The Ben Shapiro Show - August 13, 2026


My Picks for the Next White House Press Secretary


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

207.71

Word count

1,904

Sentence count

152


Transcript

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00:00:00.000 There's no question Caroline Levitt has been very, very good at her job.
00:00:02.000 The White House will be worse for the wear without her.
00:00:05.000 There's some talk about who exactly is going to take over next.
00:00:07.000 And I have an off the board pick that might surprise certain of you.
00:00:11.000 It will definitely increase the ratings.
00:00:12.000 Plus, we have the latest on the White House press corps freaking out about President Trump's 007 plane switch maneuver.
00:00:19.000 Caroline Levitt is stepping down as press secretary.
00:00:23.000 She put out a statement saying, Serving as the White House press secretary over the past year and a half has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:28.000 I'm incredibly grateful to President Trump for granting me so many extraordinary opportunities, such as working in the West Wing and spending countless hours in the Oval Office.
00:00:35.000 Flying around the world and meeting foreign leaders and traveling across our beautiful country and meeting Americans from all walks of life.
00:00:41.000 She says, Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season in my life, to say the least.
00:00:48.000 The truth is, since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House press secretary.
00:00:58.000 And that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decisions to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.
00:01:02.000 It's good for her.
00:01:03.000 I mean, she's saying that she wants to spend more time with her kids.
00:01:05.000 And I actually believe that she wants to spend more time with her kids.
00:01:07.000 It's not like when a football coach quits and says he wants to spend more time with his kids, which very often just means he wants to spend more time with his mistress.
00:01:14.000 I think that she actually means that.
00:01:16.000 It turns out that for a lot of working women, they like taking time off when they have kids.
00:01:20.000 My wife has done it multiple times.
00:01:22.000 Even now, she's taking time off because new baby.
00:01:25.000 Apparently, she's going to continue serving as a top advisor to President Trump on the outside.
00:01:30.000 She says, Our country is facing an existential threat from an increasingly extremist Democrat party that seeks to destroy everything great about America.
00:01:36.000 I believe it's incumbent upon all of us who care about this country to fight back against.
00:01:40.000 My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over.
00:01:40.000 That threat.
00:01:42.000 Okay, so a lot of talk about who exactly is going to be the next press secretary.
00:01:46.000 The president put out a very nice statement championing Caroline Lovett.
00:01:52.000 He says that she's been one of the best White House press secretaries in the history of the office.
00:01:55.000 She is very good at her job.
00:01:56.000 There's no question that she's been very good at her job.
00:01:58.000 Like the number of sort of.
00:02:00.000 She wasn't memeable the way that, say, Corinne Jean Pierre was, the worst press secretary in history.
00:02:07.000 She did a good job defending the president's policies in calm and measured fashion.
00:02:11.000 Honestly, very, very good at her job.
00:02:13.000 So, there's some talk about who's going to take over next.
00:02:15.000 Stephen Chung has been mentioned.
00:02:16.000 He, of course, is very active in the White House press office.
00:02:18.000 He's a top official over there.
00:02:20.000 Again, Stephen is very articulate, but I doubt he's quite the look that President Trump is looking for.
00:02:24.000 The president likes putting attractive faces from Fox News on the air.
00:02:29.000 So, you know, I think there's a shot for maybe a Liz Wheeler or somebody like that in that spot.
00:02:36.000 Mary Margaret Olihan, honestly, who is one of our reporters.
00:02:38.000 So, it's kind of a shift in job, but she's very camera friendly.
00:02:41.000 She's very articulate, obviously, very up on policy.
00:02:44.000 I hope that the president doesn't offer that a job because we need her.
00:02:47.000 As an actual White House press correspondent, not working for the White House, but MMO is very good at her job.
00:02:52.000 Michael Moles would be an amazing press secretary, honestly.
00:02:54.000 And that's not just my attempt to get him off our payroll, which, you know, I've been trying that for like 10 years.
00:02:59.000 But actually, Michael is really good at handling the press.
00:03:03.000 He would stay calm.
00:03:04.000 He's very, you know, sort of clever.
00:03:07.000 He likes the repartee.
00:03:08.000 It's almost Knowles' ideal job.
00:03:10.000 So, you know, that'd be amusing.
00:03:13.000 Watching Knowles play with the press would be fun.
00:03:15.000 Some other names.
00:03:16.000 Scott Jennings has been discussed.
00:03:17.000 I don't think Scott would be great at it.
00:03:19.000 I don't think Scott's going to do it from CNN.
00:03:22.000 And my off the board pick for most amusing White House press secretary, Alex Jones.
00:03:30.000 I would pay money for it.
00:03:31.000 Again, I think Alex Jones is just a nut job who believes a wide variety of either crazy or terrible things.
00:03:40.000 But Alex Jones mocking the press would be legitimately one of the great spectacles in the history of American politics.
00:03:46.000 Like Alex Jones doing to the press what he did to Sneeko is crossing his eyes and screaming at the top of his lungs while ripping his shirt off.
00:03:54.000 It would be must see TV.
00:03:56.000 So, if the president wants ratings, I highly suggest he hires Alex Jones as his press secretary.
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00:05:04.000 Anyway, speaking of that White House press corps, the president obviously took significant precautions when he made a trip to Turkey last month.
00:05:12.000 When he left Turkey, he did not take Air Force One or backup Air Force One.
00:05:15.000 He took a third airplane because of alleged threats to his life.
00:05:19.000 Apparently, that intelligence came from Israel, which of course means that it must be that Israel is making up the idea that Iran wants to kill President Trump.
00:05:29.000 This is, of course, Cenk Uyghur, who, why he was ever allowed to become a citizen is beyond me, but you know.
00:05:36.000 Again, not great, Bob.
00:05:37.000 Anyway, he says, Guess where we got the bullshit intelligence about how Iran might assassinate Trump?
00:05:41.000 Nicaragua, joking, obviously, Israel.
00:05:43.000 All of their intelligence is always designed to get us to attack their enemies and is never true.
00:05:48.000 So, first of all, the president didn't have to believe them.
00:05:52.000 I mean, the American intelligence didn't have to believe that assessment.
00:05:56.000 And also, like, let's say that Israel got that intel.
00:05:58.000 Do you think that, how would it work out if Israel did not pass that intel because they put it at low confidence?
00:06:03.000 And then there was an actual attempt on the president's life.
00:06:05.000 How'd that go counter, you know, sort of counterfactually?
00:06:08.000 I mean, it is weird that Israel would say that Iran wants to kill Trump, considering they constantly want to kill Trump and say so openly and put up giant placards in the middle of Tehran claiming that they want to murder the president.
00:06:20.000 It is, I mean, it is a mystery wrapped in enigma how that intelligence would come to be.
00:06:25.000 Here's a quick montage of Iranian officials claiming that they would like to kill the president.
00:06:31.000 IRGC member saying there are a bunch of poor soldiers and killing them was not our goal.
00:06:39.000 We got a willing name to kill Trump.
00:06:42.000 The sources of religious authority have sanctioned the killing of that filthy creature, as one of the Ayatollahs.
00:06:50.000 But we must not let it become like the Imam's fatwa about Salman Rushdie, which ultimately was not carried out.
00:06:56.000 He got stabbed in the eye.
00:06:56.000 I mean, it was.
00:06:58.000 How come nobody is talking about blood vengeance, says an Iranian commentator?
00:07:03.000 The people have a right to this.
00:07:04.000 We have an eye for an eye in Islam.
00:07:08.000 Mr. Trump and Damn Netanyahu should know that they are murderers.
00:07:17.000 He committed murder, and the Islamic Republic has the right to kill him.
00:07:19.000 Yeah, it's a mystery.
00:07:21.000 How could anyone have come up with the conclusion that they might have actually wanted to kill Trump?
00:07:25.000 I mean, they're so subtle about it.
00:07:28.000 The president responded to the threats on his life, and here's what he had to say No, not surprised.
00:07:34.000 I have a lot of threats.
00:07:35.000 I have a lot of threats that you don't know about.
00:07:38.000 Any consequential president has a lot of threats.
00:07:42.000 Non consequential presidents don't get threatened.
00:07:45.000 And I think that I. Maybe the most consequential president.
00:07:51.000 There's nobody who's done more than me in a period of almost six years.
00:07:55.000 There's nobody.
00:07:58.000 So he is right about that.
00:08:01.000 He also commented on trusting Iran.
00:08:03.000 And, you know, again, there's all this talk about is he going to make a deal?
00:08:06.000 Is a deal in the offing?
00:08:07.000 And at the very least, the president at this point should know and apparently does that, you know, Iran is not the most trustworthy counterparty.
00:08:15.000 I don't trust Iran.
00:08:16.000 Why?
00:08:17.000 Are you saying I trust Iran?
00:08:19.000 I'm the last person that trusts Iran.
00:08:21.000 They've lied to me constantly.
00:08:22.000 We have total control over the Harmo Strait right now.
00:08:27.000 They don't have control.
00:08:28.000 We have total control.
00:08:29.000 We own it.
00:08:30.000 And at some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away.
00:08:34.000 But we, right now, we're in a very good position.
00:08:37.000 We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years.
00:08:43.000 It's really 51 if you think about it, right?
00:08:45.000 We've been saying 47 for four years.
00:08:48.000 And they're no longer the bully of the Middle East.
00:08:50.000 Thank you very much, everybody.
00:08:54.000 Well, you know, again, I hope that the president keeps that in mind as he moves forward.
00:09:00.000 Along these lines.
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