‘Indefensible and ugly’: $20 burritos have Tucker Carlson, JD Vance, Ben Shapiro fighting over America’s inflation woes Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.
A $20 burrito probably wasn’t on anyone’s list of issues that could ignite a political firestorm
But that’s exactly what happened after Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, shared (1) a college student’s blunt assessment of the economy on X: “A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Must Read Kolvet acknowledged that some of today’s high prices are a “hangover” from the inflation surge that followed the pandemic, but argued that for ordinary Americans, “the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.” His post quickly drew millions of views and helped launch what he called the “great burrito debate of 2026.” And before long, some of the biggest voices in American politics and media were fighting over what that $20 burrito actually says about the economy. Ben Shapiro essentially argued that if you’re regularly spending that much on a burrito, inflation may not be your biggest problem. “A burrito does not cost $20. If you’re paying $20 for a burrito and you’re not independently wealthy, you’re doing life wrong,” the Daily Wire co-founder wrote on X (2).
Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, sided more closely with those warning against dismissing Americans’ affordability concerns. When Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen told the student to “cry me a river” and pointed out that college meal plans already include food, Vance fired back with a personal jab. “If you’ve ever met him in person, it’s quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito,” Vance wrote (3). Tucker Carlson weighed in as well.