[3][12] In 2016, the organization launched Professor Watchlist, a website that lists academic staff that according to TPUSA "discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom".
[20] Impressed, retired marketing entrepreneur and Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery encouraged Kirk to postpone college and engage full-time in political activism.
Blexit would be incorporating their message through TPUSA's branding style and corporate structure, while retaining Candace Owens and Brandon Tatum in leadership roles.
[34] In a 2015 speech at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Kirk said that he had applied to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and was not accepted.
[37] He spent the rest of the 2016 presidential campaign assisting with travel and media arrangements and running errands for Donald Trump Jr.[38] Several former employees and student volunteers for TPUSA claimed they had witnessed collusion between high-ranking TPUSA employees – including Kirk himself and top advisor Ginni Thomas – and the presidential campaigns of both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Journalist Joseph Guinto could not verify the number in 2018, finding that Turning Point USA had 400 officially registered chapters, many of whom showed no activity on their Facebook pages.
[67] According to The New York Times, YWLS "styles itself as an alternative to a liberal culture of feminism that many Republicans characterize as oppressive" and had by 2018 "evolved into an ultra-Trumpian event complete with 'lock her up' chants and vulgar T-shirts disparaging Hillary Clinton".
[69] In December 2021, Turning Point USA also launched AmericaFest, a four-day conference that featured conservative speakers such as Donald Trump Jr., and Sarah Palin interspersed with country music acts.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who recently had been acquitted of murder charges in the Kenosha unrest shooting, was introduced with a standing ovation and participated in a discussion about the incident.
[70][71][72] Keynote speakers in 2023 included Glenn Beck, Rosanne Barr, Mike Lindell, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk.
Keynote speakers included Donald J. Trump, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Patrick Bet-David, Matt Walsh, Riley Gaines and Cenk Ugyur.
[77] 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".
[15] Talking to The New York Times, "Mr. Lamb," a director of constitutional enforcement and transparency at TPUSA explained that the list was "simply aggregating" academics who had been subject to news reports.
[81][82] The instructor, David Boyles, said the resulting wounds to his face were "relatively minor" and said the incident occurred after his class about LGBTQ+ youth in pop culture and politics.
These claims led to conservative candidates at the University of Maryland withdrawing from student elections after failing to report assistance from Turning Point USA.
[90] In September 2017, University of Nebraska lecturer Courtney Lawton was reassigned after a video was posted online showing her confronting a student recruiting for TPUSA.
[citation needed] In April 2023, a student chapter of Turning Point USA hosted an event at San Francisco State University featuring former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines as a speaker.
[110] In 2021, the Turning Point USA Productions film A Long Walk in Socialism was the Rocky Mountain Emmy Award recipient in the category Cultural/Topical documentary.
[115][116] According to an examination by the newspaper and an independent data science specialist, the campaign was highly coordinated and included similar messaging under the instruction of TPUSA to prevent detection.
The agency had paid teenagers in Phoenix, Arizona, on Turning Point USA's behalf to use their own and fake accounts and pages for thousands of posts boosting Trump and disparaging Democratic candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 United States presidential election.
[116][117][118] Neither organization penalized Turning Point USA or its affiliates, stating that they "could not determine the extent to which the group's leaders were aware of the specific violations carried out on their behalf, such as the use of fake accounts".
[122] Turning Point Action also funneled money to several "Stop the Steal" rally speakers, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, but did not organize or take part in the march to the Capitol that erupted in violence.
"[129] In the Hillsdale College Collegian, opinions editor Kaylee McGhee wrote an article that 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".
[130] In June 2018, conservative radio talk show host Joe Walsh resigned from the TPUSA board because Kirk was too closely tied to Donald Trump.
Concerted efforts were made by this group to ask leading questions during the Q&A sections on controversial topics such as Israel and LGBTQ issues in order to challenge the extent of the speakers' views.
[142] In 2021, Kirk compared Biden's vaccination efforts to an "Apartheid-style open air hostage situation", even though co-founder Bill Montgomery had died the previous year from COVID-related health complications.
According to David Armiak of the Center for Media and Democracy, the prospectus employed white nationalist rhetoric by saying "The Left's plan is a path of destruction, a turning back of the clock 500 years to a past that's deficient of Western influence".
"[151][additional citation(s) needed] In 2017, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker described two separate actions by TPUSA staff in the 2016 election that appear to have violated campaign finance regulations.
While the group claims to be a "completely separate organization" from Turning Point USA, Forbes noted that both were founded by Kirk and use common marketing and branding styles.
[115] In 2021, Charlie Kirk founded TPUSA Faith, an organization that says it is dedicated to "recruit pastors and other church leaders to be active in local and national political issues".