Ben Shapiro’s been called a conservative “wunderkind,” a “cool kid’s philosopher,” and a “principled gladiator.” While these types of profiles tend to ascribe some kind of preternatural persuasive skill to Shapiro, the reality is that his path to success has been gilded by a number of conservative billionaires and multimillionaires, many of whom are major Republican political donors.
Two organizations that promote Shapiro—Turning Point USA and Young America’s Foundation (both heavily pro-Trump)—are propped up with cash from wealthy conservatives. And both groups put Shapiro in the company of racists and Islamophobic figures.
Prominent GOP political donors to these groups include Charles Koch, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos and her family, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, prolific GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein, Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus, and Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Foster Freiss.
While the funding behind Breitbart News and Shapiro’s current platform, The Daily Wire, is well known, a full picture of the money behind Shapiro makes it clear that his career depends on a much larger group of major conservatives than he would perhaps like to admit.