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There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media. That’s all over now, writes political columnist Ross Barkan. Shapiro’s company, ‘The Daily Wire,’ is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are ‘Daily Wire’ YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts. “If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the ‘Daily Wire’’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency,” writes Barkan. “There are two realities to Shapiro conservatism in 2026: It retains a significant foothold among Republican elites, and it is fast being rejected by the future grassroots of the party.” Read more: nymag.visitlink.me/KtpIKV

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media. That’s all over now, writes political columnist Ross Barkan. Shapiro’s company, ‘The Daily Wire,’ is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are ‘Daily Wire’ YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts. “If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the ‘Daily Wire’’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency,” writes Barkan. “There are two realities to Shapiro conservatism in 2026: It retains a significant foothold among Republican elites, and it is fast being rejected by the future grassroots of the party.” Read more: nymag.visitlink.me/KtpIKV

Is Putin Really Vulnerable? Or are all the rumors swirling in Moscow just more dictator games with his loyal security services, only to justify further crackdowns and repression? This is the subject of my opinion piece out today with @ForeignPolicy magazine. Below are a few of the key points I make. Please tune into FP for the full article, and more great content on Russia. 🚨With the Kremlin, every few months, a new rumor seems to emerge suggesting that Putin may be vulnerable. The Washington Post, Newsweek and other sources reported last week this may suggest Putin is weakened and concerned over potential coups. My take: nothing further from the truth…this is a lot of wishful thinking. Unfortunately, after 25 years in power, Putin has built a system designed precisely to survive rumors, dissent, and internal intrigue.  As I said in the article, during his years in power, Putin has learned from other dictators’ failures. ⚠️In a hypothetical ‘World Dictators and Autocrats’ course, Putin has earned straight A’s for the last quarter century! He knows what he is doing. 🚨My conclusion: coup rumors, investigations, and arrests serve Putin’s political purposes. They create uncertainty within elite circles keeping his followers fiercely loyal and the population frozen in fear. ⚠️The most likely outcome given today’s rumors of dissent and upheaval in Russia is therefore not imminent regime collapse but further repression. 👇In the article I also discuss the Prigozhin’s rebellion in 2023, tune into the full article for his and other key analysis!: foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/12/rus… 👉Please consider my book for further analysis like this on the Russian services!: amazon.com/Tradecraft-Tac… #Russia #RussianIntelligence #Ukraine