What the Hell just happened at MAGA-con?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix was supposed to be a tribute to the work and legacy of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative influencer who was assassinated in September. But it turned into something very different.
Over the course of the weekend, it emerged that a struggle for very the heart and soul of the MAGA movement was playing out. Ben Shapiro took to the stage to warn of the "danger from charlatans who "traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty", slamming Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, and Tucker Carlson. Carlson hit back, claiming it was "hilarious" that there were attempts to deplatform speakers at an event in Kirk's name. Others followed suit. Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump's one-time presidential rival, felt obliged to remind the audience that fans of Hitler or Stalin should not have a place in their movement.
Enter JD Vance. Proudly declaring that "You don't have to apologise for being white anymore" in the USA, the vice president derided "endless, self-defeating purity tests" and suggesting the movement was, in fact, open to all. And he was given a boost by Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, who endorsed him for the 2028 race.
So can JD Vance hold this movement together? Why won't he move to condemn the racism and conspiracy within his party? And what does it mean for MAGA ahead of a big election year?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.2 | Unlike the left, we stand against treating anybody. |
| 0:15.7 | And I love what Nikki said about this. |
| 0:17.9 | We don't treat anybody different because of their race or their sex. So we have |
| 0:23.2 | relegated DEI to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it belongs. |
| 0:34.7 | In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. |
| 0:41.3 | That is J.D. Vance at Turning Point USA. The right-wing grouping of people who are |
| 0:48.2 | some are white supremacists, others are anti-Semites, and J.D. Vance doesn't have a bad word to say about any of them. |
| 0:57.2 | It was an extraordinary, remarkable weekend of speeches of internecine warfare, |
| 1:04.5 | gripping right-wing influencers and politicians who are the top tier of the MAGA movement. Are we seeing in real time the implosion |
| 1:13.9 | of that movement gripped by the racism and the conspiracy they themselves created? Welcome to the |
| 1:21.4 | newsagents. The News Agents. |
| 1:27.9 | It's John. |
| 1:28.5 | It's Lewis. |
| 1:29.3 | And Turning Point USA is the movement that was sort of created by Charlie Kirk, who you'll remember was murdered, assassinated as he was addressing a rally three or so months ago. |
| 1:43.2 | And the movement hasn't gone away. The movement still attracts |
| 1:47.3 | tens of thousands of supporters. But the unity of the movement has completely evaporated. And so for |
| 1:56.9 | years, you've had this right-wing cluster of people who've been turning their fire on Democrats, |
| 2:04.4 | on Republicans in name only, on liberals, on woke America, and now they're turning their fire |
| 2:11.5 | on each other. They were eating the enemy, and now they're eating each other. |
| 2:17.0 | Yes, this was an absolutely remarkable event event and all the more remarkable, obviously, |
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