PALM BEACH, Florida — Even though President Trump lost his bid for reelection, his influence on the young conservative movement was palpable in Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit.
Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, holds its annual, end-of-year conference each December and often features top-tier speakers, including Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. In years past, the organization focused on a political message aimed at building a youth coalition for Trump’s reelection effort. This year, it focused on principles young conservatives should adopt heading into President-elect Joe Biden’s presidency — Trumpian ideals that promise “Make America Great Again” won’t be just a passing fad.
“Use this as an opportunity to learn and then to plan. Because we have a country to save. No matter what ends up happening, I can tell you this, our generation needs dramatic and bold action,” Kirk said on the opening night of the conference. “This is the greatest country ever. Our parents and grandparents sacrificed so much so that we can have our freedoms. And this year, more than any other year in American history, our freedoms started to disappear. Tonight we take them back.”
On Sunday evening, video circulated of TPUSA’s sponsor Bang Energy showering excited audience members with free cash by women in leggings and tank tops, prompting criticism and mockery on social media. But the tenor of the conference overall was largely different for someone in attendance for the full event.
Speakers had varying messages, many decrying state lockdowns and mask mandates enacted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while others such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson told conference attendees to think beyond left-wing and right-wing politics. Carlson, who said his political perspective changed after civil unrest this summer, said the biggest political divisions exist between the “big versus the small,” “powerful versus the powerless,” and the “corporate versus the independent.”
“I re-assessed a lot of the things I think are the worst about American society. And I began to realize that those things aren’t necessarily left-wing values, they’re corporate values,” Carlson said, arguing that large companies demand loyalty from workers without appreciating them. Carlson told attendees, most of which are college students, to have a “happy personal life” and to not “waste time.”
“Everything that you do now should be serving, in a positive way, your long-term interest, which may not be that long-term. Do it now. And anything that anesthetizes you or keeps you from fully experiencing the only life you have, stop it. I totally mean that,” Carlson said.
Carlson’s message was echoed by conservative commentator and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. “Don’t think because you’re young that you can waste the time now, you can’t. You’re the warriors on the front-lines of liberty,” he said on the second night of the conference.
Trump’s record as president was a frequently visited topic, and some Republican lawmakers, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz and Congressman-elect Madison Cawthorn, vowed to protest the results of the election next month. On Jan. 6, Congress will perform its constitutional obligation to count and certify the votes of the Electoral College, but lawmakers do have the ability to object to the votes. For that objection to be honored, it must be written by hand and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate. It is unlikely the objections may change the results in Trump’s favor. But when Trump was invoked, students were often called to defend or fight for the president’s legacy or values.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest child, largely focused on telling students to resist the political agenda of the Democratic Party, which he said was controlled by liberals, on the first night of the conference. “You are the Trumps of the future. You are the guys that will hold Republicans accountable,” he said in concluding his speech. “Get in the game, stay engaged, stay involved, and fight for America.”
Pence, who concluded the conference on Tuesday, argued that “the best days for the conservative movement” are “yet to come,” telling students to “stay in the fight for freedom because the fight for freedom never ends.”
Allie Stuckey, a conservative commentator who hosts the Relatable podcast, appealed to Christianity to defend capitalism and human rights. “In the Bible we read that God honors private property through thou shall not steal and thou shall not covet,” she said, referring to the Ten Commandments. “In Ephesians, in the New Testament, we hear let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor so he can give generously, personally, and freely to those who need it. Not under government compulsion.”
“When I look across history at when societies have flourished and when they thrived, I see that work and self-reliance, providing for you and your family, and I see that freedom of religion and reliance on the family and reliance on faith is what makes societies thrive and survive,” she said during her speech on the conference’s third day.
Personal liberties and freedom were undoubtedly key messages to conference-goers, but how young conservatives ought to implement those values was a topic addressed by Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, who also co-hosts the Verdict podcast with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“The greatest political asset that Trump has is his anti-ideological disposition, which conservatives once understood. And they lost that somewhere,” Knowles told the Washington Examiner.
He insisted Trump’s disposition, rather, was one of prudence.
“For far too long on the Right, in the last twenty years or so, we had these highly ideological, abstract debates. And when we’re not engaging in these ideological abstractions, we’re engaging in these technocratic little quibbles about statistics,” Knowles said. “And we’re not using the best faculty for politics that our good Lord gave us, which is prudence and prescription. Taking a received opinion in the wisdom of the ages and recognizing that it might have value. Trump brought that back. We had not seen that in a very long time, and I think it’ll make our debates more interesting because it’s going to put that back down on earth.”
Although other speakers didn’t declare Trump to be the true victor in the election, the president himself broke the facade when he made a surprise call-in to the summit on Monday evening, claiming he won in a “landslide,” alluding to long-shot election challenges based on allegations of voting fraud that are still playing out. Conference-goers were elated to hear Trump’s spontaneous remarks, with many rushing to get as close to the stage as they could. It’s this sort of response by the students that indicates that Trump may not be commander in chief for much longer, but he is still very much a leader in their hearts.
