The Visible Break - How the MAGA Movement Is Tearing Itself Apart on an Open Stage

What was intended as a memorial event for Charlie Kirk turned into a ruthless reckoning within the American right in Phoenix. At the AmericaFest conference of Turning Point USA, one of the most important stages for the right wing conservative youth, a conflict erupted openly that has been simmering beneath the surface for months: the dispute over what “America First” is supposed to mean after Donald Trump - and who controls the legacy of this movement.

Of all places, at the very site where Kirk was meant to be honored as a unifying figure, personal attacks, open hostility, and ideological boundary drawing dominated. Ben Shapiro opened the confrontation with a sharp attack on Tucker Carlson and other prominent figures in the scene. He accused them of deliberately misleading their audiences with false claims and conspiracy narratives. Shapiro was especially clear on the subject of Nick Fuentes, a well known antisemite whom Carlson had previously interviewed on his podcast. Giving such a figure a platform, Shapiro argued, was morally indefensible. Elevating Fuentes, he said, was an act of gross irresponsibility.

Less than an hour later, Carlson himself stood on the same stage and responded with mockery. Shapiro’s calls to exclude those who disagree, Carlson said, were the exact opposite of what Charlie Kirk had stood for. He said he had watched the speech and laughed. The attempt to silence people was ridiculous, especially at an event that claimed to be devoted to open debate.

Ben Shapiro is one of the most influential and at the same time most controversial voices in American conservatism. As a co founder of the media platform The Daily Wire, he has built his own publishing power center that extends far beyond traditional commentary formats and deliberately claims political interpretive authority. Shapiro presents himself as a rational counterweight to populist and conspiracy driven currents on the right, defends a strictly ideological conservatism, and maintains an uncompromising pro Israel line. Critics within MAGA accuse him of being less interested in debate than in control, of using alliances strategically, and of publicly delegitimizing internal opponents. In the current struggle over the future of the MAGA movement, Shapiro stands as a prime example of a power fight in which the issue is no longer policy, but influence, reach, and the question of who will shape the conservative camp after Trump.

The tone of the evening made clear how deep the divisions have become. Behind the personal feud lies a fundamental directional conflict: should the MAGA movement be more clearly defined ideologically after Trump, or remain a loose power project held together primarily by loyalty to the president as a person? The bitterness of the exchanges left no doubt that this question remains unanswered.

Steve Bannon: Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads. It is cancer, and it metastasizes. He tried to take over Breitbart, and I ran him out of there. He tried to take over David Horowitz, who was his mentor. Mark my word. He will make a move on Turning Point as well, because he has always been envious of Charlie Kirk.

This is not about free speech. It is not about de platforming. This is about power politics and about what Charlie Kirk believed in at the core of his being: that America makes decisions for America and Americans make decisions for America. That was Charlie Kirk.

Erika Kirk, widow of the Turning Point founder who was murdered in September and now the organization’s new leader, warned urgently in her opening speech about exactly these ruptures. Since the assassination, she said, she had seen bridges torn down that should never have been destroyed. Her words sounded like a desperate attempt to bring order to a camp that is increasingly fighting itself.

The murder of Charlie Kirk forms the dark backdrop to the entire conference. The alleged perpetrator, 22 year old Tyler Robinson, has so far entered no plea in court,, has so far entered no plea in court, although there is no doubt that he is the killer. Investigators report that he told those closest to him that he killed Kirk because he could no longer endure his hatred. The act hangs over the event like a shadow and is at the same time being instrumentalized by some for their own purposes. In addition to the open power struggles, Turning Point is being shaken by conspiracy narratives. Candace Owens, a former employee of the organization and now a successful podcaster, claims without evidence that Israeli intelligence services could have been involved in Kirk’s murder and that people close to him betrayed him. Authorities clearly contradict this and say they believe Robinson acted alone.

“Candace Owens, a right wing conspiracy theorist and former Turning Point employee, claimed on Piers Morgan’s show that Israel had a motive to murder Charlie Kirk. She said he was killed because he demanded that AIPAC register as a foreign agent.”

Erika Kirk reacted unusually clearly to these claims. Asked about them, she said just one word: stop. Owens, Kirk said, was making money off her family’s tragedy, endangering a fair trial, and playing into the hands of the killer. A brief truce between the two lasted only a few days. After a meeting that lasted several hours, Owens publicly stated that she still did not believe Robinson acted alone and escalated further by accusing Shapiro of serving exclusively Israeli interests.

Erika Kirk opened Turning Point USA in Phoenix with a tribute to her murdered husband Charlie Kirk

This escalation exposes another deep rift: how the right deals with antisemitism and with Israel’s war in Gaza. While Shapiro warns against a dangerous normalization of anti Jewish positions, Carlson downplays the problem and claims that prejudice against white men is more widespread and more damaging. At the same time, he sharply criticizes Israel’s military operations and says it is always immoral to kill innocent children, whether in an American city or in Gaza.

Tucker Carlson uses fear, mistrust, and resentment to mobilize his audience against minorities, the media, and democratic institutions. He gives extreme positions reach without taking responsibility and disguises ideology as supposed questions or doubts. His influence does not lie in informing, but in making radicalization appear as a legitimate opinion. A poor madman would be the most humorous way to describe him.

Carlson dismisses the idea of a civil war within the Trump coalition. Talk of tensions, he says, is artificially manufactured to prevent Vice President JD Vance from becoming the next leader of the Republicans. In reality, he argues, there is only one question: who takes over the political machinery once Trump leaves the stage?

Despite all these conflicts, the conference continues to draw thousands. Inside the halls, patriotic symbols, religious groups, political activists, and security agencies mix. Podcasters broadcast live from the corridors, Christian colleges recruit students, and anti abortion groups recruit supporters. Even ICE and Border Patrol are present, including an armored vehicle driven into the exhibition hall. Many attendees wear MAGA hats, pose in front of signs reading “We are all Charlie Kirk,” and speak of a sense of obligation to be there. But behind this facade of community and loyalty, it becomes clear how fragile the foundation of the movement has become.

What Phoenix has shown so far is more than a dispute among influencers. It is an open power struggle over direction, interpretation, and the future of the American right, carried out on a stage that was supposed to demonstrate unity, and it says a great deal about the condition of a movement that no longer agrees on what it stands for. Turning Point USA, like the AfD in Germany, does not live on ideas, but on the systematic spreading of hatred, on the marking of enemies, and on the constant poisoning of social conflict. The current internal struggle over power, orientation, and public image hits the organization where it is most vulnerable, and one can hope that it continues to damage it. Perhaps this disintegration will end exactly where Turning Point came from: back in the hole from which it once crawled upward.