MAGA influencer publicly accuses Steve Bannon of being 'PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein'

Turning Point USA's annual "AmericaFest" is officially underway in Phoenix, Arizona, and the first night of speeches was rife with MAGA celebrities taking public jabs at each other.

In his Thursday night speech, podcaster Ben Shapiro of the far-right Daily Wire took direct aim at the conspiratorial faction of the Republican Party, mentioning several leading figures by name. Shapiro specifically took issue with right-wing figures who trafficked in the "dual loyalty" trope — which the American Jewish Committee has described as antisemitic as it suggests Jewish Americans are more loyal to Israel than to the United States — and specifically named former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

"When Steve Bannon, for example, accuses his foreign policy opponents of loyalty to a foreign country, he is not actually making an argument based in evidence," Shapiro said. "He is maligning people he disagrees with, which is indeed par for the course from a man who was once a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein."

At that point, the crowd is heard murmuring uncomfortably, to which Shapiro responded: "Check the record."

Shapiro was likely referring to photos showing Bannon and Epstein together that were recently released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Bannon was making a documentary about Epstein at the time the photos were taken, though the approximately 16 hours of footage remains sealed in a vault and has yet to be publicly released.

Shapiro's speech stirred up shocked reactions on social media. Politico and Rolling Stone contributor Laura Jedeed wrote on Bluesky: "Conservative cold war just went hot at AmFest. Shapiro just came for Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Steve Bannon HARD, not sideways or with caveats but head-on and furious."

"On the first night of Turning Point’s big conference, Ben Shapiro is going scorched earth on Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes — and fellow AmericaFest speakers Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly," Arizona Republic reporter Stephanie Murray tweeted.

Watch the clip of Shapiro's speech below: