PHOENIX, Ariz. — With students from across the country gathering for Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) annual AmericaFest, infighting among the conservative movement’s most prominent figures quickly became part of the conversation. But while the exchanges played out on stage and across social media, some students told the Daily Caller News Foundation they were tired of it.
Tensions surfaced publicly Thursday evening after Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro criticized DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson during his remarks. Carlson pushed back almost immediately after he took the stage on Thursday. But by Friday, the dispute escalated further when conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly took the stage and called Shapiro a “coward” for not addressing his disagreements with her directly.
The back-and-forth drew loud reactions inside the convention hall and quickly spilled online. Among students in attendance, the primary reaction was not excitement, it was fatigue.
Students Say They’re Over The Feud
As the weekend went on, the debate followed students into group discussions, where disagreements were often less about ideology and more about whether public fighting was doing the movement any favors.
Some students took firm positions. Rhode Island native Ryan Golditch, 16, said he strongly sided with Shapiro and rejected Carlson’s views.
“It’s ridiculous,” Golditch said. “We’re seeing people who aren’t conservative anymore. We’re seeing Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Steve Bannon [former Trump administration chief strategist] spout their radical ideology that is not MAGA.”
“He’s [Carlson] incredibly anti-Semitic,” Golditch said, referring to Carlson and repudiating his podcast with Nick Fuentes. “Giving a platform to someone who idolizes Stalin and is openly anti-Semitic is not America first. And being with Israel, having a strong ally in the Middle East is America first.”
As Golditch spoke, another student stepped in with a different view, one shared by others in the group who said the larger issue was how disagreements were being handled.
“I actually have a little different opinion on that,” said Cole Chatham, 17, of Georgia. “I think that the problem in the conservative movement right now is that we’re focusing way more on our differences rather than what we agree on.”
Chatham said even dispute’s central figures shared more common ground than the public fighting suggested.
“I think even Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro would agree on many policies, it’s just the one that they disagree on,” Chatham said. “Which I understand is quite a big issue, but we can come together in many other ways.”
Touching on Shapiro’s repeated criticism of Carlson and his podcast guests, Chatham said he believed the Daily Wire founder “is almost indulging in cancel culture in a way.”
“But on the Ben Shapiro note, I do believe that he is almost indulging in cancel culture in a way when he says we should de-platform people and we should take away people’s right to have a show because they have varying opinions that he doesn’t agree with,” Chatham told DCNF.
“I think that that’s kind of, in a way, like he said, cowardly to be afraid to hear other people’s opinions just because it hurts your feelings or they don’t agree with you,” Chatham added.
That exchange — one student forcefully taking a side, another urging restraint — reflected the weekend’s broader mood. While the high school students could openly disagreed on who was right, they shared frustration with the tone the public infighting brought to the conference.
”I think that a lot of the infighting going on in the Republican party is rather absurd,” said Thatcher, 16, of Texas. “I think that everybody taking shots at each other in public is honestly pretty childish.”
“I think that no matter what side you’re on of the fights within the party, I think that we need to bring it to an end. It’s too much. We need to, in order to defeat the Democrats and continue the red wave, we need to band together,” Ashley, a 17-year-old student from Southern California, told DCNF. “The separation is only showing weakness and that’s not something we can have going on.”
Others said the constant sparring felt disconnected from everyday realities.
“Unfortunately, in great organizations like this and movements like this, no matter how good the intentions may be, there will always be drama,” Dylan, 17, also of Texas, told DCNF. “Honestly, in some cases, it might be a good thing because it brings more people together. But it also might be a bad thing because at the end of the day, there are way more problems that we should be facing as a group together.”
“We have abortion, we have illegal immigration, immigration, homelessness, gas prices, affordability, inflation,” Dylan added. “We have all those huge, big problems, and unfortunately when it comes to politics, it’s literally all talk. It’s never getting things done. And it’s very sad to see that.”
As conversations shifted toward the future, including the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race, students and other Gen Z attendees returned to issues they said mattered more than media feuds, particularly affordability.
‘We Have Bigger Problems’
“My biggest issue heading into the next election and the next year is affordability,” Lorenzo, 17, of Florida, told DCNF. “Prices of houses have quadrupled. If you look back in 1965, all you needed was around one year’s paycheck or around two years’ work to be able to afford a house.”
“Now you need several sub-years,” Lorenzo added. “Around the range of 20% of millennials or people around my age will be able to afford a house when they leave college and they exit college.”
“We’re seeing all this talk, all this drama, and nothing getting done,” Dylan said. “I want to see more action, less drama, and more working together.”
First-time AmericaFest attendee and Gen Z podcaster Jackson Crapuchettes said he noticed the same divide between the headlines and what attendees were actually focused on.
“The conservative in-fighting — it’s unfortunate that Charlie Kirk was the only thing stopping us from doing this to ourselves,” Crapuchettes told DCNF. “Charlie Kirk seemed to have been the dam that was holding the right back from shooting itself in the foot.”
“So, in-fighting can be good if it’s internal debate about what’s the right thing to do, what’s the right path for the future,” he added. “But when you see people like Steve Bannon just call Ben Shapiro a cancer, it’s not a debate, it’s just an ad hominem.”
Crapuchettes said the infighting fades quickly when basic concerns take priority.
“If you can’t afford groceries, the current agenda or the current infighting between the Republican Party doesn’t actually matter that much because you need to eat,” Crapuchettes said.
‘Who Replaces Charlie?’
Asked about the future of the movement without TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk, some of the students said they didn’t believe anyone could replace him, but that his absence had made unity feel more urgent, not less.
“Charlie did such a great thing, because he made it all of our voice. It’s our turn to pick up his mic. We need to band together, and I think Erika [Kirk] is doing a wonderful job already. She’s showing what a great leader that she is,” Ashley said. “There’s so many different people, but overall I think it’s us collectively, us Turning Point students. We need to carry on his legacy.”
Others echoed the idea that TPUSA’s founder Charlie Kirk’s influence wasn’t something that could simply be handed off to a single figure.
“Who is replacing Charlie? No one,” Golditch said. “But who’s rising up? As it’s going viral, we are Charlie Kirk.”
Crapuchettes said the movement’s next phase would depend on whether it could manage disagreement without turning inward.
“A lot of strong personalities, and all of them would like to have a say in this. It remains to see what will happen,” he said. “But I think either someone strong will rise up or all of these big personalities will lead out.”
Despite their frustration, most students said the disputes underscored the conservative movement’s distinction, one they believe is worth preserving.
“I know it might sound weird, but at least we have some diversity within our conservative group. Unlike with the Democrats and Liberals, where if one person says something on their side, everyone else agrees,” Lorenzo said. “I’ve never seen one of them disagree with another one of the Democrats.”
Others argued that internal disagreement, while messy, was preferable to enforced unity.
“Yes, the conservative movement does have a lot of infighting and conflict, but at least we have a diversity of opinion, whereas the left, the difference is they are unified through hatred of groups, hatred of people, and violence,” Chatham told the DCNF. “That’s not the kind of unification we need.”
“I would rather find unification through agreement over opinions rather than unification over hatred for certain groups because of belief,” Chatham added.
For many of the students at AmericaFest, the message was consistent: disagreement is inevitable, but they are ready for the conservative movement to stop arguing in public and start focusing on what comes next.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
