Overview
- Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix drew more than 30,000 attendees in its first large event since Charlie Kirk’s September assassination, where CEO Erika Kirk publicly endorsed JD Vance for the 2028 GOP nomination.
- Wrapping the conference, Vance urged the right to abandon "self-defeating purity tests," said he brought no list of conservatives to denounce, and refused to throw Tucker Carlson "under the bus."
- In an interview released Monday, Vance said anyone who attacks his wife — naming Nick Fuentes and Jen Psaki — "can eat s---," while asserting that antisemitism and all ethnic hatred have no place in the conservative movement.
- The event spotlighted widening rifts as Ben Shapiro castigated Carlson and others over Fuentes and conspiracism, with Carlson and Steve Bannon blasting back, reinforcing talk of a MAGA schism.
- Nicki Minaj made a surprise appearance praising President Trump and Vance, briefly calling Vance an "assassin" before correcting herself, and Vance later praised her remarks rejecting zero-sum identity politics.