Things reportedly started out tense at the first major Turning Point USA event since the assassination of former leader Charlie Kirk. First, President Donald Trump threatened to "fire" his son Don Jr. if he didn't make a great speech, and then the president's number one son said some things that raised eyebrows among rank-and-file Republicans.
Don Jr. declared the Republican Party a thing of the past during his speech. It's being replaced, per him, by the "America First Party" and "Make America Great Again Party."
Don Jr. went on to criticize "weak" Republicans who supported bringing in unvetted Afghan refugees and turning Minnesota into "little Somalia."
President Trump joined the conference only by speaker phone, where he said, "I wanna be with you. But I’ll be with you soon, and I just wanna say that nobody did more for me than Charlie, and there’s nobody better than Erika, and you are the greatest people on Earth.”
“I just wanted to thank you all, and I hope my son’s doing a good job representing me; otherwise, I’ll have to say ‘You’re fired, Don. You’re fired.’”
“So thank you very much and have a great day. I hope Don makes a great speech. If he doesn’t make a great speech, let me know about it, I’ll give him hell,” the president added.
He didn't react afterward to Don Jr.'s words but the crowd loudly applauded as the younger Trump proclaimed from the stage that the midterms are at risk, not only from the Democrats, but also from RINOs (Republicans in Name Only.)
“You see the manufactured attacks on JD [Vance], myself, my father — anyone who understands that this isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It’s the America First Party. It’s the Make America Great Again Party. And we are not going back!
“Some of the loudest voices, even in the Republican party, demanded we bring in tens of thousands of unvetted Afghan refugees. For years they turned Minnesota into little Somalia,” Trump Jr. said.
Other themes of his talk included rebukes of DEI policies and a belief that white men are being victimized.
“[Young white men] for a generation were left behind by DEI,” Trump Jr. said. “They were told ‘Well, you know, you don’t check a couple boxes, so you may be better, you may be smarter, but you’re not getting into that college. You’re not getting that job, you’re certainly not getting a promotion. But you better damn well realize you’re privileged, despite being discriminated against.’ It’s funny, but it’s actually happening.”
In further controversies at the event, conservative Ben Shapiro criticized podcaster and pundit Candace Owens for pushing conspiracy theories about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, calling her a fraud and grifter. And former Trump aide Steve Bannon responded by referring to Ben Shapiro as a cancer.