Conservative youth organization Turning Point USA made headlines this week when President Trump spoke at the group’s “Teen Student Action Summit.” TPUSA Founder and President Charlie Kirk was thrilled by the president’s speech, bragging that a few teenagers “slept outside the door” to hear Trump’s remarks.

TPUSA is initially attractive to many young people due to the organization’s savvy marketing using memes, posters, and catchy slogans such as “socialism sucks.” And at first glance, this may seem like a good thing for the conservative movement.

But everyone should be concerned by the mainstreaming of TPUSA and Kirk. Turning Point claims to exist for the mission of “promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.” In reality, it’s an organization that pulls kids too young to know any better into a group that’s deeply troubled and dishonest at its core.

Turning Point’s entire existence is deceptive. At first glance, the group seems to stand for conservative values, but in recent years, TPUSA has become a partisan, pro-Trump group, bowing to the whims of donors and the Trump family while ignoring the wishes of staff and activists.

Kirk, for instance, has historically supported free trade. Until Trump didn’t.

Now, Kirk bends over backwards to explain Trump’s trade policies, which to any clear-headed person, are strikingly in opposition to TPUSA’s original free trade principles. In an op-ed for the Hill, Kirk carries water for the president and attempts to defend Trump’s protectionist record.

Kirk knows the president’s trade practices aren’t in line with free market principles. His defense isn’t due to stupidity — it’s calculated, thought out, and downright dishonest. He has chosen the Trump family’s good graces over the principles he founded an organization on.

To make matters worse, TPUSA has a troubling track record with racism. The Huffington Post reported that “Turning Point USA Keeps Accidentally Hiring Racists,” and they aren’t exactly wrong. TPUSA came under hot water when the group’s national field director texted a fellow employee “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE … I hate blacks. End of story.”

The group claimed to have taken “decisive action” in removing the employee within 72 hours. But the racism within the organization didn’t stop there.

Ironically, Kirk replaced his national field director with someone who had quite a bit of baggage of her own. In since-deleted tweets , the newly hired employee repeatedly used the N-word, bragged that “I love making racist jokes”, and stated that if you are “any other race than white”, she promises to “make racist jokes towards you.”

The intense backlash prompted a memo from the HR department, offering complimentary background checks and encouraging employees to “lock down [their] social media.”

The New Yorker dived deeper into the racist history of the organization, interviewing Gabrielle Fequiere, a former employee of TPUSA. She discussed hearing speakers at conferences who “spoke badly about black women having all these babies out of wedlock,” adding that “it was really offensive.”

Kirk has denied the allegations, saying they’re “baseless” and “absurd.” And obviously, these are just a few staffers and a handful of incidents but a concerning pattern nonetheless.

Turning Point’s bad faith engagement goes beyond racial lines. For some time, the group has repeated simplistic statements, calling the Left “cultural Marxists” who “don’t want borders, genders, markets, traditions, or order.”

In a recent tweet, Kirk even accused Democrats of supporting “bring[ing] back ISIS” and “kill[ing] every new job.” He’s clearly a bad-faith actor and not a good role model for young conservatives.

Democrats 2020 platform:



Bring back ISIS

Keep North Korea Nuclear

Raise your taxes

War with Russia

Crash the stock market

Abolish ICE

Sympathy for MS13

Open borders

Kill every new job

Illegals over citizens

No genders — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 20, 2019

The move away from Turning Point’s original message has created deep tensions within staff, which does include some principled, good people.

A current TPUSA staff member, who requested anonymity, confirmed to me that “the biggest issue by far is the disconnect between headquarters and field staff. Many field staff … value the original aspects of Turning Point. We value free speech, limited government, personal freedoms, and the exchanging of ideas.”

But that’s not what the organization is about anymore — it’s just a cheerleading front for President Trump. Young conservatives should avoid Turning Point USA at all costs.

Jordan Lancaster is a contributor to Red Alert Politics and a senior at Wake Forest University. She can be found on Twitter @jordylancaster.