Turning Point festival mobilizes Trump youth, podcast army
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Charlie Kirk speaks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix on Thursday. Photo: Cheney Orr/Reuters
PHOENIX — Five hundred fans of Charlie Kirk — the 31-year-old founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, the MAGA-verse's biggest outside group — broke into applause Saturday as Kirk welcomed former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to the stage for a taping of "The Charlie Kirk Show" podcast.
- "I wish they were all members of the United States Senate," Gaetz joshed, a month after withdrawing as President-elect Trump's choice for attorney general, and with release expected imminently of a House Ethics Committee report on his conduct.
- "I think they want you to be pope!" Kirk quipped.
- "I'm a Baptist!" Gaetz replied.
Why it matters: Kirk is one of the biggest winners of November's election who wasn't on the ballot. He'll introduce Trump today as the climactic guest of Turning Point's annual AmericaFest. This year's victory-lap edition is a triumphalist, four-day MAGAstock that drew 21,000 Trump diehards, many in college, to the desert the weekend before Christmas.
Kirk, who caught snippets of college football playoff games backstage, is the boyish, often controversial leader of a MAGA army that will:
- Bring grassroots pressure on Republican senators to confirm all Trump nominees. "Confirm the Mandate" is how Turning Point Action, Kirk's political arm, puts it.
- Insist GOP lawmakers hew the Trump line. In a tectonic change for the right, Turning Point is happy to be as combative with Republicans as with Democrats.
- Push Trumpers nationwide to act on Elon Musk's insistence, which Kirk repeated onstage, that everyday users of X "are the media now."
Between the lines: It's all backed by a vast network of friendly podcasts, dozens of which are taping here on elaborate sets that sometimes even include teleprompters. "Media Row" is actually two huge wings of the Phoenix Convention Center atrium.
- Kirk is close to Trump, Vice President-elect Vance, Don Jr. and Tucker Carlson. During the election, Turning Point Action launched a high-risk, high-reward "Chase the Vote" turnout operation for Trump — and won big.
- Kirk has become one of the most popular pitchmen for products aimed at "patriots": "Use promo code KIRK today." At the Gaetz taping, audience members had to show proof of membership in "Charlie Kirk Exclusive," the podcast's paid tier.
By the numbers: Turning Point — which also holds a Student Action Summit, a Young Women's Leadership Summit and a Pastors Summit — tells Axios this weekend's AmFest is the group's largest-ever multiday event, with 6,000 students among the 21,000 attendees.
- Turning Point Action staged massive Trump rallies during the campaign, including co-hosting the 20,000-person RFK Jr. endorsement event in Glendale, Ariz., in August, and drawing 16,000 in Duluth, Ga., and 18,000 in Vegas in the campaign's closing two weeks.
- Turning Point USA has 1,000+ college chapters and 1,200 high school chapters — plus a presence at 3,500+ other colleges and high schools (not yet school-sanctioned, but in the process of trying to get recognized).
The big picture: This year's AmFest has "an air not only of celebration but muscle-flexing," The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Zitner writes.
- "Trump's frequent appearances on podcasts, a medium suited to his freewheeling, off-the-cuff banter, wasn't only credited here with drawing young and minority voters to the GOP but with validating the power of new media platforms."
What's next: During an onstage parade of fire-and-brimstone pastors last night at AmFest's "Faith Night," Kirk warned attendees to arrive as early as 6:30 a.m. to get a seat for Trump's 10:30 a.m. speech. Kirk quipped: "I have a feeling the college kids are not gonna go to sleep tonight!"
- Go deeper: Videos from 51 AmFest speakers ... Roster of speakers.
