ERIKA kirk
12 25 tentative
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an 7 26
After Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in Utah on September 10, 2025, countless critics of the MAGA activist — from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) — condemned the killing in no uncertain terms. AOC called out the "depravity of Kirk's brutal murder." But President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Fox News' Jesse Watters and many other MAGA Republicans blamed Kirk's critics for the murder, exalting Kirk as a martyr for the MAGA movement.
According to The Guardian's Noah Kirsch, however, the rhetoric on Kirk has changed dramatically since then.
"Ten months since his assassination," Kirsch explains in The Guardian, "Charlie Kirk's name and likeness are still proliferating online — just not the way the far-right activist would have wanted. Audio of the gunshot that killed him has become a TikTok meme, as have ironic reposts of the apparent which was originally created as a posthumous tribute. He was the butt of a crude joke during the Netflix roast of Hollywood star Kevin Hart in May. The next month, a viral tweet encouraged people to take 'a shot' in his honor on Juneteenth. And a trend known as 'Kirkification' has emerged, in which internet pranksters superimpose his face on to unlikely images, such as the Mona Lisa, a woman in a bikini, or Jeffrey Epstein."
Kirsch continues, "This contemptuous, at times nihilistic, humor marks a dramatic shift from the period immediately following Kirk's death in September, in which conservatives sought to suppress criticism of the late MAGA luminary. Hundreds of people were fired or otherwise disciplined for denouncing him, which has since resulted in several settlements over alleged first amendment violations."
Author/media analyst Alex Turvy notes that after Kirk's murder, MAGA Republicans were canceling people for even mild criticism of him.
Turvy told The Guardian, "For the first few weeks, the only safe thing to say was praise. When you mandate reverence on a medium built for irony, (the internet), you don't freeze the image, you load the spring. A lot of the mockery was that pressure releasing."
Eviane Leidig, director of research and outreach at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, told The Guardian, "The jokes about Charlie Kirk are symbolic of what have been pretty seismic shifts happening within the online culture. After his passing, there was really a power vacuum when it came to who was going to be the next big voice for young conservatives and for MAGA…. A lot of young people (are) looking at him and the legacy of his messaging and thinking that it's really cringe. It's not cool anymore."
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AN 5 26
President Donald Trump was the first reality TV star to become president, but when it comes to tabloid entertainment entering the White House, he may not be the last — at least according to one expert.
After discussing how former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden recently appeared on Candace Owens' podcast to discuss the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, America’s relationship with Israel and the Charlie Kirk assassination, The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell, an expert on tracking voting patterns, argued that Owens may soon run for president in her Monday post.
To illustrate her point, she quoted a number of voters, such as a Biden-to-Trump North Carolina voter named Mycal who said “I think Candace Owens is great. I would vote for her in a minute.”
Another Biden-to-Trump North Carolina voter, Daniela, wrote that “if we would’ve swapped out Candace for Kamala, they would’ve had this in the bag.”
Similarly a Trump-voting Gen Z woman, Kim from Virginia, adopted the popular far right mantra of claiming persecution for their beliefs.
“ I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of flack for this one, but I am a Candace Owens fan,” Kim told Longwell. “I think she’s a very smart lady. I would be interested to see her give it a shot for sure.”
Meanwhile Nancy from Minnesota said that “ I think Candace Owens would be an awesome president, and if she were to run, I think it would take a lot for me to not vote for her. I would love to see someone like Candace in office.”
Longwell noted that Owens has said that she'll run for president, possibly with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) as her running mate. Yet it is unclear if she is simply trolling or being sincere, although Longwell pointed out that regardless of her intentions, the mere plausibility of her candidacy is instructive.
“It’s become clear in these groups that she is trading some of her mainline MAGA listeners—the kind who supported Trump for his stance on low taxes and traditional gender roles—for the more generally conspiracy-brained,” Longwell wrote. “Anecdotally, there are multiple people in my office whose apolitical family members and friends tune in to Owens for her reality TV takes, and get exposed to her whack-job political analysis in the process. But one person’s whack-job is another person’s fearless truth-teller.”
She added, “The conclusion to draw from my hundreds of focus groups with Trump voters in recent years, is this: Owens has moved from a hero of the ‘MAGA establishment’ to an avatar for a more sprawling and more exotically crazy coalition. Trump’s 2024 victory was largely built on wedding establishment MAGA types who wanted tax cuts, judicial appointments, and mass deportations with the conspiracy theorists who defy neat political categories. That was the reason he allied with RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement. Owens at one point seemed like one of the few figures who could maintain that marriage. And maybe she can. While there are signs that establishment MAGA fans are moving on from her, if she ever chooses to run for office, the exigencies of an election may very well bring them home again.”
After praising Owens for being articulate, savvy in building her base and capable of demonstrating independence from “MAGA proper,” Longwell concluded that Owens’ popularity shows America may one day have Trumpism without Trump.
“We might just end up trading the MAGA movement as it’s currently constituted for an even more deranged and conspiracy-addled one,” Longwell wrote.
Longwell is not the first to note Owens’ rising star power. Salon’s Sophia Tesfaye wrote in March that Owens has capitalized on the assassination of Charlie Kirk to spread conspiracy theories about his widow, Erika Kirk.
"With Kirk's assassination at a Turning Point USA event in Utah last September, the MAGA movement faced a genuine tragedy," Tesfaye wrote. "His widow, Erika Kirk, stepped in to lead the organization. But within weeks, before the grief had even begun to settle, Owens began publicly questioning the circumstances of Kirk's killing and spinning conspiracy theories on her podcast…. What started as insinuation soon metastasized into a serialized spectacle: 'Bride of Charlie,' a multi-episode YouTube series targeting Erika Kirk personally…. In the series, which is still ongoing, Owens hints that Kirk's murder was an inside job, suggests foreign agents may have been involved and implies that Erika Kirk has 'ulterior motives' in leading TPUSA."
Tesfaye added that although "the conservative establishment has, belatedly, tried to fight back against Owens' accusations” against one of their movement’s leaders, they "have largely failed to land a blow.” She added that “the real reason right-wing media cannot stop Candace Owens is that they built her. And, more importantly, they built the engine that fuels her: the machinery of conspiratorial media, which is immune to the tools that might once have contained it.”
Tesfaye concluded, “For decades, conservative media has thrived on a business model that monetizes outrage and distrust. The more outrageous the claim, the greater the engagement. The more distrust sowed toward institutions — universities, media, elections, public health, the FBI — the more loyal the audience becomes."
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an 4 26
Although she commands a substantial following that continues to grow, far-right podcaster Candace Owens is a highly divisive figure in U.S. politics — even among fellow MAGA Republicans. Owens is claiming, without evidence, that Turning Point USA's Erika Kirk was somehow involved in the death of her husband, Charlie Kirk. And tensions between Owens and Erika Kirk's allies are escalating.
In an article published on April 30, The Bulwark's Will Sommer describes the coalition of MAGA Republicans who are united against Owens. Sommer notes, however, that within that coalition, MAGA influencers aren't shy about making "vicious" attacks against one another.
Sommer, for example, points out that Jessica Reed Kraus cannot stand fellow MAGA influencer Laura Loomer. While Kraus has described Loomer as "insane," Loomer once called Kraus an "insufferable c––." But according to Sommer, Kraus and Loomer have some common ground in their disdain for Owens.
"In the vicious factionalism of the MAGA movement — where character assassination has become both theology and an art form — there is one thing on which even bitter enemies can find common ground: the need to take down Candace Owens," Sommer explains. "In a post on Monday, (April 27) Kraus revealed that she was letting bygones be bygones and falling firmly behind Loomer's kamikaze campaign to destroy Owens. 'Only crazy can match crazy,' Kraus wrote. 'No one besides Loomer is equipped for this battle.'"
Sommer notes that Owens and Loomer have been "trading insults" on X "for weeks." In an April 20 tweet, for example, Loomer posted, "God hates you. Look in the mirror and internalize how much God hates you. We all hate you. Humanity hates you. And you are irredeemable."
"Insults are par for the course for these two," Sommer says of Owens and Loomer. "But by even their venomous standards, the back and forth has been a lot…. The goal here is to inflict emotional pain. And Owens herself has already demonstrated that family isn't off-limits in this fight, so goose, gander and all that."
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Who’s afraid of Candace Owens?
A movement built to support Donald Trump can’t cordon off conspiracy theories
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 12/11/25
Long-simmering feuds among right-wing influencers reached a boiling point this week when Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika used an appearance on Fox News to denounce people she said were “making hundreds of thousands of dollars” by pushing conspiracy theories about her husband’s killing. Her plea for those individuals “to stop,” obviously intended for her husband's former colleague, the popular streamer Candace Owens, triggered an outpouring of criticism on the right against “extremists” promoting “hateful conspiracy theories” who had somehow been allowed into the movement.
But in a sign of the durable position such conspiracy theorists hold within the movement — and the immense demand for their work — many of the high-level pundits trying to lay down guardrails did not mention by name either Owens or her primary ally in the MAGA schism, Tucker Carlson.
“The Right’s media apparatus is how the Right teaches its followers how to think, and it’s currently getting consumed by conspiracy, psychodrama, and tabloid conflicts,” The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo said in one such salvo. “If left unchecked, it will turn the audience into the equivalent of a Third World click farm.”
Can you imagine?
It is patently absurd to claim that right-wing media figures injecting deranged lies into their audience is somehow a new phenomenon. The right is dominated by President Donald Trump, the poster child for “conspiracy, psychodrama, and tabloid conflicts.” And Rufo’s ilk were happy to foster such insanity as long as it was pointed at the left in the service of electing Republicans.
But now the same tools are being turned inward, against other right-wingers, and while they’re furious that this is happening, the apparatus they helped build is so powerful that they are unable to name their foes.
A fight over Charlie Kirk’s legacy — and the Jews
Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel caused a split in a right-wing commentariat otherwise united around Trump. One side includes conservative Jews like Ben Shapiro and Laura Loomer, who supported Israel’s subsequent brutal campaign in Gaza and traffic in anti-Muslim invective. On the other side are “America First” figures like Owens and Carlson who both opposed the campaign and used it as an opportunity to revive noxious antisemitic conspiracism. The divide has repeatedly made headlines, particularly in November when Carlson gave a friendly interview to Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist streamer who regularly rails against “the Jews,” who he has claimed “are destroying this country.”
Owens has been claiming since Charlie Kirk’s tragic killing in September that at the time of his death, he was coming around to her view of Israel. Based on that premise (which Kirk allies deny), she has speculated that Kirk may have been assassinated by pro-Israel henchmen worried that he was turning on them, perhaps with help from elements within TPUSA and the U.S. military. These sorts of wild claims are typical of Owens’ oeuvre: She is currently being sued for claiming that the first lady of France is secretly a transgender woman, and has told her followers that she has been targeted for death by an assassination squad composed of French law enforcement and “at least one Israeli.” Her claims have been denounced by the likes of Shapiro and Loomer, but cheered on by Carlson and fellow traveler Alex Jones.
Erika Kirk appeared on Fox’s Outnumbered on Wednesday to address in part what host Harris Faulker described as “hate” and “conspiracies” in the wake of her husband’s death.
“Come after me, call me names, I don't care,” she said. “Call me what you want, go down that rabbit hole, whatever. But…when you go after the people that I love and you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars every single episode going after the people that I love because somehow they're in on this? No.”
“My message to them is to stop — to stop,” she concluded.
Neither Erika Kirk nor Faulkner mentioned Owens’ name. But Owens immediately recognized that the segment had been “about me.” And rather than stopping at the widow’s request, she doubled down.
The Fox segment encouraged other right-wing pundits who typically avoid weighing in on intramovement controversies to speak out — albeit without mentioning who they were talking about.
Fox star Sean Hannity used his radio show on Wednesday to call out online commentators for “saying the most incendiary, outrageous, bizarre, conspiratorial, in some cases, outright racist, white nationalist, virulent antisemitism, and they make money off the, quote, clicks that they can then monetize because, you know, people like the shock value of it.” After praising Erika Kirk’s Fox appearance, he lashed out at “people with no evidence spreading the most vile, hateful conspiracy theories about Charlie's assassination,” calling them “grifters” who are “not MAGA.”
The hosts of Fox & Friends likewise aired Erika Kirk’s remarks and criticized unnamed persons pushing conspiracy theories about her husband’s death on Thursday. “People are making money. They have unsubstantiated theories and are running with it,” Brian Kilmeade said.
MAGA slop king Benny Johnson also posted the video of Erika Kirk going “absolutely SCORCHED EARTH against evil people monetizing Charlie Kirk's death and attacking her family and the families of those close to Charlie and TPUSA,” adding: “Thank God we are finally here. The Demons are Screaming.” He has not mentioned Owens by name on X since posting in April 2024 about a potential Owens/Shapiro debate over antisemitism.
For Fox contributor Hugh Hewitt, meanwhile, this is a tempest in a teapot. Responding to a discussion started by Rufo’s post on Wednesday, he claimed that such (unnamed, of course) “grifters” only have the “illusion of influence,” while “center-right to conservative media is flourishing.” Citing podcasts with relatively small audiences and Fox’s Special Report, “the most watched news show by serious people in the country,” he commented, “A handful of extremists cannot pollute the sea of offerings but it’s still best just to ignore them.”
It is certainly possible in a fractured media environment for a Republican apparatchik with intellectual pretensions to find some voices who will make him feel good about the choices he’s made. But Owens and Carlson both host podcasts on Spotify’s top-10 list, and the latter spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention after shepherding the selection of JD Vance as the next vice president.
The guardrails are gone and all the conspiracy theorists are here
The MAGA movement that everyone on both sides of the divide supported during the 2024 presidential election worships a notorious fabulist who emerged in GOP politics thanks to his role as the nation’s chief birther, reshaped his party around the twin lies that he actually won the 2020 election and that the ensuing January 6 riots by his supporters were righteous, and is constantly lifting up the most noxious online slop imaginable.
Trump’s emergence speaks to both the willingness of mainstream right-wing institutions to accept a conspiracy theorist at the highest level of power, and the eagerness of the right-wing audience to buy the sort of lies he was selling. And his ascension has made it virtually impossible for the resulting movement to draw lines and fully cut loose people who promote deranged falsehoods and bigotries.
Owens and Carlson became right-wing stars by promoting the same types of feverish claims while climbing established institutional pathways. New York magazine detailed Owens’ conspiratorial habits of thinking all the way back in 2016, before her tenure at TPUSA, her nearly 200 appearances on Fox weekday shows over a five year span, or her time as Shapiro’s colleague at The Daily Wire. And Carlson had spent years mainstreaming white nationalist talking points as a Fox host before the network finally showed him the door. The pair assembled loyal audiences thanks to those right-wing institutions, which have found themselves able to take away their jobs but not able to stop viewers from following them to their new spaces.
And Carlson and Owens profited not in spite of their conspiracy theories, but because they fit neatly within a right-wing echo chamber that seemed purpose-built for their generation and propagation. People like Rufo and Hannity were happy to play along with bullshit about Haitian immigrants eating pets or the Democrats assassinating a party staffer when they could use such claims for the benefit of Trump and the GOP. But now that the same habits of mind that made a swath of the right into QAnon adherents are turned inside the tent, they are deeply concerned.
Meanwhile, neither Trump nor Vance seem at all interested in trying to reestablish guardrails. Indeed, their administration is filled with conspiracy theorists seemingly picked for that very reason, indicative of a political movement that is marbled through with crackpots and extremists. And the worst is surely yet to come.
MMA
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11/14/25 11:40 AM EST
03/22/24 3:27 PM EDT
11/21/23
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