Sparks flew between Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, and other speakers at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025.
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Senior Reporter
PHOENIX—In the final minutes of Turning Point USA’s sometimes fractious AmericaFest, Vice President JD Vance called for something short of a truce: He urged conservatives to not try to expel each other from conservatism.
“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or deplatform,” Vance said in his Dec. 21 speech, which capped off the first AmericaFest that Turning Point USA (TPUSA) has put on since the assassination of one of the organization’s founders, Charlie Kirk, on Sept. 10, 2025.
In his remarks, which also emphasized the deep roots of Christianity in American life, Vance appealed to Kirk’s own commitment to open dialogue on the political right.
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“None of us here should be doing something after [Kirk’s] death that he himself refused to do in life,“ the vice president said. ”He invited all of us here.”
“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other,” he added.
On the first day of AmericaFest 2025, political commentators Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson traded jabs.
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Shapiro came on stage just after Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk. He castigated Carlson, as well as media personalities Steve Bannon, Megyn Kelly, and Candace Owens. All but Owens went on to take the stage over the course of the multi-day event.
“If Candace Owens decides to spend every day since the murder of Charlie Kirk casting aspersions at TPUSA … implicating everyone from French intelligence to Mossad, to members of TPUSA, in [Charlie Kirk’s] murder, or a cover-up in that murder, then we as people with a microphone have a moral obligation to call that out by name,” Shapiro said.
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He also accused Carlson of going “silent on [Owens’s] targeting of TPUSA” and accused Kelly, whom he said he considers a friend, of “shying away from condemning her actions.” Shapiro alleged that Bannon was “maligning people he disagrees with” by imputing loyalty to a country other than the United States without evidence.
In his own day one speech, Carlson denounced Shapiro’s remarks, saying that they were a bid to deplatform him.
He also alleged that the comments were part of a proxy war against Vance.
Just minutes before Shapiro spoke, Erika Kirk, who became TPUSA’s CEO after her husband’s death, said her organization backed a potential Vance presidential bid in 2028.
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In the course of his remarks, Shapiro described Carlson as “quite close with” the vice president.
Carlson told the audience, “There are people who are mad at JD Vance and they’re stirring up a lot of this in order to make sure he doesn’t get the nomination.”
Kelly also took issue with Shapiro’s comments, airing her objections on Dec. 19 during a conversation with commentator and activist Jack Posobiec.
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“I resent that he thinks he’s in a position to decide who must say what to whom and when,” Kelly said. “So, I don’t think we are friends anymore.”
“I’ve been a very good friend to Ben,” Kelly continued.
She said that she “helped make him a star” during her time at Fox News. She also pointed out that they agree on many things but that they disagree on “whether Tucker Carlson should be excommunicated from the conservative movement.”
Bannon, too, fired back at Shapiro. In his Dec. 19 AmericaFest speech, the former White House strategist under President Donald Trump called Shapiro a “hardcore never-Trumper” and accused him of seeking to put Israeli interests ahead of U.S. interests.
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On Dec. 21, Vance told the AmericaFest crowd that some level of disagreement can signal strength in conservatism, which he described as “a movement of freethinkers.”
Politics and Christianity
As the vice president came on stage at the Phoenix Convention Center, he was met by Erika Kirk.
The Ohioan has not declared his candidacy for the 2028 election, which is almost three years away.
Although the 22nd Amendment restricts presidents to two terms, some have speculated that Trump could seek a third term. Trump has ruled out the possibility.
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Although he has not endorsed Vance as his successor, Trump has floated both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as strong contenders.
Rubio has said he will not run if the vice president enters the race.
Although Vance did not address the upcoming Republican presidential election cycle on Dec. 21, he discussed the prospective Democratic field, saying that the party would ultimately choose between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Vance’s speech came after remarks from various major Republican politicians and conservative voices aligned with Trump.
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The big names included Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, now running for senate in North Carolina, as well as Florida gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), now running for governor of Arizona, also appeared, as did House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the president’s son Donald Trump Jr.
Before Vance’s remarks, Erika Kirk was joined on stage by a special guest, rapper Nicki Minaj.
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Minaj spoke about her advocacy for persecuted Christians in Nigeria.
“We will speak up for Christians wherever they are in this world,” Minaj said, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd.
Minaj’s comments were in keeping with the deeply Christian atmosphere at the political gathering.
The programming on Dec. 21 opened with a worship service.
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Pastor Greg Laurie, who spoke before Whatley, discussed Vance’s journey to Christianity. The vice president became a Catholic in 2019. His wife, Usha, is Hindu.
At a TPUSA event earlier in 2025, Vance told the audience that he hoped that she would eventually convert to Christianity.
“If she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me,” he said.
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Vance said he and his wife are raising their children as Christians.
On Dec. 21, the vice president described Christianity as a core part of the United States, although he stressed that Americans need not be Christians to be true Americans.
“The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation,” Vance said.
“The fruits of true Christianity are men like Charlie Kirk,” the vice president said, drawing applause and chants of “Charlie!” from the crowd.
Vance warns against ‘canceling each other’ during Turning Point event
“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through ‘endless, self-defeating purity tests,’” the U.S. vice president said.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks to attendees at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix, Dec. 21, 2025. Credit: Xuthoria via Wikimedia Commons.
(Dec. 22, 2025 / JNS)
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance warned conservatives against “purity tests” and decried “deplatforming” people on the right during his closing night address at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest on Dec. 21 in Phoenix.
Addressing attendees at the event, which the conservative student movement said drew about 31,000 people, Vance did not address Jew-hatred or condemn publicly antisemites in the movement, amid ongoing debate among conservatives.
“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through ‘endless, self-defeating purity tests,’” Vance told the crowd at the Phoenix Convention Center. “Every American is invited.”
The vice president said that he did not “bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” an apparent reference to a speech, during the event’s opening night, by Jewish commentator and Daily Wire cofounder Ben Shapiro, who named Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens as among those who ought to be beyond the pale.
“I don’t really care if some people out there—I’m sure we’ll have the fake news media denounce me after this speech,” he said.
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Invoking late Turning Point cofounder Charlie Kirk as a unifying figure, Vance urged the audience to resist internal cancellation campaigns. “We have far more important work to do than canceling each other,” he said.
Vance tries to unify conservatives as rifts exposed at Turning Point USA
Anne Bryson
Mon, December 22, 2025 at 9:21 PM GMT+7
4 min read
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Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest highlighted a rift in the conservative movement that’s emerged since the assassination of the group’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk, in September.
Over the course of the four-day conference, some of the speakers criticized one another by name. Podcaster and prominent right-wing personality Ben Shapiro called out Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly and accused them of being “frauds and grifters” and for entertaining far-right conspiracy theories following Kirk’s killing.
“The conservative movement is in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said during his remarks Thursday night. He referred to Bannon as “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein.”
One fault line that’s emerged is how to handle the rise of far-right antisemitic and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes after Carlson recently interviewed him on his podcast. Many conservatives were outraged at Carlson for giving Fuentes a platform, though some have defended him.
At AmericaFest, Shapiro went after Carlson for hosting Fuentes — whom he called “a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse” — on his podcast.
Bannon, in his remarks, compared Shapiro to “a cancer” on the conservative movement.
“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” Bannon said. “Mark my word, he will make a move on Turning Point, because he’s always been envious of Charlie Kirk.”
The event was the first of its kind since Kirk was assassinated in September while speaking at a Utah university. The noticeable rift between speakers made some of the attendees uneasy.
Deacon Jones, a 19-year-old Turning Point USA member from Tennessee, has attended two of the conservative group’s conferences in the past, and he said this weekend’s AmericaFest felt noticeably different compared to previous years after Kirk’s death. Jones suggested Kirk’s absence seemed to make a palpable difference.
“I I think Charlie used to be the beacon that everybody could trust; he would take everybody’s ideas and kind of boil it down to something that everybody could agree with,” Jones said. “I think everybody’s just trying to figure out, like, ‘Where do we go from here? How do we figure out who to listen to, who to trust?'”
Jones was one of the more than 25,000 people who attended the conference, which took place in Phoenix, Arizona, and included prominent conservatives such as Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Bannon, White House border czar Tom Homan, Carlson and a surprise appearance by rapper Nicki Minaj. President Trump called in to the conference by phone..
Lucas Beaver, a 19-year-old Turning Point USA chapter president from North Carolina, told CBS News on Sunday that Fuentes is “trying to grab the attention” of the young conservatives.
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“He tries to manipulate things, and in some ways, trying to hide his radicalism, in some ways, so that he can gain those people’s trust,” he said.
Jones added that recent infighting is preventing the young conservative movement from finding common ground it needs to build on its momentum from 2024.
“We’re making major issues minor and minor issues major. We’re not talking about all the things we agree on. We’re talking about all the things we’re disagreeing on and splitting our party,” Jones said.
Andrew Kolvet, Turning Point’s spokesman and executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” said no single figure can help resolve MAGA’s internal conflict in the vacuum left by Kirk’s death, adding that “it’s going to be a team effort.” But he was hopeful about the more positive direction from Vance, who addressed the conference on Sunday, its final day.
“With JD Vance’s final address, the capstone of this event. It kind of felt like, you know, Dad’s home,” Kolvet said. “He’s telling the kids to settle down. You know, here’s what we stand for, here’s the Northern Star, and this is what we’re chasing after.”
Vance, who received Erika Kirk’s endorsement for the 2028 race, took the stage and attempted to smooth things over, telling conference-goers that the conservative movement is open to everyone as long as they “love America.”
“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other,” Vance said. “Charlie invited all of us here for a reason, because he believed that each of us, all of us, had something worth saying, and he trusted all of you to make your own judgment.”
Nick Perisse, a 19-year-old student from Florida, said he felt “carefully enthusiastic” about the future of the young conservative movement following Vance’s remarks.
“Vice President Vance not only fulfilled all my previous expectations, he also exceeded them by delivering a uniting message that resonated very strongly with both diehard MAGA supporters and skeptics,” Perisse told CBS News. “I’m hopeful for what we can and will do for our country, but we must be careful not to let these internal disagreements and divisions cause us to collapse against ourselves.”
But, the tensions on display suggest the fight over the future of the conservative movement may just be getting started.
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