Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has joined a burgeoning chorus of Republicans predicting disaster for their party in the 2026 midterm elections, admitting in a conversation with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) that the GOP should prepare for defeat.

Shapiro admitted as much in Thursday’s episode of his podcast after Newsom took charge during a segment of rapid-fire questions, asking the Daily Wire co-founder, “I mean, Republicans have no chance in this midterm, right?”

“I think that they are in for a world of hurt right now in the midterms,” said Shapiro. “They’re the incumbent party, they have a bare majority — that alone would put them behind the eight ball. There are not a lot of swing districts that are left because of all the redistricting, but the swing districts that are left seem to be trending more blue.”

Newsom asked how big a mistake it was for Republicans to oppose extending Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies amid last year’s government shutdown, prompting Shapiro to admit that this was “obviously” a “political loser” for the party.

Shapiro also said that the GOP will have it that much harder in the midterms because President Donald Trump “isn’t on the ballot,” which the president himself used as an excuse after Democrats swept key races during off-year elections in November.

Shapiro vowed ahead of the 2016 presidential election that he would “never” vote for Trump, calling him a lying “ignoramus” at the time who lacks “brain cells” and dangerously appeals to the racist alt-right — before endorsing him in both 2020 and 2024.

On Thursday, he criticized Trump’s policy of tariffs on U.S. imports and raised concerns that Trump’s ongoing mass deportation agenda is “in practicality, probably not fulfillable.”

Shapiro, seen here at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference in Argentina

Tomas Cuesta via Getty Images

“I don’t understand why we are attempting to make Greenland our 51st state,” Shapiro said about Trump threatening to acquire or annex the self-governing territory of Denmark. “It seems to me we already have defense agreements. I think that’s silly.”