Figures
at event include Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Trump Jr as cohesion of ++++
Edward
Helmore
Sun 21
Dec 2025 21.12 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/21/maga-stars-turning-point-conference
The stars
of the Maga conservatism converged for the four-day AmericaFest conference in
Phoenix this weekend amid reports that the cohesion of the political-religious
right, a year into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, is showing signs of
stress.
The
sold-out Turning Point USA event brought together figures from the right
including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr, Vivek
Ramaswamy, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck, to kick around the dominant themes of
conservatism.
It marked
Turning Point USA’s first annual gathering since its leader Charlie Kirk was
shot and killed on a college campus in Utah in September. The event was billed
as “a powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of our founder,
Charlie Kirk”.
However,
the gathering made headlines for the infighting on display among its
high-profile participants.
“Say what
you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk’s widow
Erika. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the
family business.”
Erika
Kirk, left, and Nicki Minaj react during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point
USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday.
View
image in fullscreen
According
to reports from the festival, the unification seen in previous years has been
challenged by interpersonal gripes and disagreement over how big the big tent
of conservatism should be and what brands of conservative thinking it can be
expected to hold.
Conservative
commentator Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, set the tone on Thursday
when he condemned Carlson for hosting the white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his
streaming show, as well as others he depicted as charlatans and grifters.
Shapiro
said hosts are “indeed responsible for the guests they choose and the questions
they ask”, adding that Fuentes “is an evil troll and that building him up is an
act of moral imbecility. And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”
Carlson
later took the stage and dismissed Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and
denounce” people, according to reports, and said he laughed at Shapiro’s
address – “that kind of bitter sardonic laugh that emerges from you and, like,
upside-down world arrives. When your dog starts doing your taxes, and you’re
like, ‘Wait, it’s not supposed to work this way.’”
The
pre-eminent split among young conservatives, reported the Arizona Republic, is
over distrust of Israel over its war with Hamas and the embrace of figures like
Fuentes, a Holocaust denier. Without Kirk to hold the movement together, the
fractures have only become more apparent.
“When
Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I think that’s when everything split into
groypers, the conservative right, constitutional right,” Jack Nichols, 19, told
the Arizona Republic. “And I think that’s bad. I don’t think that’s what
Charlie would have wanted. I think Charlie would have wanted us to come
together instead of dividing.”
Former
presidential candidate Ramaswamy, who is currently running for Ohio governor,
said pockets of the “online right” had become fixated on the idea of a
“heritage” right rather than one based on conservative ideals.
Vivek
Ramaswamy speaks during the fTurning Point USA summit in Phoenix, Arizona, on
Friday.
“I think
the idea of a heritage American is about as loony as anything the woke left has
actually put up,” Ramaswamy said. “There is no American who is more American
than somebody else … It is binary. Either you’re an American or you’re not.”
In a
penultimate speech, House speaker Mike Johnson encouraged attendees to “live as
he [Charlie Kirk] lived”.
“What I
mean by that is, I think there’s two very important things that all of us can
and should do. I think we should advance his principles, and I think we should
adopt (that) approach.”
Speaking
at the event on Thursday, Kirk’s widow Erika, who now runs the organization,
said she endorsed JD Vance as the next Republican presidential nominee.
Vance –
who spoke on Sunday – said of Kirk’s assassination, “we got kicked in the
teeth, my friends, and there’s no sugar-coating it”. He depicted Kirk’s alleged
assassin Tyler Robinson as a crucible of values and behaviors that the left
seeks to promote and said it was better for conservatives to have disagreements
and to discuss them, than to be “drones for George Soros.”
After a
long weekend of debates about whether the movement should exclude figures such
as Fuentes, Vance came down firmly against “purity tests.”
“I didn’t
bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to de-platform,” Vance said during
the convention’s closing speech.
The
conservative festival was not short in surprises: rapper Nicki Minaj took to
the stage with Kirk on Sunday. Minaj expressed admiration for Donald Trump and
Vance, and explained her switch from supporting Democrat candidates like Obama
and Clinton. “I just got tired of being pushed around,” she said. “I’m not
gonna back down anymore. I’m not gonna back down ever again.”
The
Associated Press contributed reporting
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