Mother Jones illustration; Brian Cahn/ZUMA
In 2012, Charlie Kirk deferred his acceptance to Baylor University to found Turning Point USA and establish himself as a young conservative whisperer who could convince his peers of the wonders of capitalism. In early 2016, the organization’s website argued that through “non-partisan debate, dialogue, and discussion, Turning Point USA believes that every young person can be enlightened to true free market values.” But as the group grew and set up more campus chapters, TPUSA was forced to adapt as Donald’s Trump’s reactionary brand of populism took over the Republican party. Kirk responded by spreading the MAGA gospel himself, traveling from school to school epically dunking on any liberal students who tried to spar with him during Q&A.
But during question sessions on his 2019 campus speaking tour, Kirk repeatedly found himself facing critics from the right. Groypers—what acolytes of Nick Fuentes, the young white nationalist, call themselves—showed up to pepper him with thinly veiled white supremacist, Christian nationalist, and homophobic questions, sometimes even using explicitly Nazi terms. In what became known as the “Groyper Wars,” Fuentes would watch livestreams of the events, and egg on his followers, who even published guides on 4chan and in the neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, on how to properly troll a Kirk Q&A: “Dress nice, be polite, remain calm, cool AND DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS RELATED TO [the Jewish question].”
At the time, Kirk was irritated, but did not yield and refused to be dragged to the right by the Groypers’ leading questions. But more recently, Kirk appears to have shifted, embracing racist and white nationalist rhetoric and figures with little hesitation. In the past year, he’s hosted far-right and white supremacist figures on his podcast and has tweeted in support of whiteness, earning praise from white supremacists who have long campaigned to mainstream such rhetoric.
In October, he invited veteran white supremacist Steve Sailer, whose bonafides include writing for overt white nationalist publications including VDare and the Unz Review, on his podcast. During their interview, Kirk called Sailer his favorite “noticer”—a word frequently used in internet conservative spaces as a euphemism for individuals willing to publicly draw bigoted conclusions linking race and criminality. Sailer did exactly this during their conversation, insinuating that Black people commit crimes because of innate characteristics: “Blacks tend to commit murder about 10 times as often per capita as whites… it’s not just all explained by poverty.”
“Steve, what you’re doing is so important,” Kirk gushed.
In January, Kirk hosted Curtis Yarvin, a neo-reactionary, anti-egalitarian who has described slavery as “a natural human relationship” and........