Last week’s peaceful protest, which ended in Turning Point USA (TPUSA) being escorted out by the University Police Department (UPD), raised some questions about why they felt the need to be escorted out. Some students and faculty members question whether the group’s exit was driven by genuine safety concerns or an attempt to frame the incident in a way that supports their narrative.

They wonder whether Turning Point USA is really about improving the community by engaging in civil discourse, or if their purpose is to incite outrage to produce provocative videos and attract wealthy donors.

Who Are Turning Point USA?

Turning Point USA has been a big topic at Stanislaus State this past month.

According to the official TPUSA website, their mission is to educate students about the importance of freedom, free markets and limited government, with innovative marketing techniques and strategic outreach methods.

They write that their tactics include identifying student activists across the country who believe in “limited government and individual liberty,” and then encourage those young activists to get involved in the fight for a free market and limited government. They build strong campus networks, organizing conferences and equipping activists with the knowledge and strategies needed to combat the political left.

TPUSA writes that they believe that the United States of America is the greatest country in the history of the world, and that the U.S. Constitution is the most exceptional political document ever written and capitalism is the most moral and proven economic system ever discovered.

Critics argue that TPUSA often provokes tension during campus events and then claims victimhood when challenged.

Turning Point USA’s Track Record of Incitement and Antagonism

Turning Point USA visits college campuses to recruit students and promote their agenda. Wherever TPUSA goes, supporters and critics follow, and tension often arises — whether it be physically or verbally.

At the protest on campus, Wyland Hapgood, president of the non-official TPUSA chapter on campus, made what he claims to be just an “Okay” signal with his hand and reinforced it by doing it three times.

The crowd interpreted it as an alt-right dogwhistle, as the “Okay” hand gesture in recent times has become associated with extreme right-wing groups after the anonymous web forum 4Chan purposefully launched a campaign to co-opt a commonly used hand gesture.

When protestors confronted one of the TPUSA members about the symbol, he responded by saying, “It means ASL — American Sign Language.”

The group of protestors replied: “No, you know exactly what it means.”

The unidentified TPUSA member answered, “White power? Look at my skin color.”

Showing off this symbol created tension in the air between both TPUSA and the protestors, but this tension did not lead to any sort of violence or threats being made. Yet TPUSA felt the need to ask for an escort off of campus from the UPD.

UPD stated via email: “Members of the Turning Point USA group contacted UPD to ask if they would remain close until they were safely at their vehicle. We did not anticipate any concerns but wanted to make sure they felt they could leave the campus without delay when they were ready.”

When UPD was asked whether there were any safety-related incidents or formal complaints reported, UPD stated there were none.

“We received some questions and concerns about the activity, but there were no safety-related incidents. There were no formal complaints reported to Student Affairs,” the email response read.

TPUSA Stan State’s Instagram account tagged the Theatre Club in a post of theirs and later on went to remove them, which creates further skepticism as to TPUSA’s motive for this protest.

Joshua Prewitt (Senior, Theatre) elaborated further on their confrontation with TPUSA.

“They literally tagged us, so they basically asked for a fight,” Prewitt said.

Makenna Hernandiz (Junior, Theatre/Psychology) also felt that TPUSA was baiting them into attending.

“They made a social media post, and they specifically tagged the Theatre Club. And when they were called out for doing so, they deleted the post. So they knew what they were doing, and they genuinely wanted us to be there. They wanted us as an audience,” Hernandiz said.

It seems more likely that TPUSA constructs these hostile situations by using provocative advertising and inflammatory video titles to further the narrative that their opposition is irrational, rather than engaging in genuine dialogue. Examples include a flyer stating they plan to “Expose the Trans Agenda,” and YouTube video titles such as, “Charlie Kirk vs. Liberal Logic: 4 Unforgettable Showdowns,” with the text “Debating Delusions” in the thumbnail.

TPUSA and Charlie Kirk’s Hypocrisy — Do They Really Value the Constitution and Small Government?

Although TPUSA’s purported mission is to fight for limited government, one of their main fights is against the “trans agenda” that they believe is influencing society at large, while remaining intentionally vague about the perpetrators and motives of such an agenda.

TPUSA wants government regulations that restrict people’s freedom to transition and their autonomy of their own bodies. This group frequently argues for more government control, especially in how people choose to live their lives.

TPUSA, the group itself, and their members don’t fully understand their stances and opinions.

During a TPUSA faith event, its leader and founder, Charlie Kirk, engaged in fearmongering to the crowd about the medical treatment that trans people choose to undergo, such as gender-affirming care.

“This is going to go down as the modern lobotomy of our time,” he said. “This is a butcher operation, everybody, there will be a hundred thousand kids that will be left with their parts chopped off […] that will say, ‘Why was I lied to?’”

Kirk, a conservative American political activist and author, did not mention how the regret rates for gender-affirming surgeries are less than 1%, nor did he recognize that trans people are a proportionally small percentage of the population.

On his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, he went further by suggesting the prosecution of every doctor who has provided gender-affirming care.

“We must ban trans-affirming care — the entire country,” he said, “Donald Trump needs to run on this issue […] We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”

While Chloe Cole, TPUSA’s spokesperson at “Exposing the Trans Agenda,” claims the group isn’t against trans people, flyers that were posted across campus and quotes from Kirk suggest otherwise.

The visual messaging and inflammatory language used in those flyers tell a different story, one that is more focused on fear than dialogue.

“We don’t have anything against trans people; we love them,” Cole stated during the event. “I’m in favor of these people being given the compassion that they need to be treated better by their doctors, because I think right now these doctors are just mindlessly putting them through the system that’s abusive.”

Although TPUSA frequently cites the U.S. Constitution as one of their driving forces and foundation of their beliefs, some of their actions appear to contradict its principles. In particular, the actions and the words of Kirk show a disregard for the Constitution and its values.

Kirk stated, “I’m more hopeful and optimistic, though, that the Department of Education Linda McMahon, is now going to put federal funding in jeopardy for UC Davis. The Chancellor says, ‘Well, we’re going to do an investigation.’ There’s no investigation: we need arrests and we need the public identities of these people.”

However, his belief that arrests should be made with no investigation, no just cause and no crime committed goes against the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee the right to due process, as well as the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech and protest.

Kirk has also frequently criticized the value of higher education.

“90% — I’ve said this before, of kids that go to college should not go to college,” he said.

Kirk believes that kids should opt in to becoming an electrician or plumber, but they don’t because their mom doesn’t want to tell their “book clubs” that their son is an electrician.

“The insecurity of parents has driven an entire generation to despair and a directionless life,” says Kirk.

Although Charlie Kirk is critical of higher education, his organization, TPUSA, actively leverages university resources to expand its presence on campuses.

Santa Clara University’s (SCU), a private university, Associated Student Government voted 16-10 to deny TPUSA-SCU as a recognized student organization.

Days later, the leaders of TPUSA-SCU appealed the decision to the student court, which upheld the senate’s decision not to recognize them as a registered student organization.

TPUSA then took it up to the Vice Provost for Student Life to requisition for the administration to review the denial.

The Vice Provost for Student Life then ruled to recognize TPUSA as a registered student organization.

The Vice Provost, when asked to explain his decision and addressed the concerns of students, stated that TPUSA must follow all rules and regulations the registered student organization has to follow, and if they do not, their renewal will be denied.

One of the main reasons for the student government’s denial was because of their worry about the Professor Watchlist, TPUSA’s website dedicated to exposing professors who “advocate leftist propaganda.”

When the Vice Provost addressed the watchlist, they simply stated, “Santa Clara University does not endorse the Professor Watchlist.”

In November 2023, the State University of New York, Cortland (SUNY), the student government denied recognition to the campus TPUSA chapter after students and faculty members of the university questioned and showed their disapproval of TPUSA.

By December, President Erik Bitterbaum of the university confirmed the decision and defended the student government decision, stating, “We silence voices all the time in this country.”

TPUSA, along with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit challenging the decision in February 2024, and within a month, SUNY Cortland Student Government Association overruled their decision and approved the TPUSA chapter and recognized it as an official club.

This decision also in turn led to SUNY Cortland agreeing to a settlement pay of $42,000.