A marketing executive linked to Turning Point USA is offering private meetings and photo ops with President Donald Trump in exchange for a $500,000 donation to the conservative activist group’s political action committee.
Trump is scheduled to appear Friday at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, for a “Build the Red Wall” campaign event organized by TPUSA, which was founded by slain activist Charlie Kirk and is now run by his widow, Erika.
The rally itself is free, but select VIPs can also donate half-a-million dollars to the TPUSA PAC for a full event package that includes round-trip travel to Phoenix with a semi-private charter plane service, a private tour of TPUSA’s headquarters, and a one-on-one meeting with Trump, according to an email that was leaked to Judd Legum’s Popular Information Substack.
“This experience will include participation in a brief conversation with the President, followed by a photo opportunity,” says the email, which was sent by Trump world insider Sinan Kanatsiz.
Kanatsiz, the founder and CEO of a PR and government affairs firm called KCOMM, confirmed to Popular Information that he sent the email, which says donors will be put in touch with TPUSA’s senior major gifts director, Matt Scherr, who is handling RSVPs.
At the bottom, the message says, “THIS EMAIL IS FOR RECIPIENT USE ONLY AND NOT FOR SHARING – CONFIDENTIAL.”
Kanatsiz told Popular Information he was a “volunteer” helping TPUSA, and that he’d sent the email to a “few people,” though none of them accepted the invite.
“I have a network of friends that want to support Turning Point that may have never met them,” he said. A website set up by TPUSA for the event makes no mention of the $500,000 package.
In February, Kanatsiz posted on LinkedIn that he’d organized an event bringing together TPUSA’s leadership with venture capitalists, national security leaders, media, and business leaders.
“My family and I are committed to Turning Point USA, to our country, to the administration, and most importantly the next generation of Americans,” he wrote.
He also told Popular Information that he didn’t know whether anyone outside of his personal invitations had accepted the offer to pay $500,000 for a meeting with Trump.
The Daily Beast has reached out to TPUSA and the White House for comment.
Besides Trump, Friday’s event bills Erika Kirk and five Arizona representatives as speakers.
Kirk had also been scheduled to attend an event in Georgia this week with Vice President JD Vance, but pulled out at the last minute due to unspecified threats.
The rally turned out to be a dud, as only about one-quarter of the 8,000-person venue, Atkins Ford Arena in Athens, was filled for Vance’s speech.
Journalist Eric Spracklen shared footage of the minimal attendance on X.com and posted, “They really want us to believe that the TPUSA event was safe enough for the Vice President but not for Erika Kirk? I’m not buying it. She canceled because they couldn’t pull more than a couple hundred people. This is the most telling thing I’ve ever seen.”
The vice president was heckled while he was speaking, and protesters outside held up signs that read “What would the real Jesus do?,” “God does not hate, Turning Point does” and “Jesus warned us about J.D. Vance.”
The capacity at Dream City Church, where Trump will speak on Friday, is more modest at about 4,500 people.
As Popular Information’s Legum pointed out, the $500,000 fundraising offer represents a major acceleration in TPUSA PAC’s fundraising. Last year, Erika Kirk endorsed JD Vance for president in 2028, nearly three years before the election.
