PHOENIX — Erika Kirk took the stage in typical Turning Point USA fashion on Thursday night, with pyrotechnics and spotlights criss-crossing the stage. In her gold-sequin pantsuit, Kirk welcomed the thousands of attendees at TPUSA’s AmericaFest.
She was the first speaker in the action-packed lineup on the first day of the conference, which is in its 5th year.
Erika Kirk recalled the last AmFest, when she gave the closing remarks. President Donald Trump spoke at the conference in 2024. As Charlie Kirk chased after Trump to get on Air Force One, he asked his wife to give the final remarks and hold the TPUSA staff meeting, she told the audience. She admitted she didn’t know what she would say at the time but figured it out.
“In the past three months, I have learned a lot,” she said. “You learn very quickly who is ready to go to war with you.”
Erika Kirk had to take the reins of Turning Point USA after her husband Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University in September. AmericaFest was her first major outing as the new leader of the organization started by her husband.
Kirk kept the mood optimistic as she rattled off statistics that showcased TPUSA’s growth and influence. The large majority at this conference were newcomers and about 54% of registered attendees were women, Kirk said.
She called her husband a “peacekeeper” and bridge builder, adding she’s seen “infighting,” “fractures,” and bridges being burned among conservatives since Charlie Kirk’s passing.
Kirk did her best to showcase unity as the speakers on the evening’s lineup — including political commentators Ben Shapiro, Russell Brand and Tucker Carlson — openly criticized one another.
At last year’s AmericaFest, the likes of Shapiro and Carlson made bold claims that America is entering its “golden age.”
After Trump’s big win in the 2024 election — and a Republican trifecta emerged when the GOP won both chambers in Congress as well — everyone appeared hopeful and at ease, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Many of the speakers spoke of a new era for Republicans; a gutting and full-blown renovation of the Grand Old Party to make it the Grand “Young” Party.
But the mood has shifted among conservatives in the year since, especially with the death of Charlie Kirk, who was credited by his friends with keeping the right unified.
Where last year looked like a celebration, this year looks like a reassessment as Shapiro and Tucker honored Kirk’s memory but their attacks on one another ultimately took center stage, revealing the growing infighting between the stars of the conservative movement.
As the organization and its supporters grieve Kirk’s death, his wife, Erika Kirk is taking on Kirk’s role as the leader and the face of TPUSA.
She was on a media blitz over the past few weeks. Last Saturday, she sat down for an hourlong town hall with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, where she dismissed various conspiracy theories regarding her husband’s death, defended his legacy and discussed her decision to forgive her husband’s killer.
Ahead of AmericaFest, she was also interviewed at The New York Times DealBook Summit and on The Megyn Kelly show, while Fox News filmed a three-part documentary series on Erika Kirk.
“I honored my husband by completing all of these pre-planned fall media for (him) or his book,” she said. “Charlie and I … go wherever we need to go, but so will you.”
Erika Kirk rejoiced in TPUSA’s growing membership of more than 1 million students. She revealed plans for the “Make Heaven More Crowded Tour,” which hopes to revive faith across the country. The organization is also focused on “building the red wall” in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire, as well as getting Vice President JD Vance elected as president.
Erika Kirk welcomed conferencegoers with a few words of advice.
“My husband didn’t build this movement so people could feel comfortable. He built this movement so people could feel brave,” she said. “You may not agree with everyone on this stage this weekend — and that’s OK. Welcome to America.”
As she juggles becoming a single mother after losing her husband, and her newfound role leading Turning Point, Kirk has been vocal about her struggles, often growing emotional during interviews.
During the town hall with Weiss, Kirk became teary-eyed when answering a question from Bob Milgrim, whose daughter, Sarah, was fatally shot outside the Washington, D.C., Jewish Museum.
Milgrim asked Kirk if she would speak up against antisemitism.
“Yes, sir, first of all, I’m so sorry,” Kirk said, breaking down into tears. “You and I are a part of a very small club. Painful. It sucks, doesn’t it?”
She also reiterated her husband’s point of view, recalling that he “always would say very clearly, Jew hate is brain rot.”
As the Deseret News previously reported, during his final months, Kirk became more outspoken about what he called “Jew hate” among Generation Z, the youngest cohort of voters.
In more than one Q&A, he condemned antisemitism, which he said was the result of “hyper-online brain rot,” which shuns personal responsibility and ignores the value that Israel, and the Jewish people, have brought to the West.
“There is a corner of the internet of people that want to point and blame the Jews for all their problems,” Kirk said at an event in August. “Everybody, this is demonic, and it’s from the pit of hell, and it should not be tolerated. Period.”
This debate over condemning antisemitism has intensified since Charlie Kirk’s death.
Shapiro spoke after Erika Kirk. He talked about his duty as a commentator to give his listeners the truth before taking aim at several of his former colleagues.
“The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks — and some of them are speaking here tonight — are guilty of cowardice,” Shapiro said of Candace Owens, who has spun unsubstantiated theories about the circumstances surrounding Charlie Kirk’s death.
Of Carlson, he said, “If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes … you ought to own it.” He also briefly criticized Megyn Kelly, who is also set to speak at AmFest this weekend, for coming to Owen’s defense, chalking up her conspiratorial thinking to early motherhood.
“There is only one moral side here. It’s Erika’s side,” he said.
Carlson tried to counter Shapiro’s serious tone, first joking that he missed the first half of the evening’s programming. “I watched it, I laughed,” he added.
“Calls to deplatform at a Charlie Kirk event? That’s hilarious,” Carlson added, even though Shapiro did not call to censor him.
He accused Shapiro of mirroring the cancel culture on the left. “‘Shut up, Nazi’ is no different from ‘Shut up, racist,’” he said.
Carlson also claimed several times that he wasn’t an antisemite, contrary to Shapiro’s accusations. “It’s because antisemitism is immoral in my religion,” he said, before adding he opposed “all hate.”
He dismissed the narrative of a “civil war” erupting within the GOP. “I don’t think it’s real,” he said, but noted he has found himself “unwittingly involved in the proxy war.”
Carlson alleged that a faction of the Trump camp doesn’t want Vance to become president, the one person who “buys the core idea of the Trump coalition... America First.”
The disagreements among conservative stars likely won’t stop after the first night of programming.
The next three days will bring the biggest conservative names to the Phoenix Convention Center. Vance is also set to make an appearance on Sunday, along with Blaze Media CEO Glenn Beck, White House Border Czar Tom Homan and Donald Trump, Jr.
