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.”
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.
“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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