A Field Guide to the Very Public Nervous Breakdown at TPUSA's AmFest

We've been to a lot of conservative conferences. we've seen the Reagan Library wine-and-cheese circuits, the CPAC carnival barker competitions, and more than our fair share of Heritage Foundation luncheons where the shrimp cocktail has better talking points than half the speakers. But we've never seen anything quite like what went down at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix.

Imagine, if you will, a memorial service for a beloved family patriarch that somehow devolved into a scene from The Godfather meets Real Housewives of the Conservative Movement, complete with public denunciations, accusations of moral cowardice, and at least one participant essentially calling another a "cancer" on national conservatism. All while nominally honoring a man who died advocating for open debate.

The irony, as the kids say, is not subtle.

But to understand what happened in Phoenix requires understanding something more fundamental: the conservative movement isn't having a disagreement about policy or even personality. It's experiencing what can only be described as a succession crisis crossed with a religious schism, all funded by billionaires who've discovered that ideological movements make excellent investment vehicles.

Welcome to the Five Families of American Conservatism. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times.

The Cast of Characters: Who Actually Showed Up

Before we dive into the philosophical carnage, let's establish something crucial: AmFest 2025 wasn't just a collection of conservative media personalities having a very public domestic dispute. It was a summit of the Five Families, each with their operatives, their agendas, and their sponsored speakers on stage.

Think of it as the Apalachin Meeting, except with better production values and significantly more Twitter beef.

The Dunn Faction Contingent:

• Ken Paxton, The Texas Attorney General who compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus Christ during his AmFest speech. Paxton received $755,000 directly from Tim Dunn and has been defended through every scandal by Dunn-funded media infrastructure.
• Kyle Rittenhouse, The acquitted Kenosha shooter who was in the building during the October 2023 Fuentes meeting. Rittenhouse has launched a nonprofit with far-right Texas operatives and serves on a foundation board alongside Enterprise treasurer Shelby Griesinger.
• Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host who posted a photo with Paxton at AmFest. Gonzales hosts content through the Wilks-funded Blaze network and has a Texas Scorecard show promoting Enterprise messaging.
• Benny Johnson, Delivered a unity message about driving sign-ups. Johnson was previously fired from BuzzFeed for serial plagiarism and has promoted "Stop the Steal" disinformation.

The Wilks Faction Contingent:

• Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire co-founder, built with $4.77 million in Wilks seed funding. Shapiro represents the traditional pro-Israel conservative media establishment.
• Glenn Beck, The Blaze founder, whose network receives substantial Wilks resources and hosts multiple Enterprise-adjacent personalities.

The Mercer Faction Contingent:

• Jack Posobiec, Day 3 headliner, Human Events host. Posobiec promoted QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories, organized "Stop the Steal" events preceding January 6, and has documented connections to Mercer-funded media infrastructure through Breitbart networks.
• Steve Bannon, Former Breitbart executive chairman and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing January 6 Committee subpoenas. The Mercers formally cut ties with Bannon in 2018 after his "Fire and Fury" comments, but his infrastructure connections persist.

The Thiel Faction Contingent:

• JD Vance, Vice President and Thiel protégé who spoke on faith and family. Thiel funded Vance's Senate campaign and introduced him to Trump.
• Vivek Ramaswamy, Tech entrepreneur running for Ohio governor, aligned with Thiel's "parallel economy" vision.

The Deason Faction Contingent:

• Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow and newly named TPUSA CEO, backed by the Dallas donor establishment that Deason controls access to.
• Various Dallas-area donors present but maintaining their traditional preference for backroom influence over public positioning.

The point is this: every major speaker on that stage had a sponsor. Every beef had a backer. And the money people were watching very carefully to see who would emerge with their investment intact.

The Setup: What the Hell Is Going On Here?

Before we get into the fireworks, and oh, there will be fireworks, let's establish the baseline reality that makes all this comprehensible.

On September 11, 2025, Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and arguably the most effective conservative youth organizer since the College Republicans discovered Reagan, was assassinated during a campus event in Utah. The alleged shooter was Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old described in court documents as having embraced left-wing views and harboring particular animosity toward Kirk's commentary on transgender issues. Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder; prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Kirk's death did something unusual in modern conservative politics: it created an actual vacuum. Unlike most movement figures, who are essentially interchangeable content generators optimized for different audience segments, Kirk had built something tangible. TPUSA claimed over 3,500 college chapters, a donor network that reportedly raised $389 million in his final year, and relationships spanning from libertarian-curious college freshmen to the upper echelons of Trump World. The organization was simultaneously a political action committee, a media empire, a career development pipeline, and a community of true believers.

Kirk also served an underappreciated function: he was one of the few figures capable of maintaining relationships across increasingly hostile conservative factions. He could bring Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson to the same event. He could host JD Vance and Steve Bannon without either storming off. He navigated the treacherous waters between pro-Israel conservatives and the emerging "America First" nationalism with a diplomat's skill.

And then he was gone.

What happened next reveals something important about how modern political movements actually work, which is to say, less like ideological coalitions and more like Renaissance Italian city-states, complete with competing patrons, mercenary intellectuals, and the occasional public bloodletting in the town square.

The Five Families: A Taxonomy of Conservative Patronage

Here's where we need to introduce you to some people who've never given a speech at AmFest but whose fingerprints were on everything that happened there. Think of them as the unseen hand Adam Smith never warned you about.

The Dunn Dynasty: Petrodollars and Dominionism

Tim Dunn doesn't look like a mastermind of political infrastructure. He looks like your neighbor who's really into hunting and church leadership, which is essentially what he is, except that neighbor sold his oil company CrownQuest Operating to Occidental Petroleum for $12.4 billion in December 2023.

Dunn operates under something called the "Seven Mountains Mandate," a dominionist theology that seeks Christian control over seven pillars of society: government, education, media, arts, entertainment, business, and religion. This isn't "let's have more Christians in politics." This is "we must establish Christian governance over secular institutions."

His financial footprint is staggering. Analysis of Texas campaign finance records reveals $29.7 million deployed across 147 distinct entities since 2018, with nearly $10 million flowing through the now-infamous Defend Texas Liberty PAC, the same organization whose offices hosted white nationalist Nick Fuentes for a seven-hour strategy session in October 2023.

What does this have to do with AmFest? Everything. Dunn's network bankrolled Kevin Roberts' ascension to Heritage Foundation president, supported Ken Paxton through impeachment, and fundamentally believes that traditional pro-Israel conservatism is insufficiently Christian in its priorities. When Roberts declared that Christians have "no obligation" to support Israel unless it serves American interests, he was articulating Dunn faction theology.

Preferred AmFest Outcome: Erika Kirk as institutional placeholder while Christian nationalist elements expand influence within TPUSA's infrastructure.

The Wilks Enclave: Fracking Wealth and Media Control

Farris and Dan Wilks sold Frac Tech Services for $3.5 billion in 2011 and have since become arguably the most significant funders of conservative media infrastructure you've never heard of.

The Wilks brothers funded the seed capital for Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire, $4.77 million that helped turn a promising podcaster into a media empire. They've poured over $6.25 million into PragerU. They own the real estate where Defend Texas Liberty PAC's offices are located, yes, the same offices where the Fuentes meeting occurred, which creates some awkward questions about who knew what and when.

But here's where it gets interesting: the Wilks network also employed Candace Owens at the Daily Wire before her very public departure over Israel commentary. The faction that funded Shapiro's rise also incubated the personality who would become his most vocal antagonist.

Preferred AmFest Outcome: Maintain traditional pro-Israel conservatism with Judeo-Christian values rhetoric; prevent Christian nationalist takeover that could threaten their media investments.

The Mercer Machine: Data Warfare and Psychological Operations

Robert Mercer, the reclusive former co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, represents a different kind of influence: technological capacity. His funding helped create Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart News, and a constellation of data-driven political operations.

Mercer money doesn't show up in Texas state filings, but it permeates the national infrastructure. His family contributed $15.5 million to Make America Number 1 super PAC, backed Steve Bannon's operations, and maintained relationships across multiple conservative media platforms.

Preferred AmFest Outcome: Whoever can most effectively integrate digital engagement infrastructure with political mobilization.

The Deason Doorkeepers: Dallas Money and Advisory Council Control

Doug Deason sits on TPUSA's advisory council, which "consults with Kirk on big strategic decisions." His family foundation contributed $510,000 to TPUSA through Koch network channels. More importantly, Deason controls access to Dallas donor networks, he personally introduced Charlie Kirk to Donald Trump at a 2016 fundraiser.

Deason represents the institutional conservative establishment: the people who write checks and expect their phone calls returned. His faction prefers stability over ideological purity.

Preferred AmFest Outcome: Managed transition that preserves existing donor relationships and institutional continuity.

The Thiel Tendency: Silicon Valley Disruption

Peter Thiel's influence manifests through people more than organizations. JD Vance is a Thiel creation, the venture capitalist introduced him to Trump and funded his Senate campaign. Blake Masters, another Thiel associate, runs 1789 Capital, which bills itself as building a "parallel economy" for conservatives.

Thiel contributed $1.5 million to pro-Trump groups in 2016 and has since shifted toward infrastructure control rather than direct political spending. He once said he was "no longer convinced money mattered at the federal level", which suggests he's found something he thinks matters more.

Preferred AmFest Outcome: Position successors who can integrate TPUSA's campus network with parallel economy platforms.

The Beefs: A Taxonomy of Conservative Grievance

Now we get to the fun part, or at least the part that makes for good television, assuming you enjoy watching people who nominally share beliefs try to destroy each other's livelihoods in real time.

Beef #1: Ben Shapiro vs. Tucker Carlson (The Main Event)

This is the one that dominated headlines, and for good reason: it involved the two most influential conservative media personalities publicly accusing each other of moral failure on one of the movement's biggest stages.

The proximate cause was Carlson's October 2025 interview with Nick Fuentes, a figure former Vice President Mike Pence described as "a white nationalist, an antisemite and Holocaust denier." Charlie Kirk, notably, despised Fuentes and had publicly opposed platforming him. Shapiro alleged that interviewing Fuentes without pushback was "an act of moral imbecility."

But the real conflict runs deeper. Shapiro represents what we might call "Judeo-Christian conservatism", a framework that maintains reflexive support for Israel and treats antisemitism as a unique evil requiring particular vigilance. Carlson represents the emerging "America First" tendency that views such commitments as foreign entanglements incompatible with nationalist priorities.

Here's what Shapiro actually said from the AmFest stage:

"There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes. 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."

And here's how Carlson responded approximately an hour later, without using Shapiro's name:

"I just got here, and I feel like I missed the first part of the program. Hope I didn't miss anything meaningful. But I just want to say I don't think I did. No, I'm just kidding. I watched it. I laughed. I laughed that kind of bitter, sardonic laugh that emerges from you when upside-down world arrives."

Notice what Carlson did: he reframed the debate from "should you platform white nationalists" to "should you deplatform people." This is rhetorically clever and substantively evasive. Shapiro made specific claims about specific conduct. Carlson responded with mockery about tone.

This pattern, specific critique met with stylistic deflection, would repeat throughout the conference.

Beef #2: Ben Shapiro vs. Steve Bannon (The Epstein Grenade)

This one got nasty in a different way. Shapiro dropped what can only be described as an opposition research bomb during his speech:

"When Steve Bannon accuses his foreign policy opponents of loyalty to a foreign country, he's not actually making an argument based on evidence. He's simply maligning people that he disagrees with, which is indeed par for the course from a man who was once a P.R. flack for Jeffrey Epstein."

That's not subtle. That's an accusation that Bannon worked to rehabilitate the reputation of a convicted sex offender. Bannon's response, delivered from the same stage the following day, chose not to address the Epstein claim at all:

"Ben, I've known you a long time, brother. You can't handle the truth. Let's face it, Ben Shapiro is the farthest thing from MAGA. He is a hardcore Never Trumper... This whole thing is not about freedom of speech or platforming. This is a proxy on 28."

Translation: when confronted with specific allegations about Epstein ties, Bannon pivoted to questioning Shapiro's MAGA credentials and claiming the entire dispute is really about the 2028 presidential race.

Bannon also introduced a term that deserves examination: "Greater Israel." He accused Shapiro and others of promoting "Greater Israel and Israel first" policies that conflict with "America First" nationalism. This is a phrase with significant baggage in antisemitic discourse, where it often appears alongside conspiracy theories about Jewish dual loyalty.

To be fair, Bannon explicitly stated he supports Israel, "You can't get a better defender of Israel than Steve Bannon," he said, but distinguished this from what he called "expansionist" and "imperial" Israel projects. The distinction may be meaningful or it may be rhetorical cover; reasonable people can disagree.

Beef #3: Ben Shapiro vs. Megyn Kelly (The Friendship That Wasn't)

This one hurts because it involves people who genuinely seemed to like each other. Kelly appeared alongside Shapiro on her tour just weeks before AmFest. They exchanged "nice texts" afterward affirming their friendship was important.

Then Shapiro called her a "despicable coward" from the stage for not condemning Candace Owens' conspiracy theories about Kirk's death.

Kelly's response, delivered during her own AmFest appearance with Jack Posobiec, was acidic:

"I found it kind of funny that Ben thinks he has the power to decide who gets excommunicated from the conservative movement, which shows a willful blindness about his position in it. It reminded me a little of when the girl who was the head of our middle school chorus told me she was going to take all my friends away from me. Chorus? Like head cheerleader maybe, but like, "

She continued:

"He just wants to parent me and be my child. He wants to tell me what I have to do and who I have to say what to. And then when I don't, he and some of his friends want to act like utter victims because I won't do what they say. They need me. I have to be their daddy and step in to protect them. And I am not their daddy."

The Kelly-Shapiro dispute reveals something important: there's a genuine disagreement about what public figures owe each other and their audiences. Shapiro believes that silence in the face of conspiracy theories constitutes endorsement. Kelly believes she has no obligation to police other commentators' content.

This isn't a crazy position on Kelly's part. She's right that she's not the commissar of conservative acceptable speech. But Shapiro has a point too: when Owens accused TPUSA staff of complicity in Kirk's murder, including, implicitly, his grieving widow, the silence of prominent conservatives enabled those theories to spread.

Beef #4: Ben Shapiro vs. Candace Owens (The Conspiracy Theory Wars)

This is the beef that predates AmFest and in some ways caused the others. Owens was fired from the Daily Wire in March 2024 after increasingly sharp disputes with Shapiro over Israel commentary. She has since migrated to what we might call the "post-institutional" conservative space, building a podcast empire through Rumble and social media.

Since Kirk's assassination, Owens has promoted various conspiracy theories: that U.S. military intelligence was involved, that French President Macron deployed a "hit squad," that TPUSA staff are participating in a cover-up. She admitted to Piers Morgan that she has "no concrete evidence" for these claims but maintains she's "just asking questions."

When confronted by Shapiro's criticisms, Owens' response was characteristically direct: "F*** you, Ben Shapiro." No factual rebuttal. No engagement with specifics. Just the verbal equivalent of an extended middle finger.

The pattern matters: when Shapiro presents evidence, his critics respond with insults about his motives or character. This is not a debate between equals. It's one side making substantive claims and the other side attacking the person making them.

Beef #5: Tucker Carlson vs. Megyn Kelly (The Unspoken Tension)

This one never erupted publicly at AmFest, but the tension was visible. Kelly has been doing behind-the-scenes mediation work on various conservative disputes, including attempting to facilitate conversations between Kirk and Owens before the assassination. She reportedly worked on issues involving Carlson as well.

The two never directly confronted each other from the stage. But Kelly's comments about not being anyone's "daddy" could easily apply to the pressure she's faced to either defend or condemn Carlson's Fuentes interview.

The Information Warriors: Posobiec, Johnson, and the Algorithm Machine

Here's where we need to talk about something that didn't make it into most mainstream coverage of AmFest: the systematic infrastructure of information manipulation that several speakers represent.

Jack Posobiec: From Pizzagate to Headliner

Jack Posobiec didn't become a Day 3 headliner at AmFest by accident. His trajectory from conspiracy theory promoter to mainstream conservative platform represents something important about where the movement is heading.

Let's establish the record:

Pizzagate: Posobiec was among the most prominent promoters of the conspiracy theory that Democratic operatives ran a child trafficking ring from a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant. This baseless claim led to an armed man entering Comet Ping Pong in December 2016.

Stop the Steal: Posobiec was a key organizer of pre-January 6 "Stop the Steal" events. He was present at the Capitol on January 6 and promoted the false narrative of a stolen election.

QAnon Adjacent: While Posobiec has publicly distanced himself from QAnon, his early content promoted many of the same conspiracy theories, and he maintained relationships with figures in that ecosystem.

The Enterprise Connection: Here's something that hasn't been widely reported, Posobiec has been hosted at Tarrant County GOP events by Bo French, the county party chairman who serves on the Citizens News Guild board (which operates Texas Scorecard). French's political operations are funded through Dunn-Wilks network vendors including Macias Strategies ($48,200) and Pale Horse Strategies ($5,700). When French faced controversies over homophobic and antisemitic social media posts, Steve Bannon defended him on War Room.

This creates a direct operational link: Posobiec → French (Tarrant GOP) → Texas Scorecard (Citizens News Guild) → Dunn Network.

What does this have to do with AmFest? Posobiec's presence as a headliner, introduced alongside genuine journalists and policy figures, represents the normalization of conspiracy theory promotion within mainstream conservative events. When Shapiro called out "charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism," the shoe fit.

Benny Johnson: Plagiarism, Disinformation, and TPUSA

Benny Johnson occupies an interesting position: he's TPUSA's Chief Creative Officer, which makes him one of the most influential content producers in conservative youth media. He also has a documented history that would disqualify most journalists from employment.

The BuzzFeed Plagiarism Scandal: In 2014, Johnson was fired from BuzzFeed after an internal review found 41 instances of plagiarism across his work. This wasn't ambiguous, entire passages were lifted verbatim from other sources without attribution.

Stop the Steal Promotion: Johnson promoted false election fraud narratives following the 2020 election, contributing to the information environment that preceded January 6.

Current Role: Despite this history, Johnson now oversees content creation for an organization that claims to reach millions of young conservatives. His position demonstrates that within the Dunn-funded media ecosystem, scandal rehabilitation is very much available for those who align with the right faction.

Kyle Rittenhouse: From Kenosha to the Enterprise Network

Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted in November 2021 on homicide charges after shooting three people during Kenosha protests, has been systematically integrated into the Dunn-Wilks political infrastructure in Texas.

The October 2023 Fuentes Meeting:

This is the meeting that should have ended several political careers. On October 6, 2023, white supremacist Nick Fuentes spent seven hours at the Pale Horse Strategies offices in Fort Worth, the consulting firm run by Jonathan Stickland, president of Defend Texas Liberty PAC.

Attendees documented by the Texas Tribune:

• Nick Fuentes, Holocaust denier, white supremacist, leader of the "groyper" movement
• Kyle Rittenhouse, Celebrated by Fuentes' movement as a hero
• Jonathan Stickland, Defend Texas Liberty PAC president, former state representative
• Cary Cheshire, Texans for Strong Borders executive director
• Ella Maulding, Pale Horse Strategies social media coordinator, who called Fuentes "the greatest civil rights leader in history"
• Chris Russo, Texans for Strong Borders founder, who chauffeured Fuentes to and from the meeting

The meeting lasted nearly seven hours. During this time, Maulding recorded promotional videos for Texans for Strong Borders while on-site with Fuentes present.

The Kyle Rittenhouse Foundation Connection:

After the Fuentes scandal, did Rittenhouse distance himself from the Enterprise network? No. He deepened his integration.

According to Texas reporting, Rittenhouse launched a nonprofit with far-right Texas operatives and has been "ramping up political engagement in the state." Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer of Defend Texas Liberty PAC who posted antisemitic content claiming "Jews worship a false god", serves on the Kyle Rittenhouse Foundation board alongside Rittenhouse.

This creates a direct institutional link: Rittenhouse Foundation Board → Shelby Griesinger → Defend Texas Liberty PAC Treasurer → Tim Dunn network.

The "Optics Respecter" Revelation:

The October 2023 meeting also exposed something about Chris Russo, the man who drove Fuentes that day. Investigative reporting revealed Russo operated anonymously in Fuentes' white supremacist movement since at least 2019 under the username "Optics Respecter." Under this persona, Russo:

• Donated $100 to Fuentes celebrating his 100,000 followers milestone
• Posted antisemitic and racist content
• Defended Fuentes' misogynistic positions including opposition to women's voting rights
• Promoted "great replacement theory"

The point here isn't just that Rittenhouse attended a meeting with a Holocaust denier. It's that the meeting revealed an organized network of white supremacist sympathizers embedded within the Dunn-Wilks political infrastructure, and rather than cutting ties, the network rebranded and continued operating.

Pale Horse Strategies became "West Fort Worth Management." Jonathan Stickland stepped down as Defend Texas Liberty president but remained operationally connected. The money kept flowing. And Rittenhouse kept building his Texas political presence.

The Influenceable Operation: Brad Parscale's Algorithm Army

This is where we enter territory that most AmFest coverage completely missed: several figures on that stage are connected to a sophisticated social media manipulation operation funded by the Dunn-Wilks network.

Influenceable LLC is ostensibly a "digital activist" platform connecting conservative content creators with campaigns. In reality, it operates as what Texas Tribune described as a coordinated influence operation:

• Payment Structure: Gen Z influencers receive $50-$200 per post promoting approved content
• Coordination Events: Fort Worth gatherings bringing together Dunn-funded operatives with influencer networks
• Disclosure Avoidance: Operations designed to circumvent campaign finance disclosure requirements
• Network Scale: Claims to operate "the world's largest network of digital activists"

The Paxton impeachment defense provides a case study. Days before the House impeachment vote, Defend Texas Liberty PAC paid $18,000 to Influenceable. Screenshots obtained by investigators revealed explicit instructions for influencers to "repost tweets in defense of Ken Paxton or attacking those who supported his impeachment." Coordinated hashtag campaigns (#DrunkDade, #TexasCorruption) emerged simultaneously across hundreds of accounts.

Brad Parscale's Role: The former Trump campaign manager, who texted on January 6, 2021 that he felt "guilty" for "helping [Trump] win," relocated to Midland, Texas, Tim Dunn's base of operations. His company Campaign Nucleus provides AI-powered content generation that can create "stunning web pages in seconds" that "look like they're part of legitimate media outlets."

The connection to AmFest? Multiple speakers on that stage benefit from or participate in this information infrastructure. When conspiracy theories about Kirk's assassination spread across social media within hours of his death, generating over 10,000 antisemitic posts according to monitoring services, the same algorithmic infrastructure that defended Paxton was available for deployment.

This isn't conjecture. It's documented in Texas campaign finance filings, Texas Tribune investigations, and the Texas Ethics Commission proceedings that eventually required political influencers to disclose paid relationships.

The Bannon-Wren-Dhillon Connection: From January 6 to Arizona

Now we need to trace a connection that links Steve Bannon's AmFest speech to something much larger than conservative media beefs: the infrastructure of election denial that connects Texas money to national operations.

Caroline Wren: The Money Trail

Caroline Wren is one of those figures who appears in the background of multiple significant events without ever becoming a household name. That's by design.

January 6 Rally Operations: Wren served as VIP Advisor for the January 6 "Save America" rally on the Ellipse, the event that immediately preceded the Capitol breach. According to ProPublica, she raised or allocated up to $3 million through dark-money conduits including the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), Tea Party Express, and notably, Turning Point USA.

The funding trail shows:

• Publix heiress Julie Fancelli: $300,000 routed through Alex Jones introduction to Wren
• Anonymous "Patriotic Donor": Up to $3 million "parked" across multiple organizations for confidentiality
• Trump Victory Finance Committee: $890,000+ to Wren's Bluebonnet Fundraising LLC

Wren was subpoenaed by the House January 6 Committee in September 2021 for documents and testimony about her role in organizing the rally.

The Kari Lake Connection: After January 6, where did Wren go? She became Senior Advisor for Kari Lake's Arizona gubernatorial campaigns. The woman who organized the rally that preceded the insurrection then ran operations for one of the most prominent election denial candidates in America.

Harmeet Dhillon: The Legal Infrastructure

Here's where it gets interesting for Texas politics. Harmeet Dhillon, GOP lawyer, RNC National Committeewoman, and founder of the Center for American Liberty, ran for RNC Chair in January 2023.

Wren's Role: Caroline Wren served as campaign manager for Dhillon's RNC Chair bid. The same woman who organized January 6 rally logistics managed the campaign of a major Republican Party leadership candidate.

Matt Rinaldi's Endorsement: Who endorsed Harmeet Dhillon for RNC Chair? Matt Rinaldi, the Texas GOP Chair who attended the October 2023 meeting with Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse Strategies offices. Rinaldi's endorsement connected Dhillon to the Dunn-Wilks Texas infrastructure.

Paxton Defense: Dhillon wrote an editorial in support of Ken Paxton during his impeachment proceedings. She appeared on conservative media defending Paxton, aligning her legal advocacy with the Enterprise's crisis management operation.

Tony McDonald: The Texas Connection

The circle closes with Tony McDonald, Tim Dunn's lawyer and a key legal operative within the Enterprise.

Dunn Network Position: McDonald serves as general counsel for multiple Dunn-funded organizations including Empower Texans, Defend Texas Liberty PAC, True Texas Project, and the Tarrant County Republican Party.

Arizona Election Lawsuits: McDonald and Dhillon operated in the same legal ecosystem pursuing election challenges. While their specific collaborations aren't fully documented, they worked parallel tracks: McDonald handling Texas election litigation and obstruction of legislative investigations, Dhillon handling California and national cases.

QAnon Representation: In a detail that deserves more attention, Tony McDonald represented Jim Watkins, owner of 8chan/8kun, the platform most associated with QAnon, before the House January 6 Committee. McDonald appeared as counsel during Watkins' six-hour deposition, helping frame the platform as a "neutral hosting" service rather than an operational arm of conspiracy theory infrastructure.

War Room Coordination: McDonald made guest appearances on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast during Paxton impeachment proceedings, demonstrating coordinated messaging strategies that utilized national media platforms to influence Texas political events.

The Network Map

Let's trace the connections:

Steve Bannon → War Room Podcast → Tony McDonald (guest appearances during Paxton impeachment) → Tim Dunn (McDonald's primary client)

Caroline Wren → January 6 Rally → Harmeet Dhillon (Wren managed her RNC Chair campaign) → Matt Rinaldi (endorsed Dhillon) → Nick Fuentes meeting → Tim Dunn network

Caroline Wren → Kari Lake (Senior Advisor) → Arizona election denial infrastructure → Tony McDonald (parallel legal operations)

Harmeet Dhillon → Paxton impeachment defense editorial → Ken Paxton → $755,000 from Tim Dunn → Enterprise network

This isn't guilt by association. These are documented relationships, financial flows, and operational collaborations that connect January 6 organizing to Arizona election denial to Texas political infrastructure, all ultimately funded or supported by the Dunn-Wilks network.

When Bannon took the AmFest stage and called Shapiro "a cancer" while promoting "America First" over "Israel First," he wasn't just engaging in conservative media drama. He was representing an infrastructure that connects multiple levels of political operation, from local Texas county parties to national election challenges.

Projection Pipeline: The Bannon-Epstein Problem

Here's where we need to address something that should disqualify anyone from claiming the moral high ground on child protection: the man whose podcast serves as a platform for network operatives of The Enterprise was Jeffrey Epstein's comeback consultant.

Steve Bannon: Epstein's PR Guy

The recently released Epstein files have revealed something extraordinary: Steve Bannon wasn't just acquainted with Jeffrey Epstein, he was actively working to rehabilitate the convicted pedophile's public image.

The documented relationship:

• Hundreds of emails: Bannon exchanged hundreds of emails with Epstein between 2018 and 2019
• 15 hours of footage: Bannon recorded over 15 hours of interviews with Epstein for a planned pro-Epstein documentary
• Media coaching: Bannon told Epstein during coaching sessions: "You're engaging, you're not threatening, you're natural, you're friendly, you don't look at all creepy, you're a sympathetic figure"
• Private jet favors: When Bannon's flight was delayed in the UK, Epstein offered to send a private jet. Bannon joked "U r an amazing assistant"
• Documentary planning: On the day of Epstein's arrest, they were planning to shoot at Little St. James, the island where Epstein trafficked underage girls
• Political protection offer: According to Byline Times, Bannon told Epstein that the MAGA movement could "stave off Time's Up for next decade plus", essentially offering political cover for sexual predators

The hypocrisy:

While privately telling Epstein that the stories about his pedophilia were a "sophisticated op," Bannon was publicly using his War Room podcast to promote QAnon conspiracy theories about Democrats being a "cabal of child molesters." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a frequent guest, denouncing Democrats as the "party of pedophiles", on a show hosted by Jeffrey Epstein's image consultant.

The War Room Pipeline

Now consider who appears regularly on Bannon's War Room:

• Tony McDonald: The Enterprise's top lawyer, who represented Jim Watkins (8chan/8kun owner) before the January 6 Committee and made multiple War Room appearances during the Paxton impeachment
• Texas state legislators: Brian Harrison and other Dunn-aligned representatives promoting the "uniparty" narrative
• Ken Paxton: The Attorney General who compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at AmFest
• Bo French: The Tarrant County GOP Chair who hosted Jack Posobiec and was defended by Bannon during his antisemitism controversies

The Dunn network operatives who claim to be protecting children from "groomers" are simultaneously building their media presence on a platform run by a man who was literally coaching a convicted child sex trafficker on how to appear sympathetic.

"Protecting Children" While Harboring Predators

The projection becomes even more stark when you examine the Dunn network's internal record:

Lucas Bowen, Texas Right to Life Political Director

• August 2022: Arrested in a sting operation for soliciting sex from someone he believed was a minor
• Texas Right to Life receives substantial Dunn/Wilks funding
• The organization pushing "child abuse" narratives about transgender care employed an actual child predator

Bryan Slaton, Former State Representative, The Enterprise-Backed Candidate

• May 2023: Unanimously expelled from Texas House
• Offense: Got a 19-year-old legislative aide drunk and had sex with her when she could not effectively consent
• Investigation found he likely committed three crimes including sexual harassment
• Previously positioned himself as moral crusader against drag shows and transgender rights
• Luke Macias, his political consultant, reportedly led cover-up efforts

Luke Macias, Current Defend Texas Liberty West Fort Worth Management President

• Met his wife when he was 17 and she was 12
• Began "taking an interest" when he was 20 and she was 15
• Wedding announcement describes him "carefully step[ping] into the background" and waiting
• Now leads the organization that spent seven hours hosting Nick Fuentes, who advocates for "16-year-old wives" and "forced child marriage"

Chris Russo, Texans for Strong Borders, Chauffeured Fuentes to October 2023 Meeting

• Operated anonymously in Fuentes' movement since 2019 as "Optics Respecter"
• Donated to Fuentes, posted antisemitic content
• Defended Fuentes' opposition to women's voting rights

Shelby Griesinger, Defend Texas Liberty PAC Treasurer

• Posted antisemitic content claiming "Jews worship a false god"
• Serves on the Kyle Rittenhouse Foundation board
• Received praise and bonuses from Stickland for controversial social media posts

The Pattern

The Dunn network has created a rhetorical framework where:

• "Child abuse" means gender-affirming medical care
• "Grooming" means LGBTQ+ visibility in schools
• But actual predators in their organizations get protected until exposure becomes unavoidable

Meanwhile, their operatives regularly appear on Steve Bannon's War Room, the podcast of Jeffrey Epstein's comeback consultant, to promote these accusations against their political opponents.

This isn't just hypocrisy. It's projection at industrial scale.

When these people accuse teachers, doctors, and LGBTQ+ individuals of "grooming" children, consider the source: a network that employed Lucas Bowen, protected Bryan Slaton, promoted Luke Macias, hosted Nick Fuentes, and builds its media presence through a man who recorded 15 hours of sympathetic interviews with Jeffrey Epstein.

Every accusation really is a admission.

The Deeper Architecture: What This Is Really About

Here's where we need to put on our serious hat for a moment, because what happened at AmFest isn't just media drama. It's a visible symptom of structural transformation in conservative politics.

The Dunn-Wilks Schism

The faction war playing out through media personalities actually represents a disagreement between the two Texas oil fortunes that have most aggressively funded conservative infrastructure.

The Wilks network, through Daily Wire, PragerU, and associated ventures, represents what we might call "traditional movement conservatism with better production values." Pro-Israel, Judeo-Christian values rhetoric, free market economics, culture war content that stops short of explicit racial grievance.

The Dunn network represents something different: Christian nationalist politics that views traditional conservatism as insufficiently committed to theocratic objectives. When Heritage Foundation's Kevin Roberts declared Christians have "no obligation" to support Israel, he was articulating Dunn faction theology.

The Fuentes meeting at Defend Texas Liberty PAC offices in October 2023, on Wilks-owned property, represents the moment these worlds collided. The meeting generated backlash, but the Enterprise didn't actually sever ties with Fuentes. They learned how to manage the scandal.

Candace Owens' departure from Daily Wire can be understood as her migration from Wilks faction to Dunn faction, freed from corporate constraints to promote content that would have been impermissible under Shapiro's editorial oversight.

The Israel Fault Line

"When I was at Fox, you supported Israel, period," Kelly observed during her AmFest appearance. "Like no one's really interested in your actual opinion. You just supported Israel. Which was fine for me because I did."

This is changing. The younger conservative base, the people TPUSA was built to organize, is less reflexively pro-Israel than their parents' generation. Gaza coverage has accelerated this shift. Tucker Carlson's willingness to critique Israeli military operations and question continued support resonates with audiences who view such commitments as a form of foreign entanglement.

Ben Shapiro represents the traditional position: Israel is a vital ally, antisemitism is a unique evil requiring particular vigilance, and figures who traffic in antisemitic tropes must be excluded from respectable discourse.

Tucker Carlson represents the emerging position: America's interests come first, Israel criticism isn't inherently antisemitic, and the reflexive deployment of antisemitism accusations is a form of censorship designed to suppress legitimate foreign policy debate.

Both positions have intellectual coherence. The question is which one will define conservatism going forward.

The 2028 Question

Bannon said the quiet part loud: "This is a proxy on 28."

Donald Trump will be 82 in 2028 and constitutionally prohibited from seeking another term. The machinery of MAGA, the donor networks, media infrastructure, voter mobilization operations, will need to transfer to someone else. Control of that machinery confers enormous power.

JD Vance is the obvious heir apparent, and notably, he's a Thiel creation with good relationships across most factions. But Vance's ascension isn't guaranteed, and various players are positioning alternatives or trying to ensure they'll have influence regardless of who wins.

TPUSA's infrastructure, 3,500 campus chapters, relationships with hundreds of thousands of young activists, a proven fundraising operation, represents one of the most valuable assets in this competition. Who controls it, and toward what ends, will shape conservative politics for a generation.

The Pattern: Facts vs. Deflection

If there's a single observation that emerges from watching the AmFest speeches, it's this: one side makes specific claims about specific conduct, and the other side responds by attacking the person making the claims.

Shapiro: "Tucker Carlson interviewed a Holocaust-denying white nationalist without pushback, and this was wrong."
Carlson: "How dare you call for deplatforming at a free speech event? So pompous."

Shapiro: "Bannon was once a P.R. flack for Jeffrey Epstein."
Bannon: "Shapiro is a cancer on MAGA and a Never Trumper."

Shapiro: "Candace Owens spreads conspiracy theories accusing Kirk's friends and widow of murder complicity."
Owens: "F*** you, Ben Shapiro."

Shapiro: "Kelly's silence enabled conspiracy theories to spread."
Kelly: "He wants to be my daddy. I'm not his daddy."

This pattern is significant because it reveals who has the stronger factual case. When you can't rebut the substance, you attack the messenger. When someone presents evidence of specific wrongdoing and the response is character assassination, that tells you something about the relative merit of their positions.

This doesn't mean Shapiro is right about everything, or that his critics are wrong about everything. But it does suggest that on the specific questions at issue, should white nationalists be platformed, should conspiracy theories about a murdered colleague be condemned, does conservative media have any responsibility for the content it amplifies, the anti-Shapiro coalition doesn't have great answers.

What Comes Next: The Succession Stakes

Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, has been named his successor at TPUSA. She gave the opening keynote at AmFest and presented herself as a unifying figure committed to continuing her husband's mission.

But the forces on display in Phoenix aren't going to be unified by anyone. The Dunn and Wilks factions want fundamentally different things. The traditional pro-Israel conservatives and the emerging America First nationalists have incompatible visions. The establishment donors want stability while the populist influencers thrive on chaos.

Several possible futures present themselves:

Scenario 1: The Dunn Faction Wins. Christian nationalist elements gain control of TPUSA infrastructure. Content becomes more explicitly theocratic, less reflexively pro-Israel, more tolerant of Fuentes-adjacent figures. Shapiro and Daily Wire become opposition media within conservatism. Heritage Foundation provides institutional legitimization.

Scenario 2: The Wilks Faction Holds. Traditional movement conservatism with good production values remains dominant. Erika Kirk maintains donor relationships and excludes figures who traffic in antisemitic conspiracy theories. TPUSA remains a big tent that stops short of explicit white nationalism.

Scenario 3: Fragmentation. No faction achieves dominance. Conservative youth organizing splinters into competing networks serving different audiences. The infrastructure Kirk built disperses.

Scenario 4: External Disruption. Federal investigations, major donor departures, or other external events reshape the landscape in unpredictable ways.

What seems unlikely is a return to the pre-assassination status quo. The centrifugal forces Kirk managed are now spinning freely. The billionaire patrons have different objectives. The media personalities have built their brands on conflict with each other.

The Broader Lesson: Movements and Money

Here's where we're supposed to offer some wise synthesis that makes sense of everything. We're not sure we can.

What we can say is this: the conservative movement's current dysfunction isn't primarily about ideas. It's about institutions, who funds them, who controls them, who gets to define acceptable discourse within them.

The Five Families aren't debating Burke vs. Kirk (Russell, not Charlie) or arguing about the proper role of tradition in political philosophy. They're competing for control of infrastructure that determines who gets heard and who gets marginalized.

Ben Shapiro built the Daily Wire with Wilks money. Candace Owens worked there until she didn't. Tucker Carlson left Fox News and now operates independently, but his content reaches millions. Steve Bannon had Mercer backing, then lost it, then found other patrons. The personalities are somewhat interchangeable; the infrastructure is not.

When you understand conservatism this way, as a collection of institutions funded by wealthy patrons and staffed by media personalities competing for attention, the AmFest fireworks make more sense. This isn't Lincoln-Douglas. It's more like the Wars of the Roses, except instead of contesting the English throne, they're fighting over podcast downloads and donor lists.

Is that cynical? Maybe. But it's also clarifying.

The ideas matter. The question of whether American conservatism will maintain its traditional pro-Israel orientation or embrace America First nationalism is genuinely important. The question of whether white nationalist figures should be platformed or excluded affects the character of the movement. The question of whether conspiracy theories about murdered colleagues should be condemned or tolerated has moral weight.

But those debates don't happen in a vacuum. They happen within institutions, and institutions are controlled by people with interests. Follow the money, as they say, and the rest starts to make sense.

Conclusion: The Phoenix Paradox

AmericaFest 2025 was supposed to honor Charlie Kirk's legacy of bringing conservatives together for open debate. Instead, it revealed how deeply divided those conservatives are, and how personal the divisions have become.

The irony, conservatives fighting about free speech at a free speech conference, denouncing each other while nominally celebrating a unifying figure, would be funny if it weren't so consequential.

Something is being decided in these fights. Not just who controls TPUSA's infrastructure or who gets the best speaking slots at future conferences. Something more fundamental: what kind of movement conservatism will be, which ideas will be acceptable within it, and how it will relate to the darker elements that have always lurked at the margins of right-wing politics.

Ben Shapiro drew a line at AmFest: platforming Nick Fuentes is unacceptable, spreading conspiracy theories about murdered colleagues is unacceptable, and people who do these things should face consequences within the movement.

His critics think he's being pompous, that he's not the arbiter of acceptable conservatism, that his real agenda is something other than what he claims.

Maybe they're right. But we notice they don't actually rebut his factual claims.

That seems significant.

This analysis draws on primary source transcripts from AmFest 2025 speeches, Texas campaign finance records, FEC filings, investigative reporting from ProPublica, CNN, Texas Tribune, and other outlets, January 6 Committee depositions, and research materials compiled by Scorecard Confessions documenting the Dunn-Wilks political network. Financial figures are derived from Texas Ethics Commission filings and combined campaign finance database analysis.

Appendix: The Network at a Glance

Family Representation at AmFest 2025

The Information Operation Chain

Tim Dunn ($29.7M) 
    ↓
Defend Texas Liberty PAC ($9.7M)
    ↓
Influenceable LLC ($18K+ documented)
    ↓
Brad Parscale / Campaign Nucleus
    ↓
1,200+ Gen Z content creators
    ↓
Coordinated hashtag campaigns (#DrunkDade, Kirk assassination conspiracies)

January 6 to Arizona Connection

Caroline Wren (January 6 Rally Organizer)
    ↓
Harmeet Dhillon RNC Chair Campaign (Campaign Manager)
    ↓
Matt Rinaldi endorsement (Texas GOP Chair, Fuentes meeting attendee)
    ↓
Kari Lake campaigns (Senior Advisor)
    ↓
Arizona election denial infrastructure
    ↓
Tony McDonald (parallel legal operations, Dunn network counsel)

The Factual Pattern

Throughout AmFest 2025, a consistent pattern emerged:

When you can't rebut the substance, you attack the messenger. When someone presents evidence and the response is character assassination, that tells you something about the relative merit of their positions.

Sources & Citations

"A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas." ProPublica, 17 Sept. 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/tim-dunn-farris-wilks-texas-christian-nationalism-dominionism-elections-voting.

"Christian Americanism and Texas Politics Since 2008." Baker Institute, Rice University, July 2022, https://www.bakerinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/rel-pub-americanism-030220.pdf.

"Dunn Deal: Texas Oilman Eyes $2 Billion Payday In Sale To Occidental." Forbes, 12 Dec. 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2023/12/12/dunn-deal-texas-oilman-eyes-2-billion-payday-in-sale-to-occidental/.

"After Fuentes Scandal, Texas Billionaires Fund New PAC to Support Conservative Candidates." News from the States, 23 Jan. 2024, https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/after-fuentes-scandal-texas-billionaires-fund-new-pac-support-conservative-candidates.

"Billionaire Fracking Brothers Hammered By Permian Investments." FA Magazine, https://www.fa-mag.com/news/billionaire-fracking-brothers-hammered-by-permian-investments-52874.html.

"Dan and Farris Wilks." Wikipedia, 27 July 2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_and_Farris_Wilks.

"Greg Abbott, Tim Dunn Spend Millions in Texas GOP Primary Fights." Texas Tribune, 27 Feb. 2024, https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/27/greg-abbott-tim-dunn-paxton-vouchers-republican-primary-texas/.

"Here's the Texans Who Get Money from Defend Texas Liberty PAC." Texas Tribune, 12 Oct. 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/12/defend-texas-liberty-pac-nick-fuentes-jonathan-stickland/.

"Influential Texas Activist Jonathan Stickland Hosted White Supremacist Nick Fuentes." Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, 14 Jan. 2024, https://resources.newhouse.syr.edu/awards/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2024/01/Nick-Fuentes-visited-office-of-Texas-GOP-activist-Jonathan-Stickland-_-The-Texas-Tribune.pdf.

"Nick Fuentes Visited Office of Texas GOP Activist Jonathan Stickland." The Texas Tribune, 8 Oct. 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/12/defend-texas-liberty-pac-nick-fuentes-jonathan-stickland/.

"Oil Titan Reshaping Texas GOP Targets a $10 Billion Windfall." Bloomberg News, 30 Nov. 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-30/oil-titan-reshaping-texas-gop-targets-a-10-billion-windfall.

"PragerU Founders Are Fracking Billionaires Who Delight In Climate Disinformation for Children." CleanTechnica, 14 Sept. 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/14/pragaru-founders-are-fracking-billionaires-who-delight-in-climate-disinformation-for-children/.

"Texas Anti-Abortion Group Official Arrested for Allegedly Soliciting a Minor." NBC News, 25 Aug. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-anti-ab-group-official-arrested-allegedly-soliciting-child-rcna45035.

"Texas House Votes to Formally Expel Bryan Slaton." Texas Tribune, 8 May 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/09/bryan-slaton-groomer-backlash-legislatur/.

"Texas House Committee Recommends Expelling Rep. Bryan Slaton." Texas Tribune, 5 May 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/06/texas-legislature-bryan-slaton-investigation/.

"Texas Politicians Rake in Millions from Far-Right Christian Megadonors." NBC News, 5 Nov. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-politicians-far-right-christian-megadonors-rcna55546.

"The Campaign to Sabotage Texas's Public Schools." Texas Monthly, https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/campaign-to-sabotage-texas-public-schools/.

"The Right-Wing Groups Behind Renewable Energy Misinformation." Volts, https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-right-wing-groups-behind-renewable.

"Tim Dunn Sells West Texas Oil Company to Occidental Petroleum." Texas Tribune, 11 Dec. 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/11/tim-dunn-occidental-petroleum-sale/.

"Trump Megadonor Tim Dunn Has a Plan More Extreme Than Project 2025." DeSmog, 23 Oct. 2024, https://www.desmog.com/2024/10/23/trump-project-2025-tim-dunn-crownquest-convention-states/.

"Two Billionaire Preachers Have Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas." The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2024, https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/two-billionaire-preachers-have-built-the-most-powerful-political-machine-in-texa/930568252258972/.

"Who Owns The Daily Wire Company?" Canvas Business Model, 11 July 2025, https://canvasbusinessmodel.com/blogs/owners/the-daily-wire-who-owns.

Wilks Development. Wilks Development | Fort Worth-based Real Estate Development, https://wilksdevelopment.com.

X (formerly Twitter). Post by Grok regarding Daily Wire ownership structure. 15 Sept. 2025, https://x.com/grok/status/1968015009407234445.

Additional Primary Sources Referenced

AmFest 2025 Speech Transcripts

• Ben Shapiro AmFest 2025 Opening Speech (December 18, 2025)
• Tucker Carlson AmFest 2025 Response (December 18, 2025)
• Steve Bannon AmFest 2025 Rebuttal (December 19, 2025)
• Megyn Kelly AmFest 2025 Comments (December 19, 2025)

Government Records & Legal Documents

• Texas Ethics Commission Campaign Finance Reports: Defend Texas Liberty PAC (2020-2025)
• Texas Elections Code: Political Action Committee Disclosures
• U.S. House January 6 Committee Depositions: Jim Watkins, Caroline Wren
• House Oversight Committee Records: Steve Bannon-Jeffrey Epstein Correspondence
• Texas House Ethics Committee: Bryan Slaton Investigation Report (May 2023)

Texas Campaign Finance Data

• Transparency USA: Texas Campaign Contributions Database
• Texas Secretary of State: Political Advertising Reports
• TEC (Texas Ethics Commission): PAC Activity Reports

News Archives Consulted

• The Texas Tribune (2020-2025)
• ProPublica (2024-2025)
• Forbes (2023-2025)
• NBC News (2022-2025)
• USA Today (2023-2025)
• Texas Monthly (2022-2025)
• Bloomberg News (2023-2025)

Social Media Documentation

• X (Twitter) posts from speakers and participants (October 2023-December 2025)
• Instagram posts from Sara Gonzales, Kyle Rittenhouse, Jack Posobiec (October 2023-December 2025)
• Screenshots of deleted/removed social media content from Fuentes movement accounts