There are two legacies on the line this weekend in Phoenix as Turning Point USA gets down to business annual AmericaFest conferenceThe first is that of the late founder, Charlie Kirk, and the other is that of President Donald Trump.
As many as 25,000 attendees are expected to gather at the convention center here in Arizona to celebrate the life of Kirk, who was tragically murdered several months ago, but also to try to chart a path forward for the movement he started.
When I arrived a little late on Thursday, I was greeted by Lucas, a TPUSA employee from Detroit in his mid-20s. He was a perfect ambassador, a decent guy who eschewed the almost epic desperation of his generation and instead brought about positive change.
TPUSA Spokesman Rips PODCASTER’S ‘DISTURBING’ DEFENSE OF PROTESTER CELEBRATING CHARLIE KIRK’S DEATH
“The energy was amazing,” he told me, referring to the huge increase in interest in TPUSA since Kirk’s terrible murder.
“Not the way you’d want it to happen,” I noted somewhat darkly, but Lucas said, “You’ve got to find the silver lining, I guess.”
Lucas and the hundreds like him are honestly an inspiration, while so many of their generation are out of shape from head to toe, they see a bright future for America that so many of us in our advanced years have long since forgotten.
But don’t get the impression that this year’s AmFest will be all hugs and kumbaya. In fact, what you will find here are the early stages of a war to define what the legacy of Donald Trump and the legacy of his MAGA movement will be.
PASTOR GREG LAURIE LAUNCHES CRUSADE ON CAMPUS WHERE CHARLIE KIRK WAS KILLED, WANTS TO BRING HOPE FROM TRAGEDY
Thursday night’s lineup on the big stage was a powerful mix, featuring both Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson, whose current feud over Israel has become more than annoying.
I won’t argue the feud here, it’s all on video after all, but the broader point is that in the run-up to the first presidential race in a while, in 2028, there are a number of lines being drawn where Trump’s name is unlikely to appear on the ballot.
‘PEOPLE ARE LISTENING’: Prosecutor Says CHARLIE KIRK TARGETED HIS INFLUENCE
At Amfest, we finally have more than tea leaves to tell us what the post-Trump and Kirk conservative movement will look like – we have the real tea, and then some stains.
The factions are becoming clear, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika said enthusiastically in her speech on Thursday endorsed Vice President J.D. Vance for president, while Shapiro, more moderate, said Vance should build his own coalition.
Is Shapiro forming a movement behind a potential candidate as Republican Senator of Texas? Ted Cruz who hasn’t been a member of Donald Trump’s, let’s face it, somewhat obsequious court of the Oval Office, and if so, can the power of Erika Kirk thwart such a play?
This weekend in Phoenix gathered the people with the strongest claim to the MAGA movement – a once diverse group of misfits whose allegiance to the “orange man” who kept winning put them at the forefront of American power and politics.
Many of the serious and profound conservative voices and pundits of the past, who do the New Right no favors, have jumped ship for think tanks or pseudo-right-wing magazines that exist only to destroy Trump and his movement, but they are not the vanguard. The real fight is here.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
What unfolds in Phoenix this weekend will have profound consequences, not just for… next year’s midterm examsbut for the 2028 presidential race.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, during a panel discussion at the Generation Next Summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22, 2018 in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Legacies are things of the future, and only Amfest’s young attendees will see the most enduring fruits of the American conservative movement – a movement still firmly shaped by Charlie Kirk.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
It is both remarkable and grim to see the countless and often gigantic statues of their Charlie around the convention center in the midst of his earthly absence. Each image is a reminder of both the great success of his life and its tragic end.
But Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be a statue or plaque. His legacy will live in the hearts of the young children gathered in Phoenix this weekend. Maybe they are naive. Perhaps they are not withered and weathered by the brutal storms of life. God bless them for their hope. We could use a little more of it.
CLICK HERE TO DAVID MARCUS
