The Conservative Group Turning Point The New York Times

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 24, 2025, 11:01 PM

the conservative group turning point the new york times

Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator and organizer, was apparently shot at an event at Utah Valley University. He is currently hospitalized. The suspect is reportedly in custody. Turning Point USA is in the news following the shooting of its CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk at an event at a Utah college on Wednesday. The nonprofit organization’s mission is to build a conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses nationwide, per their website. FILE - Founder and executive director of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk speaks at the opening of the Turning Point Action conference on July 15, 2023 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Turning Point USA was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Charlie Kirk, then 18, with a mission to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets... The public memorial service for Charlie Kirk on Sunday, Sept. 21 is expected to not only pay homage to the late conservative firebrand's life, but his political activism as well. The organization he founded years ago, Turning Point USA, is hosting the memorial in Glendale, Arizona, and will feature speeches from the nation's top Republican and conservative figures − underscoring Kirk's and Turning Point... Speakers include President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, as well as the late commentator's wife, Erika Kirk, the new head of Turning Point USA.

Several members of the president's cabinet will also attend, the organization announced on Sept. 17, as will Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr. among others. Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a single gunshot while speaking to a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah as part of Turning Point USA's "American Comeback" speaking tour. The Utah college was Kirk's first stop in more than a dozen cross-country events.

The suspect in the attack, Tyler Robinson, was arraigned on Sept. 16 on seven felony charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Local prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press Bill Barrow, Associated Press Bill Barrow, Associated Press Charlie Kirk began plotting a way to mold young minds into conservatism at an age when he was still sorting out his own path.

Looking to channel his political inclinations into action after a rejection from West Point, Kirk was 18 when he launched a grassroots organization from an Illinois garage that would grow alongside the rise of... Kirk admitted later he had “no money, no connections and no idea what I was doing” when he started Turning Point USA in 2012. But his rhetorical gifts for countering progressive ideas by leaning into cultural tensions and making provocative declarations instantly resonated with college audiences during the Obama years. READ MORE: 4 things to to know about the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk He combined social media-era lingo, campus activism and a readiness to embrace controversies to drive young conservatism. Conservative American activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Wednesday at a university event in Utah.

Kirk, 31, was a close ally of United States President Donald Trump and was widely credited for helping galvanise support for the Republican Party and Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement among American... He was the cofounder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA. Here is a closer look at Kirk’s influence on young people and how it bolstered support for Trump and the MAGA movement: The conservative media personality grew up in Chicago and attended a community college there before dropping out to pursue political activism. New York Times reporter Robert Draper explains Kirk's rise and legacy. He was killed Sept.

10. Draper also discusses conservative commentator Nick Fuentes, a rival of Kirk's with a large following. This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The tragic assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk seems to have divided America even more. President Donald Trump and some members of his administration started blaming the, quote, "radical left" before anything was even known about the killer's motivation.

Democrats and Republicans have grown more worried about their own security, but many Americans who didn't follow Kirk or closely follow politics may not have known much about him until he was murdered. My guest Robert Draper profiled Charlie Kirk earlier this year in The New York Times magazine. Draper covers the political dynamics of the right wing. He's also profiled the right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes, who was a rival of Kirk's, with a large following of young white men, and Laura Loomer, a self-appointed Trump enforcer, who goes after people who... Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 and grew it into what Draper describes as the preeminent conservative youth organization. Kirk was so close with Trump that after Kirk's death, Trump wrote on X, I love you, brother.

We're going to talk about how Kirk became such a powerful figure on the right and what he stood for. Robert Draper, welcome back to FRESH AIR. I've learned a lot from your writing. I want to start with, before we get to more about Charlie Kirk himself, what do you think have been some of the most significant reactions to the assassination coming from President Trump and... ROBERT DRAPER: Sure, Terry. Thanks for having me on.

I think among the most significant reactions from President Trump has been his order that flags be flown at half-mast. That, after all, is a distinction that is reserved usually for public officials, for people who have achieved national renown, who may or may not be within the political arena but who are generally... And that's not the case with Kirk. He would, if he were alive today, be the first to admit that he did not see it as his mission to be a unifying figure but, rather, to express a point of view. And so that order, I think, not only reflects the importance of Charlie Kirk within the conservative ecosystem, but it's also personal importance to President Trump himself because Kirk was so close to the... I think as well that JD Vance, the vice president, who was exceedingly close to Kirk - and I think in Vance administration, Kirk would have almost certainly been a top adviser of his...

Vice President JD Vance, right, Second Lady Usha Vance, center, and Erika Kirk, holding a cross on a chain, deplane Air Force Two, carrying the body of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of... 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) PHOENIX (AP) — Turning Point USA, the organization Charlie Kirk founded to mobilize young, Christian conservatives, has seen a massive surge in interest and support since the activist’s assassination last week. As conservatives mourn Kirk’s death, the group appears poised to remain a MAGA juggernaut as it plots its future without Kirk at the helm.

The group’s board announced Thursday that Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, had been unanimously elected as its next leader and will serve as CEO and board chair. “This was what Charlie hoped for and wanted and he said so numerous times,” Tyler Bowyer, the group’s chief operating officer, said on social media. “Erika is one with Charlie and Charlie is one with Erika.” Editor’s note: Charlie Kirk died Sept. 10 after being shot at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Charlie Kirk chuckled as he looked up from his phone, his face reflecting the glow of a half dozen cable news channels, each flashing silent White House headlines from across the dimly lit room.

Kirk sat at a V-shaped desk stamped with his personal logo, surrounded by his life’s work: a sprawling Phoenix campus housing the nation’s preeminent conservative student group, Turning Point USA, and its increasingly influential... At 31, the GOP juggernaut couldn’t help but grin — it had been a good summer. Fresh off a week co-hosting “Fox & Friends,” where he had made his national debut more than a decade before, Kirk was riding high. A recent cameo on South Park only added to his swagger. The irreverent satire had mimicked his debate tactics almost word-for-word, which Kirk took as proof his college tours had reached complete cultural saturation. After years of rapid growth on the coattails of President Donald Trump, and now as one of the self-appointed stewards of Trump’s “America First” movement, Kirk had, he told me, become “too big to...

The Conservative Group Turning Point The New York Times

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