The War Over the Future of MAGA

On a neon-and-pyrotechnics-lit stage in Phoenix this week—far from the dim newsrooms where reporters were parsing the heavily redacted Epstein Files—the biggest stars in MAGA Media engaged in open warfare over the movement’s future.

Thousands of faithful young conservatives and MAGA adherents packed into the Phoenix Convention Center on Thursday and Friday evening for AmericaFest, Turning Point USA’s nightclub-like annual rally, convened in the shadow of Charlie Kirk’s killing three months ago and pitched as a moment of unity and renewal. One after another, MAGA’s most influential commentators took the stage to tear into rivals as “charlatans,” “frauds,” and “grifters”—a striking departure from past years, when internal disputes were kept strictly offstage.

The infighting reflected a scramble to fill the vacuum left by Kirk. Competing factions are now squabbling over everything from conspiratorial claims about Kirk’s murder, U.S. support for Israel, and whether extremists like the Hitler-loving Nick Fuentes—whose clout inside the movement continues to grow—should be treated as pariahs or kingmakers.

Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire co-founder, used much of his half-hour address not to slam the “woke left” and their supposed excesses, but to torch right-wing figures long considered ideological allies, including Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson—a once unthinkable prospect.

Shapiro took aim at Owens for promoting baseless and absurd conspiracy theories suggesting Kirk’s widow, Erika, was somehow involved in his death. “The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks—and some of them are speaking here tonight—are guilty of cowardice,” Shapiro told the crowd. He then turned his fire on those he accused of legitimizing outright extremism.

“There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes,” he said. “He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll, and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility—and that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”

Shapiro also rebuked Kelly and Bannon, who had declined to condemn Carlson for his platforming of an antisemite, and labeled Bannon, the former White House strategist and Donald Trump ally, “a man who was once a P.R. flack for Jeffrey Epstein.”

Carlson, the former Fox News host-turned-fringe-podcaster, followed Shapiro onstage and mocked his remarks. “That guy is pompous,” he said, adding that he “laughed” at the speech. “It’s not supposed to work this way—to hear calls for de-platforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event.”

Then on Friday, Bannon went nuclear, comparing Shapiro to “a cancer, and that cancer spreads.” He warned that Shapiro would “make a move for Turning Point because he’s always been envious of Charlie Kirk.” The battle taking place in front of thousands of young MAGA faithful, Bannon insisted, was “not about deplatforming, this is about power politics.”

Megyn Kelly went after Shapiro as well. “Nobody knew who the heck Ben Shapiro was when I put him on my show,” she told the crowd, claiming she welcomed him on her recent SiriusXM-sponsored tour only because “he’s losing subscribers—a lot.”

And Kelly used the moment to savage Bari Weiss, the newly installed editor in chief of CBS News, for boosting Shapiro’s speech on social media. Kelly mocked Weiss as trying to “play both super important VIP executive, and super fabulous star anchor” with her recent town hall featuring Erika Kirk. “Pro tip, Bari,” Kelly added, “that’s no way to win friends at your new organization.”

For Weiss, the rebuke should offer a wake-up call from Kelly—who tried, and failed, to adapt to the mainstream at NBC News before embracing the Trump-loving right—on how far she might have to steer CBS in that direction to win approval from those who regularly rail against the “lamestream media.”

But as MAGA’s most prominent figures sniped at one another onstage and off, it was clear that Kirk’s absence has created a rare opening. Whoever defines the boundaries of acceptable MAGA thought will inherit far more than a microphone.

Many of these figures now battling for dominance were once relegated to corners of the internet—podcasters, YouTubers, and fringe voices dismissed by the mainstream and barely noticed by Republican elites. Today, they command massive audiences with millions of followers and subscribers that rival legacy media in reach, while unabashedly jockeying to shape the ideology, boundaries, and leadership of the movement that put Trump in the White House.

The cage match on full display in Phoenix—an apt point of reference, given the role wrestling occupies among Trump’s constituency—shows that the stakes extend well beyond social media clout, revealing a succession battle over who gets to define MAGA’s future. The victor will determine whether the movement establishes guardrails against the grotesque element of conspiracy theories and extremism that has seeped into the hearts and minds of adherents, or fractures into rival media fiefdoms, each potentially preaching to smaller choirs, competing for nothing more than attention and power.

The latest episode of Power Lines is out.

In this week’s episode: We break down Vanity Fair’s bombshell featuring on-the-record criticism of Trump from chief of staff Susie Wiles, examine Fox News and MAGA Media’s rare break with Trump after his disturbing Rob Reiner post, dig into why Bari Weiss’ hyped town hall with Erika Kirk fell flat, what’s behind Warner Bros. rejecting Paramount again, Ted Cruz confronting FCC chair Brendan Carr, and more.

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