Turning Point USA’s chaotic convention puts infighting on display as MAGA stars gather: Here's what you missed

The four-day Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest reportedly emerged as a show of infighting among its high-profile participants.

According to the Guardian, Turning Point USA event saw participation of of yop leaders including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck.

This marked Turning Point USA’s first annual gathering since its leader, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus in Utah in September.

The event was billed as “a powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of our founder, Charlie Kirk”.

However, the gathering made headlines for the wrong reasons.

Some of the biggest names in conservative media took turns torching each other on the main stage, spending more time targeting right-wing rivals than their left-wing opponents, the Associated Press reported.

“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk’s widow Erika. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business,” she said.

According to reports from the festival, "the unification seen in previous years has been challenged by interpersonal gripes and disagreement over how big the big tent of conservatism should be and what brands of conservative thinking it can be expected to hold," the UK-based media house stated.

The split

According to the Arizona Republic, the pre-eminent split among young conservatives is over distrust of Israel over its war with Hamas and the embrace of figures like Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier.

“When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I think that’s when everything split into groypers, the conservative right, constitutional right,” Jack Nichols, 19, told the Arizona Republic.

“And I think that’s bad. I don’t think that’s what Charlie would have wanted. I think Charlie would have wanted us to come together instead of dividing,” Nichols reportedly said.

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Ramaswamy said pockets of the “online right” had become fixated on the idea of a “heritage” right rather than one based on conservative ideals.

Besides, rapper Nicki Minaj, who made a surprise appearance, belittled the California governor, using Trump's favoured nickname for him, Newscum.

Shapiro vs Carlson

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, set the tone on Thursday when he condemned Carlson for hosting the white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his streaming show, as well as others he depicted as charlatans and grifters.

Shapiro reportedly said hosts are “indeed responsible for the guests they choose and the questions they ask”, adding that Fuentes “is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility. And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”

Carlson later took the stage and dismissed Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people, according to reports, and said he laughed at Shapiro’s address – “that kind of bitter sardonic laugh that emerges from you and, like, upside-down world arrives. When your dog starts doing your taxes, and you’re like, ‘Wait, it’s not supposed to work this way.’”

Shapiro also attacked fellow commentators in deeply personal terms, saying some of the right's most popular figures are morally bankrupt.

Candace Owens “has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years,” he said.

Megyn Kelly is “guilty of cowardice" because she's refused to condemn Owens for spreading unsubstantiated theories about Kirk's death.

The festival is set to conclude on Sunday with an address by Kirk’s widow Erika, who now runs the organisation. Speaking at the event on Thursday, she endorsed JD Vance as the next Republican presidential nominee.

Divided over Gaza?

While Carlson criticised civilian deaths in Gaza, some attendees dug deep into history, highlighting Israel's attack on the USS Liberty off the Sinai Peninsula in 1967.

Israel said it mistook the ship for an Egyptian vessel during the Six Day War, while critics have argued that it was a deliberate strike.

Bannon accused Shapiro, who is Jewish, and others who staunchly support Israel of being part of “the Israel first crowd.” Kelly said criticism from Shapiro and Bari Weiss, the newly installed head of CBS News, “is about Israel.

Vance says loving America is enough to be part of MAGA

In the conference's closing speech, Vice President JD Vance declined to condemn extremism or define a boundary for the MAGA coalition. The movement should be open to anyone as long as they “love America," he said.

“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” Vance said Sunday.