Last Updated on October 3, 2019
Neoliberal commentator Ben Shapiro can always be counted on to provide scorching hot foreign policy takes, and his tweet about John Bolton’s firing this morning was no exception.
As the news broke Tuesday morning about President Donald Trump firing National Security Advisor John Bolton, the polarized response along political lines on social media was extremely predictable.
Ben Shapiro, who is known to never turn down an opportunity to rail against President Trump on Twitter, was among the first to publish a negative response.
“This is terrible for the White House,” Shapiro said. “Bolton was correct about the Taliban; State wasn’t. Bolton has been a hawkish voice for a tough national security policy, and his ouster likely signals that Trump’s approach will be significantly softer from this point forward.”
This is terrible for the White House. Bolton was correct about the Taliban; State wasn’t. Bolton has been a hawkish voice for a tough national security policy, and his ouster likely signals that Trump’s approach will be significantly softer from this point forward. https://t.co/g13Shw46eW
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 10, 2019
Predictably, Shapiro was roundly mocked in his own Twitter replies. The top response to his tweet was a photoshop of Shapiro’s face onto Bolton’s with the caption “whatevs Ben Bolton.”
https://twitter.com/CarpeDonktum/status/1171459791631204352
Others users were also quick to laugh at Shapiro, taking aim at what they see as his blatantly transparent war-shilling foreign policy agenda.
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) September 10, 2019
— Bob™️ (@307cork) September 10, 2019
Shapiro has a long track record of advocating offensive military strategies for the United States to police international conflicts.
In 2005, Shapiro published an op-ed in Townhall titled “Why war in Iraq is right for America,” two years after most Americans recognized that Operation Iraqi Freedom was a blood-soaked economic farce.
In 2007, Shapiro penned another piece in Townhall that many regard as support for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israeli military.
The neoconservative pundit, who never hesitates to label political opponents fascists and white supremacists, said the violent removal of Palestinians would not be equatable to other genocides because there are no gas chambers involved:
The Jews don’t realize that expelling a hostile population is a commonly used and generally effective way of preventing violent entanglements. There are no gas chambers here. It’s not genocide; it’s transfer. It’s not Hitler; it’s Churchill.
While Shapiro has recanted some of his statements regarding ethnic cleansing in the Middle East, he has yet to clearly correct the record on his support for Operation Iraqi Freedom and other military incursions supported by policy hawks like Bolton.
