\n<\/p>\n
It is already 93 degrees, but temperatures are rising further outside the Tampa Convention Center\u2014especially for the young man dressed in a dinosaur costume. Also sporting a Tom Brady Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey, he is loudly debating immigration with another young man in a smart suit on the pavement. Across the street, a handful of protesters face off against a growing number of right-wing influencers with cameras.<\/p>\n
Inside the building, political strategist Steve Bannon is denouncing billionaire Elon Musk as \u201cevil\u201d while filming a live TV broadcast. Thousands of young college students cheer when border czar Tom Homan threatens to beat up a heckler in the crowd. And a YouTuber leads the audience in a mass \u201cTrump dance party\u201d to the tune of YMCA<\/em>.<\/p>\n Welcome to the Student Action Summit 2025. Organized by youth activist organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the three-day annual conference is billed as the premier event for conservative college students to debate ideas, network and hear from top Republicans. They include Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr. and, of course, Charlie Kirk, who founded the movement as an 18-year-old college dropout.<\/p>\n More than 5,000 people attended this year\u2019s event in Florida, held July 11\u201313, and Times Higher Education <\/em>was there to learn what matters to college conservatives today, what issues are dividing this branch of the MAGA movement, and whether this youthful \u201cred wave\u201d can reshape U.S. electoral politics.<\/p>\n As a countdown clock ticks down to zero, a DJ pumps up the well-dressed young crowd\u2014advised to style themselves after Donald Trump\u2019s permanently besuited youngest son Barron\u2014with Rednex\u2019s Cotton Eye Joe<\/em> and The Killers\u2019 Mr. Brightside<\/em>. Along with the big hitters, students also hear from Happy Gilmore<\/em> actor Rob Schneider, founder of the Dark Web marketplace Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels across an eclectic and often bizarre three days.<\/p>\n Kirk\u2019s fingerprints are all over the summit. Owing to the slightly chaotic nature of the schedule, he is often timetabled to appear in two places at the same time\u2014particularly tricky given that, as the podcaster Dan Nunn puts it, \u201cCharlie can\u2019t even walk around: he\u2019s like a rock star.\u201d<\/p>\n He kicks off the summit on the vast East Hall stage by hitting some issues that Republicans of all ages can agree on\u2014namely, religion and immigration. The 31-year-old activist and podcaster praises the audience for helping reverse decades of declining church attendance (many of them attend a service in the Convention Center on Sunday morning) and for helping TPUSA fight the \u201cspiritual sickness throughout the West.\u201d Talks are regularly interrupted by football-style chants of \u201cChrist is King\u201d or \u201cGod is great.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk also gets loud acclaim when he says that no foreigner should be allowed to own a home or get a job before a U.S. citizen, and draws an even bigger cheer when he mentions President Trump\u2019s plans for mass deportation of illegal migrants. Even legal migration comes under fire over the convention weekend, and Homan, the former chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is treated like a rock star, his frequent mentions of buzz phrases such as \u201csend them home\u201d chanted back to him from the floor.<\/p>\n Abortion is mentioned on stage, as one might expect. Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who became an activist after finishing tied for fifth in a race with a trans woman, praised Trump as the most pro-life president in modern history. And the issue is brought up repeatedly in interviews with THE\u2014<\/em>often by young men.<\/p>\n Many speakers are also very keen to stress the importance of reproduction and \u201ctraditional\u201d families. Michael Knowles, a political commentator and YouTuber, calls falling birth rates in the U.S. an \u201cexistential crisis.\u201d He welcomes the \u201ctrad wife\u201d trend on social media\u2014right-wing women promoting their role as stay-at-home moms\u2014and praises young women for rejecting the corporate rat race, \u201cto the horror of the feminists.\u201d A middle-aged audience member, who gets a massive round of applause when he reveals he has 12 children, wants to help convince the college generation of the \u201cbeauty of big families.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk also ploughs that furrow. He tells the audience that the real threat to the U.S. is not racism or environmentalism, but low birth rate. And he tells those listening online what they are missing out on by not being there in person. \u201cIf you want to find your future husband or wife\u00a0\u2026 you should be here in Tampa, Florida, because there\u2019s a lot of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes here.\u201d<\/p>\n Equally, however, conservative attitudes to dating and sex are evident. Brandon Tatum, a former college football player, police officer and now online activist, advises against \u201chooking up with people and doing all this crazy stuff.\u201d Brett Cooper, a child actor turned online activist, warns delegates not to party too much or waste time playing video games. And comedian Russell Brand, currently awaiting trial in the U.K. for rape, sexual assault and indecent assault (he has pleaded not guilty), also praises family values and religion while denouncing pornography and claiming that Jesus was opposed to bad government. During his strange 20-minute speech-cum-rap in front of one of the largest audiences of the weekend, Brand explains how he turned to God following a life of crack and heroin addiction, a \u201cpursuit of carnality\u201d and an \u201call-you-can-eat buffet\u201d of hedonism.<\/p>\n Source: Patrick Jack<\/p>\n Russell Brand (center) at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit 2025<\/p>\n Away from the main hall lies the exhibition floor. Here, students can take selfies with political consultant Roger Stone\u2014pardoned by Trump in 2020 after being convicted of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering relating to a Congressional inquiry into Russian attempts to boost Trump\u2019s 2016 election campaign. They can also pick up free copies of a book on the \u201cuntold story behind the Vatican\u2019s rising influence in America,\u201d challenge their friends to a pull-up contest or play cornhole.<\/p>\n You can also buy just about anything\u2014provided it has some red, white and blue on it. There\u2019s a stall to \u201cMake Coffee Great Again,\u201d \u201cTrump 2028\u201d hats are on sale for $30 (\u00a323), and there are even cool pads to keep your head cool under them\u2014as well as vibration plates for \u201cadvanced whole-body vibration therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n Attendees can also hear from a wide range of fringe groups. A \u201cBlexit\u201d stall promotes \u201cfree thinking and empowerment\u201d at historically black colleges and universities and is dedicated to bringing \u201ctraditional American principles to urban communities.\u201d Wilbur Sims, strategic manager of student movement at Blexit, said, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to educate people\u00a0\u2026and get away from a victimhood mentality within the black community.\u201d<\/p>\n A surprisingly large number of families, many with young children, mingle with the students, as do some retirees. Steve, a 75-year-old lifelong Republican from Florida, hopes that TPUSA can help ensure the Democrats never get back into power. But there are a few signs of a divide between the younger and older generations.<\/p>\n Guns, which receive very few mentions from the stage, are one. Gun ownership has, for generations, been a mainstay of right-wing identity, but two lonely young men at the National Rifle Association stall express concern that their classmates are not interested in the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms).<\/p>\n The other dividing line is Israel. The most prominent stall on the exhibition floor is that of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), featuring hundreds of Israeli flags. Some college students nearby pose for pictures with a giant cardboard cut-out of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but when Michele Bachmann, a former member of Congress and board member of the IFCJ, begins to discuss the \u201cunprecedented\u201d amount of antisemitism on college campuses, the hall empties out. And during a debate on day three, Dave Smith, a comedian and regular guest on the popular Joe Rogan podcast, warns of the \u201ctremendous\u201d influence of Israel in U.S. politics. And in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran during Israel\u2019s recent 12-day assault on the country, Smith elicits cheers when he criticizes \u201cneoconservatives\u201d for starting foreign wars\u2014in contravention of the isolationism typically adopted by \u201cAmerica First\u201d advocates. One young man and woman express their skepticism of the U.S.\u2013Israel alliance and are convinced that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad agent.<\/p>\n Epstein may have died by suicide in 2019, but his presence is keenly felt at the convention. The event occurs amid the MAGA backlash to attorney general Pam Bondi\u2019s comment that the sex trafficker\u2019s \u201cclient list\u201d\u2014which, according to Musk, includes Donald Trump, but which right-wing figures are convinced contains prominent Hollywood stars and Democratic politicians\u2014does not, in fact, exist. Despite saying that homes and jobs are more important, Kirk admits the Epstein issue still matters. And in conversation with him, journalist Megyn Kelly calls it a \u201cscandal of the right\u2019s making.\u201d When she asks the audience how many of them think it is an important story, everyone puts their hand up.<\/p>\n Hours later, media personality Tucker Carlson devotes almost his entire 30-minute speech to the issue, while Bannon sees it as symptomatic of the problems with the \u201cdeep state.\u201d Even former college athletes Gaines and Tatum devote considerable time to talking about Epstein\u2014with vocal prompting from the crowd.<\/p>\n The TPUSA president at the University of Alabama believes the issue is so important for this crowd because Bondi\u2019s decision not to publish any of the Justice Department\u2019s files on Epstein fits in with their skeptical worldview and their concern that they are being \u201clied to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That sense also permeates the MAGA view of COVID-19. Bannon is cheered when he claims the pandemic originated from a \u201cChinese Communist Party bioweapon dropped in Wuhan.\u201d There are frequent references over the weekend to the supposedly nefarious \u201cmask mandates,\u201d cancelled proms and young adults\u2019 lost years\u2014for which Kirk calls for a national apology.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody likes being lied to, and [young people] lived through COVID in a way that adults did not,\u201d according to Nunn, host of the America First<\/em> and the constitutionalist Nunn Report<\/em> podcast. \u201cThey got their social lives shut down, they got their schools shut down, and then they found out it was all bullshit.\u201d Since they blamed the Democrats for that, he believes that universities became less efficient \u201cleftist breeding grounds\u201d when that cohort arrived on campus.<\/p>\n Chase, a student from Florida, says COVID was a big factor in pushing his generation to the right. \u201cSo many people were lied to during that period of time and it definitely brought to light the corruption in the Democratic Party,\u201d he tells THE<\/em>. TPUSA is important because it helps students learn that they cannot trust mainstream media and must \u201cseek out your own truth.\u201d<\/p>\n The pandemic is clearly still an issue for Owen, a student in Michigan, where Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer was caught breaking public health protocols at a restaurant in 2021. \u201cI don\u2019t really think that what the left was pushing made rational sense to the youth vote at the time, and it still doesn\u2019t make sense now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the hypocrisy of it all\u2014you\u2019re telling me not to leave my house, yet you\u2019re going out and having parties without wearing masks closer than six feet.\u201d Source: Patrick Jack <\/p>\n A striking omission from the stages of a conference targeted at students is higher education itself\u2014despite the fact that Trump\u2019s crackdown on prominent universities\u2019 funding and autonomy has previously been cheered by many figures on the right. When prompted, however, delegates express universal scorn for universities.<\/p>\n John Paul Leon, TPUSA chapter president at University of California, Berkeley, tells THE <\/em>he is becoming increasingly worried by academia\u2019s left-wing consensus and \u201cmoral superiority,\u201d particularly around \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures. David Goodwin, president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools and co-author of Battle for the American Mind<\/em> with defense secretary Pete Hegseth, says higher education is a \u201cmess\u201d; and while institutions should be free to do whatever they want, he believes that they should expect to forgo government funds if they choose to defy the administration\u2019s policies in areas such as DEI or choice of research topics. And Owen, who attends a private college, welcomes Trump\u2019s attacks on universities because they are \u201cindoctrinating students with wrong ideas.\u201d International students, particularly \u201cmilitary-age males,\u201d should be sent home, he adds.<\/p>\n Carol Swain, a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and one of the few academics at the event, also welcomes Trump\u2019s fight with Harvard because universities have \u201clost sight of the original purpose\u201d of the sector, which was to educate minds by exposing individuals to divergent viewpoints. \u201cNow the Ivy League has lost some of its allure, I believe there\u2019s an opportunity for some state colleges and universities and some universities that were considered less prestigious to rise just by doing what the Ivy League hasn\u2019t done, which is educate and create an environment where you have free speech, are following the Constitution, creating opportunities, [and] not practicing discrimination,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As for the effects of research funding cuts on the academic strength of the U.S., Swain says most papers in recent decades have been \u201cgarbage.\u201d The \u201cpeople that have pushed the beliefs that minorities have been discriminated against\u00a0\u2026 lowered the standards in certain fields, and the emphasis on lived experience as opposed to research and data\u00a0\u2026 has hurt academic research.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jennifer Burns, director of academics at Turning Point Education, does not believe universities are solely to blame, claiming that grade schools are failing to prepare students properly: \u201cIf you\u2019re building a house and your foundation is sinking and cracking, then the frame of the house is going to be cracked. It\u2019s not the fault of the carpenters who put up the beams, it\u2019s the cement layers. [Students] are not trained in how to think, so they\u2019re going into college at the whim of a radical college professor and they\u2019re soaking that up.\u201d<\/p>\n TPUSA advocates for a \u201cclassical Christian education,\u201d and some attendees propose private, conservative Christian liberal arts colleges such as Hillsdale in Michigan, or New Saint Andrews in Idaho, as exemplars of what higher education should be. Lennox Kalifungwa, digital engagement officer at New Saint Andrews, expresses the view that \u201cthe only true education is a Christian education because Christianity has the exclusive when it comes to truth and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWoke\u201d students and academics, meanwhile, are a reoccurring punching bag on the convention floor\u2014particularly those with a specific hair color. Kirk, who rose to fame through viral videos debating with left-wing students, calls them \u201cpurple-haired jihadis,\u201d Homan bemoans \u201cpeople with purple hair and nose rings,\u201d Tatum deplores \u201cliberal non-binaries\u201d and Trump Jr. condemns \u201craging libtards.\u201d<\/p>\n Such critiques are also usually tied up with anti-trans and anti-gay language. Trump Jr., a long-time ally of Kirk, whose daughter, Kai, is a college-level golfer at the University of Miami, proudly boasts of having been anti-trans since 2017 and sees it as being a \u201closing issue\u201d for the Democrats. One student tells THE <\/em>that drag queens reading children stories cause \u201chorrible developmental issues\u201d and contribute to rising suicide rates. Knowles celebrates the Trump-imposed end of the \u201cpreposterous ideology\u201d of trans people, calling it \u201cdeader than disco,\u201d the cancellation of LGBTQ+ pride parades due to lack of attendance and pop musician Jojo Siwa\u2019s announcement that she no longer identifies as a lesbian. \u201cNature is healing,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n A lone protester who interrupts Homan is called a \u201closer,\u201d a \u201cmoron,\u201d an \u201casshole\u201d and someone who \u201csits down when he pees\u201d\u2014to huge chants of \u201cU-S-A.\u201d Homan, who says he \u201cwake[s] up like a kid in a candy shop every day\u201d as border czar, offers to fight the man before his speech is over.<\/p>\n Outside are a few more dissenters. A handful of middle-aged Floridians, who fear TPUSA is \u201cindoctrinating the youth,\u201d hold a sign that says \u201cMAGA\u2014Movement Against Genuine Academics\u201d\u2014perhaps in reference to Kirk\u2019s creation of the Professor Watchlist, which lists scholars who \u201cdiscriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda.\u201d They are soon joined by a rag-tag group of a few dozen young students, some dressed as characters from the dystopian TV show The<\/em> Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> and others wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularized by the hacker collective Anonymous. Vicky Tong, spokesperson for the Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society, says they want to show that not everyone in Florida supports the \u201csexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-immigrant\u201d agenda of TPUSA.<\/p>\n Back inside the hall, speakers emphasize that while right-wingers are in the majority here, they are \u201coutnumbered\u201d on campus. Many express fear of being accused of sexual harassment or being cancelled for using the wrong pronoun. Kirk calls them \u201cwarriors\u201d and praises them for putting up with threats and intimidation. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing is one of the hardest things to do in the United States of America. They are deciding to be less popular on campus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Source: Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Charlie Kirk speaks at Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January 2025<\/p>\n Some of the big names can sympathize. Trump Jr. used to attend \u201cevery cool person party\u201d in New York before his father became involved in politics and the invites dried up. \u201cThese people that I thought were friends for decades, they don\u2019t call any more.\u201d He encourages students to \u201cfeed off the hate,\u201d while Kelly urges them not to be \u201csheep\u201d and follow along with what their left-wing professors say just to get good grades. \u201cDon\u2019t call yourself a feminist because your teacher will give you pats on the head. Stand up for what you really believe in, and that\u2019s how we spread the good word,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, who has come under fire for attempting to \u201creclaim\u201d the word \u201cNazi,\u201d complains that \u201cleft-wingers were the cool kids\u201d when he was young. And that sense of not fitting in on campus is clearly a big reason that some of the attendees are here\u2014many of them thanks to a TPUSA stipend (the organization is largely funded by donations). Leon, who studies in the \u201cbelly of the [progressive] beast\u201d at Berkeley and went viral for a video where he confronts a liberal student, says he is called a fascist daily, but at TPUSA \u201cyou can find life-long friends, your forever friends, or maybe you can find your wife too.\u201d Dylan Seiter, president of TPUSA at Texas A&M University, told students during a breakout session that \u201cthe libs want to drag us down to their level and make us seem like we\u2019re some nasty, hateful people, but in reality, we\u2019re not. And it\u2019s our duty and our jobs to prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, some delegates confess that they are only here to hang out and socialize, and nearby bars such as Harpoon Harry\u2019s Crab House are packed with older students before the day\u2019s events are even over. But this social element is not just for fun, it is also for networking. As Kirk puts it: \u201cMarriages will happen this weekend. Lifetime friendships will happen this weekend. Careers will start this weekend.\u201d And as well as selling \u201cI survived college without becoming a liberal\u201d T-shirts, the TPUSA Alumni Association is consciously attempting to replicate the college networks of Ivy League schools to help get MAGA graduates into top jobs. TPUSA also tries to persuade students to work on the \u201cfront lines\u201d of the culture war. One recruitment video urges young people not to become doctors or lawyers, but to get a job with \u201creal impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Many speakers are convinced that they are already having an impact, crediting a \u201cred wave\u201d of students with delivering Trump\u2019s landslide victory in 2024, a \u201cshot heard around the world.\u201d Bannon thanks them for being \u201cthe hardest core of the hardcore\u201d and the \u201ctip of the tip of the spear\u201d in \u201cwinning\u201d the 2016 and 2020 elections as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the greatest generational realignment since Woodstock,\u201d says Kirk. \u201cWe have never seen a generation move so quickly and so fast, and you guys are making all the liberals confused.\u201d Accordingly, Republican Party luminaries show up in force. Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, shakes hands on the exhibition floor and multiple members of Trump\u2019s top team\u2014including director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem\u2014deliver speeches. However, these politicians generate far less buzz than social media stars such as Gaines and Cooper.<\/p>\n Still, Kirk warns that Washington is taking right-wing students for granted and \u201cmessing up\u201d a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver a \u201cdeath blow\u201d to the Democratic Party by failing to fully deliver on their promises\u2014such as by publishing the Epstein list. And Swain agreed. \u201cIf these [elected] officials compromise and they prove themselves to be no different than the politicians they replaced, it\u2019s going to be harder for [young] people to stay enthusiastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As one attendee puts it, conservative students have been \u201clurking in the shadows\u201d for decades. Kirk has successfully dragged them out into the sunlight. The challenge he and Trump now face is one that will be familiar to the \u201cradical left\u201d\u2014 keeping momentum, holding the various factions together in the face of political realities, and delivering on their promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is already 93 degrees, but temperatures are rising further outside the Tampa Convention Center\u2014especially for the young man dressed in a dinosaur costume. Also sporting a Tom Brady Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey, he is loudly debating immigration with another young man in a smart suit on the pavement. Across the street, a handful of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[919,3831,2664,393,2591,291,882],"class_list":{"0":"post-12304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-points","10":"tag-scene","11":"tag-student","12":"tag-summit","13":"tag-turning","14":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}