Turning Point USA’s first AmericaFest conference without the group’s slain leader has descended into petty infighting among some of MAGA’s most prominent figures.
In an extraordinary opening night, right-wing influencers vying for control over the future of the conservative movement publicly aired grievances against one another onstage, as the civil war erupting among President Donald Trump’s supporters played out in real time.
Among the attack lines hurled at the event, which was supposed to memorialize TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk following his murder in September, were jabs at former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his softball interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, as well as criticism of right-wing figures who failed to call out podcaster Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about Kirk’s killing.
Political commentator Ben Shapiro delivered some of the most vitriolic attacks, blasting the “frauds and grifters” dominating headlines in the MAGA world. He noted in his speech that Kirk “despised” the “evil troll” Fuentes, and said offering him any sort of platform was “an act of moral imbecility.”
“That is precisely what Tucker Carlson did. He built Nick Fuentes up, and you ought to take responsibility for that,” Shapiro said.
“Just as you ought to take responsibility for glazing pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate, or for mainstreaming fake historian and pseudo–Nazi apologist Darryl Cooper as America’s best and most honest popular historian," Shapiro added.
Shapiro also used one of MAGA’s favored slurs to attack Owens for pushing baseless claims about Kirk’s murder, including suggestions that Israeli intelligence was involved or that Turning Point USA itself was somehow to blame.
“In motive accusations, conspiracy theories, and just gasping questions—that’s lazy and stupid and misleading. None of them are a substitute for truth. None of them are a substitute for evidence,” Shapiro said. “So when Candace Owens says, ‘I don’t know, but I know,’ that is ret***ed, and we are all more ret***ed for having heard it.”
Elsewhere, Shapiro blasted commentator Megyn Kelly for “shying away” from condemning Owens, and described top Trump ally Steve Bannon as someone who was “once a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein.”
Carlson fired back almost immediately, opening his own speech that night by joking, “I just got here, and I feel like I missed the first part of the program. Hope I didn’t miss anything meaningful.”
He also mocked Shapiro for calling for “deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event. This is hilarious.”
Erika Kirk, the widow of the Turning Point USA founder, predicted there would be tensions between the warring MAGA figures during her own speech.
“You won’t agree with everyone on this stage this weekend,” she said. “And that’s OK. Welcome to America.”
Elsewhere at AmericaFest, arguments nearly turned physical. Videos posted online showed Blaze host John Doyle confronting one of Fuentes’ supporters, known as Groypers, who frequently attempt to gatecrash mainstream GOP conferences that they are banned from attending.
As noted by The Bulwark’s Will Sommer, infighting over attempts to mainstream Fuentes’ extremist views is at the center of MAGA turmoil in the wake of Kirk’s death.
“Watching TPUSA convention, it’s striking how much Charlie Kirk’s firewall against Nick Fuentes and white nationalism has evaporated after his murder,” Sommer posted on X.
“Charlie Kirk was Nick Fuentes’s arch-enemy, and Fuentes tormented Kirk right up until his murder. Three months later, speakers and audience members at Kirk’s convention are eager to welcome Fuentes into the GOP.”
