ESCAPING THE TRUE BELIEVERS:
How I Got Pulled into Charlie Kirk’s Movement—and Why I Left: Turning Point USA gave me purpose. But it took years to unlearn the politics I once accepted without question (Caroline Stout, Wendy Kaur, Oct. 1, 2025, The Walrus)
You were in high school when you joined Turning Point USA. What made you want to get involved?
I was involved with my local Republican Party. At this point, Charlie was going around fundraising. He held a kind of recruitment meeting for young people interested in politics in Houston. That was the first time I met him, when he made his pitch for Turning Point. His refrain was: “We only focus on limited government and fiscal responsibility. That’s it. We don’t focus on social issues, because that divides us.” That was really digestible for me at the time, because I really wasn’t sure where I stood on some social issues. And it’s easy to get behind fiscal responsibility and limited government. So it seemed pretty innocuous to me. […]
How much responsibility do you think Kirk bears for the climate of fear and outrage that has reshaped American politics?
When MAGA started to take over, Kirk really leaned into its rise. He was very ambitious, and so there was a major shift in his rhetoric during the first Trump administration. Early on, he even gave an interview emphasizing the importance of viewing policy through a secular lens. But in recent years, his message became much more aligned with Christian nationalism. That evolution tracks closely with the broader rise of Christian nationalism in politics and with MAGA. I wouldn’t place all the blame on him, but the embrace of nationalist and fascist rhetoric—anti-immigration, xenophobia, and Christian nationalism—is something for which he does bear responsibility.