Turning Point USA (TPUSA), is a conservative nonprofit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and William Thomas (Bill) Montgomery. Charlie Kirk is an American political activist and author, widely known for his debate clips found on Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, and other platforms.
Most of these debates take place at TPUSA events, which are attended by college students, supporters, protestors, or anyone with an opinion.
White nationalist, antisemitists, and far right political activist Nick Fuentes has been known for claiming himself an ‘incel’ and supporting authoritarian views. Fuentes has been quoted often and remembered for calling for a “holy war” against the Jews and being an avid Holocaust denier.
The adoration he gives to figures like Adolf Hitler has been seen in the way that he directs his followers. “Groypers” is the term used by the Alt-Right, white nationalist, conservative group led by Nick Fuentes to describe themselves.
Members are very vocal about their white supremacist ideals, often being seen on accounts with the same cartoon frog as their profile picture, posting clips of Fuentes’ streams. The community is built on trolling behind a screen, expressing the same blunt antisemitic, misogynistic, fascist, homophobic, sexist opinions.
These two groups have connection that starts with their founders, who disagreed in matters of how they took action.
Fuentes has often criticized TPUSA, calling them weak in their attempts on bringing about a conservative America and their defense for Israel. He would specifically call out Charlie Kirk in a 2019 America First interview for the way that Turning Point was composed, stating “They do not believe in free speech, they believe in controlled speech…They are a controlled opposition.”
This is likely in reference to the several debates and interviews Kirk has had at college TPUSA events, in which he expressed his support for Israel, opinions on immigration and free speech. This caused eruption within far right Charlie Kirk supporters, including Fuentes who opposed Israel’s relations to the US.
In 2023, Fuentes would flaunt that Kirk had adopted some of his extremist messaging into Turning Point, while still criticizing the group for Zionist ties and support for homosexuality. He would also admit to the infiltration of groypers into the Turning Point scene.
“We don’t have 50 million dollars from Zionist donors every year. We don’t have the same resources they do, we’re fighting a guerrilla war, but in many ways, we’ve already won … It’s a pretty clear dynamic, Turning Point USA, or Leadership Institute, whatever you want to say.. every day, groypers who believe in this message, who believe in me, are infiltrating the highest ranks of their leadership, but we’re all here today 100 percent ideologically aligned. This is a revolution.” He said.
Kirk, who has made many attempts to remove himself from the Groyper community, has had Fuentes removed from several TPUSA events. However, Kirk has not addressed his own correlation with groups outside of Fuentes. TPUSA had previously had sponsorship with Gab (a white supremacist social media platform) for their Student Action Summit in 2018, but silently pulled away from them.
The biggest question in mind is why these organizations are allowed to have programs through high schools, colleges, and own churches, despite all of this being easy access information. Why are children being raised to believe these hateful things, and promote a white America? Why would American youth choose to associate with these hateful groups?
Many schools have chosen to distance their student body from any opportunity of joining, such as Santa Clara University who refused to recognize TPUSA-SU in their campus.
One prominent school that Turning Point has been denied access to is the Catholic University of America. The president of that chapter, James Ong, states that he hoped to see Charlie Kirk and other public figures join him in the fight to revive the chapter at his university.
According to Ong, part of the reason they were declined was due to there already being “five right leaning clubs and five left leaning clubs,” meaning the university was not looking to add any more political groups on campus.
PROMINENT ‘INFLUENCERS’
An example of a TPUSA member who is a proud Groyper is Faith Merrill. With 22.5k followers on the TikTok app, she often posts what any normal person would presume to be rage bait.
“Feminism is really simple. If a woman gets her way, she’s empowered. If she doesn’t, she’s oppressed. Meaning that a woman’s success is her own while her failures are always someone else’s fault.” Merrill stated in a TikTok.
A huge part of this movement and a common factor in the trolls who claim superiority over those who disagree with them, is ignorance to the left. It’s very easy to state things incorrectly when there was never any effort into research or attempt for understanding.
This is a common theme in clips posted of Fuentes on X and Youtube. “All women can be mothers or they can be prostitutes, or they can be nuns. That’s really it.” He said to his online fanbase, repeating that he was serious.
It’s unclear as to whether or not these people are willfully ignorant or just genuinely blind to their idol’s beliefs against them. There are two employees of TPUSA, Kaden D’Almeida and Braden Ellis, who pled guilty to planning and carrying out an assault on queer instructor David Boyle of Arizona State University. In recorded video footage, D’Almeida is seen questioning Boyles about his sexuality while following him into the garage of the school.
Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet responded to the plea agreement.
“TPUSA is uninvolved in this matter, and the decision on the correct legal course has been left entirely to our reporters and their counsel.
To be clear, Kalen and Braden have not been found guilty of anything in court. Diversion is a legal tactic where all charges are dismissed, and the language is boilerplate and standard to all such cases.
The fact is our reporters would not be permitted a jury trial for such a low level misdemeanor, but instead be subject to a bench decision from a judge, Tyler Kissell, who doesn’t even have a law degree, was vice president of the ASU chapter of Young Democrats, ran for state Senate as a Democrat, and whose recent work experience includes teaching pre-school. Given these realities, we entirely understand why they decided to pursue this route.”
Kolvet’s claims as to how the legal process went were refuted by the communications director for the Maricopa County Justice Courts, Scott Davis.
“At no time were the defendants denied the right to a jury trial. They faced charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, and assault – misdemeanor crimes that under Arizona law are not eligible for a jury,” Davis responded.
Ellis has since left the organization, but D’Almeida remains employed by TPUSA.
QUESTIONABLE CONNECTIONS
Patrick Casey, a former companion to Fuentes, accused him of forming a cult-like atmosphere. Fuentes stated in February 2021 that he does not think ‘cults are necessarily a bad thing’. Patrick Casey is the head of another organization, along with Elliot Kline (also known as Eli Mosley), an alt-right activist and protester. Elliot would be called out by the New York Times in 2018 for lying about serving in the military against Iraq.
The organization was called Identity Evropa, and was rebranded as the American Identity Movement in March of 2019. The rebrand would also be a factor in their attempt to remove themselves from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on August 11-12 in 2017 and start their movement’s push for white culture in the disguise of patriotism. In 2020, they disbanded after Patrick Casey’s collaborations with Fuentes and the Groyper organization began to cause conflict within the group.
The 2017 rally was filled with hundreds of protestors that included neo Nazis, branches of the Klu Klux Klan, and conservative militias. The event would be declared an emergency by the state of Virginia, injuring 19 people and ending the life of 32 year old Heather Heyer.
Elliot Kline, along with many others who organized the event, would be found by US Marshals and ordered to surrender. Kline would be found in civil contempt after refusing to hand over his electronic devices, in which plaintiffs are entitled to search in the case that he has relevant documents.
Thought found in civil contempt, there were no consequences such as jail time for those who orchestrated the protest, and it would be written as a free speech rally against Charlottesville City Council, who were voting on the removal of memorials of Confederate generals who fought in the Civil War.
Fuentes, in an America First interview, would state he was uncomfortable with the idea of the rally.
The backlash Identity Evropa faced was mostly in court, but they would try to move passed the event as an organization. Identity Evropa parted ways with Patrick Casey for his extremist beliefs, attempting to cut ties with anything related to Fuentes and the beliefs he was connected to.
TAKE-AWAY
Before joining any organization, do your research and find out if the values truly align with yours. Are you supporting who you think you’re supporting? Is it activism or disguised extremism?
Sources: Including articles and clips from twitter posted by members of some of these organizations.
https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/
https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4008691
https://x.com/_HB2014/status/1190314874963783680
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elliot-kline-white-supremacist-caught-lying-iraq-fighting-killing-muslims-neo-nazi-unite-the-right-a8196846.html
https://www.jns.org/turning-point-usa-turns-away-nick-fuentes-at-michigan-convention//
https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/tpusa-employees-court-ordered-diversion-program-harassing-queer-asu-educator/75-46a2401a-763b-4964-b3ae-d450442ec8b7
https://www.adl.org/resources/profile/identity-evropaamerican-identity-movement
https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/groyper-army-and-america-first
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/4/unite-right-organizer-ordered-jailed-civil-suit-br/
https://www.tiktok.com/@faith_merrill1776/video/7473353874926046510
