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Charlie Kirk’s Christian Nationalist Turning Point USA Added to SPLC’s List of Hate Groups [1]

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Date: 2025-06-23

Charlie Kirk’s Christian nationalist Turning Point USA was recently added to he Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) list of “anti-government extremist groups.” At the same time, GPAHE (Global Project Against Hate and Extremism), reported that CREW (The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) “filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on May 30, 2025, accusing the Trump campaign of illegally concealing donor identities from Wisconsin voters, with a spotlight on Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point (TPUSA) empire” (https://globalextremism.org/post/project-2025-june-4th-update/)

Turning Point USA Added to SPLC Hate Group List

According to the SPLC, TO USA’s “primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ community and civil rights activists. TPUSA and its spokespeople often warn their audience that their children, wives, religion, way of life and they themselves are under attack by various constructed enemies. TPUSA exploits complicated feelings of insecurity and anxiety to manufacture rage and mobilize support to revive and maintain a white-dominated, male supremacist, Christian social order” (https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/turning-point-usa-case-study-hard-right-2024/).

TPUSA promotes Christian nationalism, the theocratic worldview that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian country and that Christian values and beliefs should inform the government and wider culture.

The SPLC report noted that “In the organization’s early years, Kirk advocated for right-wing politics to adopt a ‘secular worldview,’ reiterating, ‘We do have a separation of church and state.’ He even criticized Christians for trying to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of the country. However, in recent years, Kirk has been influenced by pastors such as Rob McCoy to turn TPUSA into an arm of the religious right to ‘restore America’s biblical values.’”

According to the SPLC’s report, TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk “accused Democrats of embracing immigration as part of their plot to secure voters, permit crime and enact the ‘great replacement.’ He warned his hundreds of thousands of listeners, ‘We native born Americans are being replaced by foreigners.’ He then promised Trump will ‘liberate’ the country from ‘the enemy occupation of the foreigner hordes,’” (https://www.sp

CREW’s Election Complaint

Turning Point USA, a major Project 2025 supporter “evolved from a conservative college outfit into a Christian nationalist political machine, and [CREW’s] complaint alleges Trump operatives coordinated with Turning Point Action, TPUSA’s political arm, during Wisconsin’s 2024 election, letting wealthy donors pump unlimited cash into canvassing while maintaining anonymity. Turning Point Action ran a $100 million ‘chase the vote’ program. Kirk bragged that his group worked ‘in harmony’ with Trump’s campaign, but the campaign never reported this as a contribution” GPAHE reported.

“The scheme exploited an FEC advisory opinion from the summer of 2024, which allowed campaigns to outsource voter contact while maintaining coordination. CREW argues this undermines federal disclosure laws. “When it comes to high-dollar campaign donors, the FEC should be working to ensure voters have access to more information, not less,” said CREW Director of Campaign Finance Litigation Stuart McPhail. “This loophole flies in the face of campaign finance law and only serves to leave voters in the dark, as we saw in Wisconsin” (https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/legal-complaints/crew-files-fec-complaint-targeting-trump-campaign-coordination-with-outside-groups/).

Austin Smith, former Republican Arizona state legislator, and senior director at Turning Point Action, the political advocacy arm of Turning Point USA, “has been indicted on 14 misdemeanor and felony counts for allegedly forging voter signatures on his petitions for reelection last year, Caitlin Sievers of the AZMirror recently reported (https://azmirror.com/briefs/former-gop-state-rep-austin-smith-a-turning-point-leader-indicted-for-forging-election-documents/).

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