Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro ripped Ben Rhodes as a "failed novelist" after the former deputy national security adviser to former President Obama openly questioned if President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE "is equipped to handle a complex, enduring, international crisis" on Friday.



Shapiro's comments come following a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, considered one of Iran's most powerful military leaders.





Shapiro made reference to Rhodes's time as a fiction novelist before jumping into the foreign policy establishment and eventually becoming Obama's "foreign-policy guru," as described by a 2016 New York Times Magazine profile.







"Trump's Soleimani airstrike is utterly righteous. Soleimani was one of the worst human beings on the planet," Shapiro, one of Israel's staunchest supporters in conservative media, called the airstrike ordered by Trump on Thursday "utterly righteous.""Trump's Soleimani airstrike is utterly righteous. Soleimani was one of the worst human beings on the planet," he tweeted . "America had to re-establish deterrence after Obama's appeasement. This will not be the end of the story -- Iran will continue to lash out. But they're certainly on notice."

"Does anyone think Donald Trump is equipped to handle a complex, enduring, international crisis that could play out in many countries and demand expertise, rigorous process, and judicious decision-making?" asked Rhodes, who currently serves as an MSNBC analyst, in a tweet to his 366,000 followers."I think we should hire a failed novelist who openly lied to the American people while pushing bribery of a terrorist regime to handle this," Shapiro said in a retweeted reply