Talk:Turning Point USA

TPUSA promotes degeneracy

They employ and platform homosexuals, host drag queen performances at events, and they support the homosexual agenda. They have crazy degenerate sex, drugs and alcohol at their parties. Many of the women they employ are sluts and whores, as well as outright libs like Tomi Lahren. Why remove that addition? Vince Did 7-14 ^{Christ Is King!} 19:00, February 5, 2022 (EST)

You had a video at an event at one chapter. Big deal. RobS^{Let's Go Brandon!} 08:48, February 6, 2022 (EST)

It's more than "one chapter"; it's essentially the whole organization. Vince Did 7-14 ^{Christ Is King!} 11:19, February 8, 2022 (EST)

nah, sorry. Can't find crazy degenerate sex, drugs, alcohol, sluts and whores in their by laws. RobS^{Let's Go Brandon!} 13:16, February 8, 2022 (EST)

Here's an article about it. And another. And another. And a video about it. And for more whores, look up the Instagram profiles of some of the women employed by the org, especially of the "Today Is America" variety. Or just Alex Clark, the host of their "Poplitics" show. How about when Charlie Kirk and Michael Knowles posed with a drag queen? So conservative. Vince Did 7-14 ^{Christ Is King!} 17:02, February 8, 2022 (EST)

This constitutes no evidence. It has no provenance. 18:21, February 8, 2022 (EST)

Indeed a great movie, but forgive me as I fail to see the implication of the reference. Vince Did 7-14 ^{Christ Is King!} 20:07, February 8, 2022 (EST)

This hit piece is evidently in need of a major overhaul. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 13:33, September 18, 2025 (EDT)

Rather than reading through all this rot, it would probably be easier to locate the original source which is probably Wikipedia. Then we can just delete it. Sorry, I just don't have the patience for this domestic policy partisanship anymore. Anyone wanna step up and see if it's cut n paste from WP?

Here's a good example of problems in CP. Turning Point has 37,000 new applications for chapters in high schools and colleges since Kirk's killing. When new applicants see Conservapedia's article on Turning Point is owned by opponents, it's demoralizing. How did leftist opponents sneak in and spam Wikipedia crap in a key article? Simple: Conservapedia Admin are more busy in a power game obstructing other Admin then doing their own jobs. Recall the "Senate Hit List", for example. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 10:50, September 19, 2025 (EDT)

I'm just gonna move all the controversial stuff here for discussion until it properly vetted.

Professor Watchlist

First appearing on November 21, 2016, Turning Point USA also operates a website called Professor Watchlist. Kirk has said the site is "dedicated to documenting and exposing college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." Tips are accepted from the public, and more than 250 professors are currently listed. Apologists claim the list contains some inaccuracies and includes professors listed for things they didn't exactly say or do and others listed for being rude to students or for making "clever remarks" about Trump.

The website has been criticized for using surveillance type propaganda to manipulate ideas of truth, equality, and freedom. The usual "McCarthyite" smears have been employed by critics. The New York Times claimed that it was "a threat to academic freedom," while Salon commented that it was "a sign of the stupidity of the post truth era."

In May 2017, Northern Arizona University criminology professor Luis Fernandez said Turning Point surveillance of him had supposedly led to multiple threats. In The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University Professor Danielle Allen also claimed she had been threatened for comments she made on camera.

Controversies

TPUSA early on relied on funds from many big donors, including the Koch Brothers. They claim to advocate for conservative values, yet their conservatism is lukewarm at best, despite what Charlie Kirk may say. They were recently heard telling their employees to avoid discussing controversial social issues, and to instead focus solely on agreeable fiscal policy.

Former employees of the organization have accused it of engaging in racist practices, as well as potentially illegal involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

In 2016, Turning Point at Grand Valley State University filed a lawsuit against the trustees of the school. The complainants asked the court to prohibit enforcement of GVSU's Speech Zone policy and declare it a violation of the students' 1st and 14th Amendment freedoms. They have since reached a settlement.

In December 2016, Turning Point quoted Nancy Pelosi in a Facebook post as saying: "Employers cutting hours is a good thing. It then gives that person time to pursue their dreams and passions."

In May 2017, DePaul University refused to allow Turning Point to post "Gay Lives Matter" posters on campus. Matt Lamb, a spokesperson for Turning Point, said that the action by DePaul was an infringement of free speech rights.

In September 2017, a University of Nebraska lecturer was reassigned after she received threats stemming from a video posted online that showed her confronting a student recruiting for TPUSA.

In October 2017, several Turning Point student members at Kent State University conducted a protest against campus "safe space" culture, which involved members dressing up in diapers as babies. Following widespread ridicule on social media, the student-run publication KentWired.com reported that the Turning Point chapter at Kent State had disbanded.

In February 2018, the University of South Florida chapter of TPUSA was dissolved when it was discovered that their president, Aida Vazquez-Soto, was working with a pro-Palestinian group. Vazquez-Soto said 'Something is clearly wrong with an organization that felt that somehow by silencing me they could deal with the problem at hand.'

In June 2018, conservative radio talk show host Joe Walsh resigned from the TPUSA board because Charlie Kirk was too closely tied to Donald Trump. Walsh said that "It’s so important to not be beholden to politicians, but to be beholden to the issues ... When Charlie went to work for Trump, that crossed that line. You can’t advance Trump and advance these issues."

In October 2018, the Miami New Times reported that TPUSA members at Florida International University shared jokes "about watching underage cartoon pornography and deporting Latina women, and, in the most repugnant case, share racist 'Pepe the Frog' memes showing Syrian men raping a white Swedish woman at gunpoint."

In November 2018, Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal cut off Turning Point USA's Anna Paulina after she compared former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the disease herpes.

The Hill reported in February 2019 that Benny Johnson – who was fired from BuzzFeed in 2014 for multiple instances of plagiarism, and later let go by Independent Journal Review for multiple problems, including plagiarism – was joining TPUSA as their "Chief Creative Officer".

Accusations of racism

In December 2017, The New Yorker published an article by Jane Mayer showcasing interviews with former minority members of the organization. Former staff members said they witnessed widespread discrimination against minorities in the group, and stated "the organization was a difficult workplace and rife with tension, some of it racial." One former employee, an African-American woman, said she was the only person of color working for the organization at the time she was hired in 2014; she then said that she was fired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The article also revealed text messages sent by Crystal Clanton – who was a leading figure in the organization and served as the group's national field director for five years – to another Turning Point employee saying "i hate black people. Like f*** them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story." Kirk responded to the revelations by saying that "Turning Point assessed the situation and took decisive action within 72 hours of being made aware of the issue." The article also noted that Kirk had explicitly praised Clanton in his book Time for a Turning Point, saying that she had been "the best hire we ever could have made," and that "Turning Point needs more Crystals; so does America."

In an article titled "Turning Point USA Keeps Accidentally Hiring Racists," HuffPost reported that the woman hired to replace Crystal Clanton had a history of using racial slurs, particularly against African-Americans, on Twitter before deleting her account. In response to the reports, Kirk referred to the individual in question as "a former employee" in his official statement (without clarifying when she had been fired), and Turning Point issued an internal memo announcing that all current and new staff would face social media background checks.

Charlie Kirk has said Turning Point USA has no relationship with alt-right groups. In 2017, Turning Point chapters organized campus visits by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to the University of Colorado Boulder and Miami University (Ohio).

In 2018, The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Watch documented TPUSA's links to white supremacists.

Conflicts with other conservative organizations

In May 2018, an internal memo written by Young America's Foundation (YAF) was leaked, in which YAF leadership "warned" its members to not associate with Turning Point. The memo accused the organization of various improprieties such as exaggerating the number of Turning Point chapters and activities around the country, taking credit for other organizations' events, increasing attendance at its own events by "boosting numbers with racists & Nazi sympathizers," and sponsoring "humiliating" campus activism events, in reference to the Kent State diaper incident. In addition, the YAF memo included another memo on the subject circulated internally by Young Americans for Liberty, which accused Turning Point of illegally obtaining YAL's email list and soliciting its students without their permission, which Turning Point only stopped doing after being issued a cease-and-desist order.

After the memo was leaked in June 2018, a representative for Turning Point criticized Young America's Foundation in a statement to The Chronicle of Higher Education, accusing the group of "abandoning the 'Reagan Rule'" that "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." Although Charlie Kirk did not directly respond to the memo, he posted on Twitter that he wished "some conservatives fought the left as hard as they fight people who support President Trump." Turning Point's Communications Director Candace Owens directly responded to the memo, saying she was "truly speechless" over the memo supposedly attacking Kirk for his lack of college experience. A former employee stated on Twitter that "TPUSA activists do some incredible work. It’s a shame the face for their work has become constant, EXTREME inflation of numbers to mislead donors. They have an opportunity to turn this around, and they should."

In the Hillsdale College Daily Collegian, opinions editor Kaylee McGhee, wrote an article titled "Charlie Kirk and TPUSA aren’t conservative, as real conservatives already knew." In the article, McGhee referred to TPUSA as a "reactionary cancer" rather than a group supporting real conservatism that is "supposed to preserve the timeless principles of liberty and equality for all."

In late October 2018, The Daily Beast reported that Lucian Wintrich and other conservatives blamed Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens for losing Kanye West as an ally of President Trump. Since then, West has re-affirmed his support for President Trump.

Internal dissension

After TPUSA's annual "Student Action Summit" in late December 2018, dissidents within the organization, headed by conservative activist Kevin Martin, formed "Heal Our Voice", a group critical of Kirk's leadership of Turning Point USA. One member of the group told The Daily Beast that "Charlie Kirk can be a little bit of a snowflake — or a lot a bit of a snowflake." Other complaints concerned sexual harassment and assault at TPUSA events.