarding figures working in the Trump administration. 

• During Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation, Shapiro said Kennedy “expressed support for policies that I think are really troubling.” Shapiro later said, however, “I support Bobby Kennedy for HHS.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/28/25, 1/31/25]
• During Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation process, Shapiro said, “Putting her at the head of the Labor Department would be kind of a disaster.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/13/25]
• Shapiro said the then-interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin’s comments on the Associated Press sound “rather tyrannical and stupid.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/25/25]
• Shapiro criticized Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying, “I do not trust Steve Witkoff’s judgment when it comes to cutting deals because so far, the deals that he has cut have been effectively useless.” Shapiro claimed that the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program constituted a “very Obama-esque approach.” He also said, “I have a feeling that any deal that is cut with Iran is likely to be a not particularly good deal.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/15/25, 4/17/25, 4/25/25]

Shapiro has criticized various comments and social media posts Trump has made so far during his second administration, as well as various policy actions the Trump administration has taken. He also harshly criticized Trump for accepting a plane from the Qatari royal family and for Trump's cryptocurrency scheme. 

• Shapiro called it “dumb” when Trump tweeted a quote that has often been attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. [ABC News, 2/17/25; The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/18/25]
• Shapiro criticized Trump for calling for the impeachment of a federal judge, saying, “Obviously I don’t think that President Trump should be calling for the impeachment of judges based on decisions not going his way.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 3/19/25]
• Shapiro said, “I think that it’s quite bad, on a personal level, that President Trump intervened in the Canadian election by basically just crapping all over Canada repeatedly.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/30/25]
• Shapiro said “skeezy stuff,” such as Trump accepting an airplane from Qatar or engaging in a cryptocurrency scheme, “needs to stop.” Shapiro went on to say, “I think if we switch the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/12/25] 
• Shapiro criticized Trump’s executive order on pharmaceutical prices, saying, “Make no mistake — this is a back door price control.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/12/25] 
• Complaining about a Trump executive order, Shapiro said, “I don’t know where in the Constitution it just says the president gets to randomly do the kinds of things that presidents of both parties are doing right now.” Shapiro went on to declare, “Checks and balances are actually quite a good thing.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/12/25]

Though Shapiro has claimed that “there are many areas of the Trump administration that I think during the first 100 days have not gone particularly well,” he has maintained a generally supportive stance toward the president and his administration. 

• After Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde urged Trump to show mercy to migrants, Shapiro said, “Jesus was not in favor of free migration across all borders.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/22/25]
• After Trump fired several inspectors general, Shapiro said, “These inspectors general tend to be Democratic plants very often.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/27/25]
• Early in the administration, Shapiro said Trump could be “the most transformative president in American public life since LBJ, maybe since FDR.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/12/25]
• Shapiro downplayed Trump administration cuts to national park workers, saying, “You can cut all those people by just having an automatic parking meter.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/19/25]
• Shapiro launched an effort to pressure Trump to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal charges related to George Floyd’s 2020 death. [CNN, 3/7/25]
• Shapiro wrote, “The SignalGate story basically went nowhere because the truth is that everybody has, at one point or another, included somebody in a group chat by accident and it gets very awkward.” [The Daily Wire, 4/1/25]
• When a Maryland father with protected legal status was sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador, Shapiro said it was a “bureaucratic screw-up” but not a “human tragedy.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/1/25]
• Shapiro praised Trump’s “u-turn” on tariffs following so-called Liberation Day, saying the president showed “strength” in backtracking. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/10/25]
• Shapiro has been supportive of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, saying, “The White House should stand by Hegseth. He was their pick. He was an out of the box pick, and he remains the right pick for secretary of defense.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/22/25]
• Shapiro said, “I’m a voter for President Trump, supporter of President Trump’s. I gave money to his campaign, fundraised for him, campaigned with him. President Trump needs to succeed on the economy because if he does not succeed on the economy, everything else goes down in flames.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]
• Shapiro defended the Trump administration after a judge noted a two-year-old U.S. citizen may have been removed from the country with “no meaningful process.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]
• Shapiro wrote, “President Trump has done an enormous number of amazing things, ranging from fighting DEI in every aspect of his administration to targeting university campuses that are hotbeds of antisemitism and leftism and wokeness, to having the Secretary of Defense try to fix all the problems at the Pentagon, to establishing DOGE, which is going through all aspects of government spending with Elon Musk and attempting to cut waste, fraud and abuse.” [The Daily Wire, 4/28/25]
• Shapiro wrote that the Trump administration has “been doing an excellent job” on immigration [The Daily Wire, 4/29/25]
• Shapiro said, “There are many areas of the Trump administration that I think during the first 100 days have not gone particularly well. That would range from the economy to some areas of foreign policy. However, when it comes to immigration, President Trump has been absolutely stalwart.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/29/25]
• Shapiro expressed support for the Trump administration freezing funds for Head Start, saying, “Head Start is one of the great fails in federal history.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/30/25]
• Shapiro supported the Trump administration targeting PBS and NPR funding, calling it a “very positive move by President Trump.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/2/25]
• Shapiro wrote that the rare earth minerals deal the Trump administration signed with Ukraine was “a very good deal.” [The Daily Wire, 5/2/25]
• Shapiro reiterated, “I want President Trump’s agenda to succeed. President Trump is doing many, many important things all across the globe.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/6/25]