Conservatives clash at Turning Point USA conference over MAGA movement's direction

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 12:27 PM EST, December 19, 2025


PHOENIX (AP) — A simmering battle over the future of President Donald Trump’s political movement exploded on one of the right’s biggest stages Thursday, as prominent conservative influencers used Turning Point USA’s annual youth conference to attack each other and their competing visions. The feuding threatened to eclipse efforts to memorialize Charlie Kirk, the organization’s charismatic founder who was assassinated in September, even as participants insisted they were honoring the legacy of a unifying figure within the Republican Party.

First up was Ben Shapiro, who described Tucker Carlson and others as grifters and charlatans, guilty of misleading their audiences with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Shapiro sharply criticized Carlson, a former Fox News host, for interviewing outspoken antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast, calling it “an act of moral imbecility.”

Barely an hour later, Carlson took the same stage and mocked Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him. “I watched it,” he said. “I laughed.”

The raw bitterness on the opening night of the four-day conference reflected deep divisions over the meaning of “America First” and next steps for the “Make America Great Again” movement defined more by the force of Trump’s personality than loyalty to a particular ideological project.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/turning-point-charlie-kirk-americafest-c1ef8d3535191e58ce2aa731d242bebf

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Young Republicans In Disarray.

[Skittles]

1. I'll give them something to unify them

they can all go fuck themselves

[mdbl]

2. Morons on paradel

[drmeow]

3. They've probably banned

guns so there won't be a mass shooting. I'd say "ironically" but it is really strategically and with full embracing of their vermin-spawn-of-satan level hypocrisy.

[William Seger]

4. Conservatives? Nope, reactionaries -- knee-jerk anti-liberal bigots

They just can't agree on who to hate.

[slightlv]

6. They can't agree, so they hate everybody - including each other!

The big problem I see with this group, tho, is that they're young, for the most part. They're the young, white, disenchanted, enraged males in our population - and then not even ALL of them. (sigh) These are the people who are going to be fighting you tooth and nail every single day to keep things as evil and prejudiced as they are right now. These are the people who are going to continue to see that America never again becomes a First Among Nations. They're the ones who are the underside of the dirty electric pole, ripped up from the mud, with all the detritus still hanging from their frames. They will STILL be the ones with guns. Even if we get around to creating and erecting new, sensible gun laws these are the people who will never abide by those laws... and will shoot you when you "come to take their guns away."

HOW do we turn these angry white males around to the point they can function in a civil society? How do we deprogram them? How do we get rid of the influencers... Heritage Foundation, think tanks, the maga judicial regime, not to mention the tiktokers and Instragram and YouTube influencers. How do we teach them to admire and respect women. How do we teach them No means NO!

[BaronChocula]

8. Love this!

The white cultural voter definitely needs to be reprogrammed.

[Mawspam2]

18. You can't reprogram their hate.

Better we direct their hate against each other. From the sound of it, they are well on their way to destroying themselves and whatever larger objective they claim to have.

[travelingthrulife]

20. We should also focus on the relationship between evangelical MAGA and the TechBro MAGA

These people are naturally enemies, forming a temporary alliance to force fascism onto us. If they are split, Trump goes away.

[FakeNoose]

27. I submit that one can be politically conservative without being racist or sexist

I've known a few in my lifetime, even in my own extended family.

Yes the MAGAs are all racist, sexist and immigrant-haters, BUT my point is that those aren't required to be a conservative. The difference is the hatred that MAGAs are constantly spewing. Seems to me that their hatred comes from an emotional emptiness or maybe it's mixed in with some kind of twisted religious fervor, I don't know.

The political/philosophical conservatives learned long ago that they'll never get a majority of voters in the US, so they've been carefully fashioning lies to hook these crazies and turn them into MAGA voters. It has worked, better than anyone ever thought. Shame on us Democrats for sitting back and letting it happen. Whoever thought there would be this many awful hateful people living in the US who would give their vote to such an "antidemocracy" group?

The problem here has never been "Antifa" ... it's really "Antidem."

[Javaman]

5. This, in a nut shell, is why they will never succeed

They all want to lead

[travelingthrulife]

21. It's like watching the dogs at the dog park.

So often the chase they all want doesn't work because they all want to be the one chased.

[usonian]

7. Hate is its own reward.

Certainly not monetary, not prestige, not honor ....


Just failure, disgrace, a dead-end life.

[mwmisses4289]

9. C. K was considered charismatic?!? by whom?!?

A limp noodle had more charisma than he did!

[Polybius]

10. I never saw him as very charismatic either

Where he excelled was his debating skills.

[ZZenith]

13. His debating skills were abysmal.

He excelled at logical fallacies though, no question.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. And disconcerting nonsensical attacks on unsuspecting opponents. He couldn't dazzle them with brilliance, so ...

... he baffled them with bullshit.

[travelingthrulife]

22. Seriously?

[Polybius]

23. OK, let's be frank and honest

A lot of people who can't stand someone will never give them credit in debate skills. I am not saying you are like this, but I can look past it. Example would be Ted Cruz. Horrible guy, good debate skills. Only time I saw him schooled was from another right-winger, Tucker Carlson.

[womanofthehills]

24. Any shows I've seen Cruz on lately - he's come off bad

Last edited Sun Dec 21, 2025, 02:02 AM - Edit history (1)

If he once had good skills, he lost them.

[Polybius]

25. You may be right, he has diminished a lot lately

He did very well in the 2015/2016 Republican primary debates, and probably the only reason he won his Senate race against Beto in 2018 was because of the debates. No clue how he did in 2024.

[Martin68]

11. Success for conservatives lead to civil war among themselves. They don't have a vision, policies, or the morals to

map their way forward. It was just all about the naked lust for power and revenge. After that they got nothing.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Their only "morals" are self-serving "morals".

There's a famous quote about right-wingers expecting the law to protect them fully, while not binding them at all -- for the "others", the law binds them fully but does not protect them at all.

(If anyone wants to post that quote/source, feel free. I should have added it to my saved docs long ago.)

[Dulcinea]

12. They all want to be Charlie Kirk's heir apparent.

It sure won't be Erika. They'll never accept a mere woman as their ideological leader.

Let them all destroy each other.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Why would anyone want to be the "leader" of such a pack of losers ?

I'll answer my own question -- because a pack of losers is the only group a bigger loser can ever expect to lead. Worked for Trmp, worked for Kirk, works for RWNJs who don't mind being seen as RWNJs because they are completely devoid of any conscience or even a vestigial sense of shame.

[valleyrogue]

17. They are not "conservatives."

I wish people would quit calling the radical right this erroneous term. There hasn't been any kind of "conservatism" in the GOP since the second Bush administration ended. These people aren't about preserving society and its institutions--they are all about destroying them. Reactionary, yes, but not "conservative."

I see a lot of the misuse of the word by not just the media but also by younger people who have no real idea what the word means. Using "conservative" for truly fascistic ideas and people whitewashes just how dangerous these people and ideas are.

[riversedge]

19. Fight away--and I hope you knock each other out COLD!!

[Blues Heron]

26. The wheels are coming off, they're turning in circles

[FalloutShelter]

28. In the words of Stephanie Miller...

“Fight, fight… big bag of RATS!”

[usonian]

29. Go for it.

Disclaimer: I abhor violence. The above is only acting.