Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk on March 6, 2025 (Sua Sponte Photography/Shutterstock.com)
The hopes many conservatives had for a revitalization of the MAGA youth movement following the death of pundit Charlie Kirk have taken a turn, according to a new profile by New York Magazine, with the space becoming overrun by "darker forces" and "conspiracism."
The piece, published on Wednesday, explores numerous groups and individuals jockeying for influence following Kirk's death, but while his organization, Turning Point USA, has seen a surge in popularity in some parts of the US, the overall youth movement has become "engulfed" in the same "antisemitism and conspiracism" that has taken over much of right-wing politics. While Kirk's death was initially met with an "overwhelming show of unity," it has since "devolved day by day into something more like civil war."
Among those leading the conspiracy charge, author Simon van Zuylen-Wood noted, is Candace Owens, a long-time far-right activist and pundit who emerged as an "assassination truther," suggesting that Kirk's death was part of a large scheme orchestrated in some way by Israel. While this has made her a pariah in some corners of the MAGA movement, she has seen a rise in popularity overall, with her podcast creeping into the Spotify top 10 this past fall.
Speaking with Lesley Lachman, TPUSA chapter president at the University of Mississippi, van Zuylen-Wood said she "jokingly shushed" questions about her Jewish lineage and stressed that she was "staying away from Candace right now." She was also, however, "a conspiracy buff" who had become enmeshed in "a conservative political culture in which the thirst for conspiracism is bottomless."
The piece also relayed the story of another would-be college Republican activist, Auburn University freshman Brilyn Hollyhand, who faced "an ambush" of questioning after bringing his "One Conversation at a Time" show to the University of Mississippi. Attendees grilled him over "not being right wing enough" and seemed critical of his unwillingness to denigrate "immigrants who hoped to enjoy the American Dream by the book," in addition to "illegal" immigrants.
He also faced intense scrutiny for his support of the US-Israel relationship, as the audience at the event supported a complete end to the partnership in pursuit of an "America First agenda." Hollyhand was left "baffled" by the reactions, the piece explained, "as if the whole world had shifted underneath his feet in the few weeks since Kirk’s death."
The piece also details the increasing influence of Nick Fuentes over the MAGA youth movement: an avowed antisemite who has frequently called out everyone from Kirk to Donald Trump for not being right-wing enough. The encroachment of darker strains of conspiracy and antisemitism into the movement, the piece argued, was a mirror of earlier conflicts between TPUSA and Fuentes' supporters.
"The consensus among students I interviewed is that Fuentes is in everybody’s feed and there is no point in denying his influence," van Zuylen-Wood wrote.