How Charlie Kirk’s social media machine rewired a generation’s politics

Kirk’s political opponents also reviewed his views and tactics, However, according to public tax and campaign applications, the organization, the turning point and its assets to attract billions of opinions on social media, in the 2024 elections, President Donald Trump gained credit to increase the youth participation and to receive more than $ 90 million ($ 136 million) last year. The political branch of the organization has become a critical roof of the republican party’s strategy. Young voters with historically low participation rates.

Kirk fed liberal anger and traveled to the country to discuss their political position with left -leaning students on university campuses. “To quote Christ, I’m not coming to bring peace, a sword,” he wrote in his book 2024, Right wing revolution. On Wednesday, a fatally shot during such an event on a Utah college campus.

Turning Point representative did not respond to comments requests.

Arizona -based turning point apparatus includes a non -profit organization that educates students in conservative policies, base political advocacy group and a religious division.

Organizations produce popular conservative media, record and activate voters, and organize high production value conferences, including a Trump Opening Party containing the village people.

The great donors are the deceased businessman and founding partner of HOME Depot, Bernard Marcus and Donors Trust, a fund that receives money from wealthy donors whose identity is not disclosed and directed him to conservative causes.

One day after Kirk’s death, Turning Point leaders Stephen Bannon and Benny Johnson, including other conservative media impressives, led to online publications. Tyler Bowyer, the chief business officer of Turning Point Eylem, visited Turning Point’s website and participated in efforts to change American culture and asked the audience to honor Kirk’s spirit.

Bowyer said that the difference with Charlie is to build and pioneer something, unlike legends like Rush Limbaugh. ” Bannon War Room Podcast. “We want Millions of Americans to walk to the rhythm of Charlie’s drum for the rest of their lives.”

Kirk began online conservatism as a high school student who was shaped by lunch breaks by listening to the tea party energy and Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. Upon the liberal prejudice of economic textbooks, he wrote pieces such as 2012 Breitbart blog post and forcibly spoke for his right -wing values ​​in youth activities. With the help of conservative donors, he launched Turning Point that year with a plan to mobilize student activists throughout the country.

Dwight, a republican from Arizona, met Kirk in 2013 after he hearing that Andrea’s wife, Kirk, was talking at a conference in Colorado. Inspired by the vision of conservatism of conservatism to young people, the speaker said that Andrea ran to Kirk and asked him how to support his budding movement.

Kirk asked them Chicago to buy a flight ticket to Phoenix. Shortly after, they organized a fund collection officer in their homes for the new organization of Kirk, and the young activist spent the night in the guest rooms.

“Just touched something in our hearts, and we knew this young man was really a big thing,” he said. It would continue to donate tens of thousands of dollars to the organization and its affiliated organizations.

Until 2015, Kirk group had more than 800 colleges and high school campus; A year later, he became one of the youngest speakers in the National Convention of the Republic of 2016. Turning Point Usa’s attention machine was further increased with the publication of a “Professor Monitoring List öyen aimed at what he calls“ leftist propaganda in university classes. Supporters said the Academy came and free speech advocates and liberals had a creepy effect.

Beyond distributing organizers to overthrow the doors of the dormitory, Kirk and Turning Point, Twitter, Podcast and Youtube began to create a great follow-up with broadcasts and videos-Before the political operators of the establishment of the political views of the young people.

Kirk’s mainstream dignity attempts, sometimes supporting issues such as legal immigration and supported the institutional conservatism of the extreme right -wing impressive attacks won the attacks.

In 2019, the followers of the White Superior Podcaster Nick Fuentes launched what they call “Groyper War ile with troll questions that corner him as an anti -white fraud against the campus appearances.

However, Kirk was welcomed by using digital footprint to stretch the political effect to support Trump and positions. In April 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic, Kirk urged the students to rule a “peaceful rebellion karşı against the state governors with orders to stay at home. Drug hydroxychlorochine in the treatment of the disease “100 percent effective” claims to make the wrong claim in the same year after Twitter was suspended.

Kirk’s tactics before the 2020 elections, Washington Post The return point action revealed that young people give money to produce messages that reflect Trump’s speech points on social media – an operation experts compared to a troll farm. Facebook permanently banned a marketing company working in the campaign on behalf of Turning Point, and Twitter suspended 262 accounts associated with the campaign he said was “platform manipulation and spam”. Companies did not suspend the turning point or Kirk accounts by showing inadequate evidence.

Before 6 January 2021– Kirk tweeted that his group had sent 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this President ”. Later, according to a researcher consortium of Stanford University, Washington University and other organizations called election integrity partnerships, then the 10th highest “senior“ senior ”was chosen after the 1020 elections on Twitter. He condemned the violence of the day, but the fifth change called for the right not to answer questions about the role of Turning Point at the rally when he was dismissed in 2022 before the US House Election Committee, which investigated the US Capitol rebellions.

For years, the turning point continued to attract donors of the Republican Party’s struggle to connect with young people. Kirk attracted online eyes and donors with its debates on university campuses, which were cropped and published in social media accounts with millions of followers. Kirk’s willingness to discuss everyone, when a media personalities prone to a viral, a bench, Trump’s first period of the US Ambassador of Jamaica made Don Tapia a singular power, he said.

Tapia donated tens of thousands of dollars to Turning Point’s efforts after meeting Kirk during the 2024 campaign, “Life with young people, family values, human values, morality,” he said.

Kirk’s critics on the left argued that the discussion model was a shtick built on the ridicule of racist and sexist tropics and liberals who sprayed. The pro -Trump propagandacı argued that university students would not be convinced, it doesn’t matter how many times they wanted to “prove me wrong”.

Kirk returned by raising bets. In September, he took part in a widely watched YouTube discussion show SurroundedAbortion with a circle consisting of 25 liberal university students, spear about gender identity and positive action.

“You’re evidence that the college is a scam, my friend,” he said to a question.

Open Measures Researcher Jared Holt, a company that follows the online impact, said Turning Point is not only a youth activist movement, but a digital media operation that invests in pursuit of political impact of Kirk and other right -wing impressers.

“Many other pro -Trump impressives exacerbated the trail used to create their own careers, Hol Holt said. “Most of Kirk’s online personality and media presence were to confuse the pot and push conservative viewers into more excessive positions.”

Kirk’s focus on discussions, with the sub -currents of the boiling war, many people on the right avoiding exhausting way in the Chinese video application Tiktok worked well well. Turning Point drew attention to the republican speech points with short clips of Kirk’s hours of college views, and helped to introduce it to millions of young audiences from the campus.

Most of the clips made controversial changes and played to laugh; An early video shared with Kirk’s account, the activist’s “factory reset button [an] Ignorant Lib, ”with a crying emoji. But some of the most viral moments, even if he did not participate, asking for the life and policy of the interrogator’s life and policy exhibited a softer -spoken kirk.

“Everyone, do me a favor, please be respectful, Kir Kirk said to one of his most popular clips with about 50 million views.

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Trump gave Kirk loan with the support of youth in the 2024 elections and said Fox News helped to shape Tiktok strategy to Kirk on Friday. Trump made a rally -style speech after the first election at the December turning point event in Arizona and wandered on stage after a three -minute video while foging machines were fluctuating and thousands of young conservative cheering. He thanked Kirk and Turning Point for their “relentless efforts de for guaranteeing the return of the White House.

“This is not my victory, it’s your victory, Tr Trump said.

Liberal groups and politicians who did not participate in Kirk’s message seemed willing to learn from their tactics. California Governor Gavin Newsom hosted Kirk as the first guest of Podcast in March, and said that his son was begging his son to stay at school to meet the conservative social media star.

Liberal Student Hunter Kozak, who discussed Kirk during the shooting, participated in the event on behalf of UNF-K America Tour, a group created by the National Ground Game Pac, which brought democratic content creators to return point activities to create their own social media content.

Kirk’s critics also put their speeches on their sound bites and supported the segments they claimed to finge or dangerous landscapes. In 2022, a man called for former home speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house and hit his husband on his head with a hammer, and Kirk called on his listeners to send bail for the attacker. He described George Floyd as “filth, and described the transition of the 1964 Landmark Civil Rights Law as a“ great mistake ..

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In his last X mission on Wednesday, a young man who was stabbed to the Charlotte train by a black man with a long criminal record and a story of mental illness, said that the murder of Ukrainian Refugee Refugee Refugee Iryna Zarutska was “100 percent necessary”. As the suspect of the Republicans claimed that Decarlos Brown claims that he was free because of democratic policies, politics said, “14 priority to a wild monster allowed him to be free to kill him on the streets”. The victim’s family asked people to stop walking around.