00:00If you're Erica Kirk, you've got one job, and it is not to do this on stage.
00:06Please welcome, Turning Point USA, CEO and Chair, Erica Kirk.
00:19What is happening right here?
00:33Why? Because after a while, it invites mockery like this viral video from Comedian Druski just days ago.
00:52Well, well, well.
00:58So if you're Erica Kirk and you continue with the WWE style entrance, even after the comedians make these jokes,
01:07you just validate their points.
01:09So this was an event titled Build the Red Wall, which took place at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona,
01:15and featured Erica Kirk alongside Donald Trump as part of a broader push to energize conservative voters ahead of the
01:23midterm.
01:24The event itself, standard Turning Point USA fair.
01:27But what everybody is actually talking about, what is dominating the conversation online, isn't anything that Erica Kirk said.
01:34No, nothing is there to come from her mouth as a statement.
01:38It's something like.
01:39It's how she walked in, which is to say, full WWE.
01:43And look, I grew up watching WWE.
01:45Me too, me too, man.
01:47Back when it was called WWF.
01:49Yes.
01:49I watched The Rock and The Undertaker and D-Generation X.
01:52I saw their entrances, which sometimes even came from the smoke.
01:55Was the smoke and The Rock.
01:58Erica Kirk's entrances rival all of theirs.
02:01And I don't say that as a cheap shot.
02:02I say it as someone with a long history watching the world's most theatrical sport.
02:07Yes, WWE.
02:08So here's what I want to be precise about, because, again, I'm not interested in cheap shots.
02:13Since taking over as Turning Point USA CEO following Charlie Kirk's assassination, Erica Kirk...
02:18Yes, this is what happened.
02:20The, I mean, widow of Charlie Kirk, Erica Kirk, is taking over the Turning Point USA, TT USA.
02:29And...
02:29Kirk has drawn repeated scrutiny for frequent public appearances featuring flashy outfits, heavy makeup, and pyrotechnics.
02:36The Phoenix...
02:37Yes, I totally agree with these things.
02:39Okay.
02:40Yes.
02:40Everyone would agree with this.
02:43Didn't happen in a vacuum.
02:45It is part of a pattern that people have been noticing and commenting on for months now.
02:49Months, yes.
02:50The reason it keeps generating conversation is because of the tension between the somber circumstances that brought her to this
02:55role and the increasingly maximalist way that she is inhabiting it.
03:05Ladies and gentlemen, now welcome to the stage, the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America, Donald
03:12J. Trump.
03:21I mean, dude, this is a literally WWE type of and trans is this.
03:28Forget the men who died, who gave that light to me, and I gladly stand up next to you, when
03:37the members do today.
03:40I mean, they are playing songs as well.
03:45Entrance theme song.
03:46No doubt I love this land.
03:50God bless the USA.
03:57And look, I want to be clear about something.
03:59Grief is not a one-size-fits-all.
04:01Yes.
04:01Grief, having grief is not one-size-fits-all.
04:04Yes, it's true.
04:06Phenomenon.
04:07There is no rule book for how some widow is supposed to carry herself, and I'm not going to sit
04:11here and police that.
04:13What I am going to talk about is the organizational strategy, because that's where this gets interesting.
04:17Yes.
04:18Charlie Kirk built Turning Point USA into one of the most effective grassroots mobilization machines on the right.
04:23Yes, this is true.
04:25Charlie Kirk has different reasons and very clear to what it literally is.
04:32The product that he built was serious, even when it was provocative.
04:36Yes.
04:36What's emerging now looks increasingly like something totally different.
04:40A personality-driven entertainment brand in search of its next viral moment.
04:44The WWE entrance, the theme songs, the pyrotechnics.
04:48I said it.
04:50The theme songs, the entrance, and everything is like, I just want to be famous in social media type of
04:56stunts they are doing.
04:57Here's the thing about spectacle.
04:59It works until it doesn't.
05:01Critics have pointed to empty seats at recent Turning Point USA events,
05:05with observers noting that turnout was less than local church services.
05:09Yes, less than local church services.
05:12This all the attendance for the TPUSA events.
05:16Here, for example, is J.D. Vance.
05:18Look.
05:19It doesn't bother me when he speaks on issues today.
05:23Frankly, even when I disagree with how he's applying.
05:26This all seats are empty, yes.
05:30So, the most obvious example.
05:33In fact, those empty seats didn't escape the attention of John Ossoff, either.
05:37I don't know if you saw, but J.D. Vance was in Georgia this week.
05:46Don't worry.
05:48No one showed up.
05:49Ha ha ha.
05:50Damn, damn.
05:53Good.
05:54The stadium...
05:55Was half empty.
05:57The stadium was empty.
05:58Did you see that?
06:04But J.D. came to UGA to attack the Pope.
06:09Oh, UGA.
06:13All the feud between Trump, J.D. and Pope is like, what is really happening?
06:20Oh, I've never seen someone like this type of things in politics before.
06:25Two days after Donald Trump depicted himself as Jesus Christ.
06:30Oh, damn, dude.
06:31Yeah, you saw this postage.
06:40Laughing.
06:41They are laughing.
06:42The faithless president depicts himself as Christ while he plunges the nation into wars of choice.
06:55While he and his family rake in billions from foreign princes.
06:59Oh, damn.
07:00They said it.
07:02No way.
07:03While he plunders our health care to cut taxes for the rich.
07:07Oh, damn.
07:09Oh, damn.
07:12Meanwhile, rent, power, groceries, and health care have all hit all-time highs.
07:20Yes, this is true.
07:21Everything is all-time high.
07:23Inflation is all-time high right now.
07:26This is bad for living.
07:28This year, this year, brown beef's up 20% since Trump took off.
07:36Yeah, it is.
07:38Coffee, 40%.
07:39Whoa.
07:40Health premiums through the roof.
07:42And remember, while you pay more for everything, the first family's wealth is growing by billions of dollars.
07:51Yes, it is growing exponentially like, oh, my God.
07:59Because they're crooks.
08:01Whoa.
08:03Oh, damn.
08:03And everybody knows it.
08:06Oh, my God.
08:08Oh, my God.
08:09Damn.
08:09So, yeah.
08:10When your own base isn't even filling the room, fireworks do not solve the problem.
08:14They just make the empty seats harder to notice from the stage.
08:17And look, going back to Kirk, much of the online conversation following the Phoenix event focused less on her message
08:23and more on the optics of her entrance.
08:25And that right there is the tell.
08:27If you walk out to a WWE theme song with pyrotechnics and nobody's talking about what you actually said, if
08:34the entrance completely swallowed...
08:35Yeah, yeah, this is true.
08:38If you are some kind of this kind of figure, everyone should be impressed by your words, your statements, not
08:46by your themes, how you're coming, how you're going, not by this all.
08:49Okay.
08:50Substance, then the entrance failed on its own terms.
08:54You didn't energize the crowd.
08:55You became the story.
08:57And in politics, when the packaging becomes the story instead of the message, that is not a branding win.
09:03That's a branding problem.
09:04Turning Point USA is trying to hold together a movement that lost its founder under genuinely traumatic circumstances.
09:10And that is legitimately hard.
09:12Nobody's...
09:12Yes, I mean, whatever is happening right now is literally bad.
09:20But the way that you sustain a movement built on ideas is with ideas, with arguments and organizing and showing
09:27up and making the case, not with theme songs and smoke machines.
09:31Because when the smoke clears and it always does, all that's left is the question of whether anybody was actually
09:37persuaded by what you said.
09:39Yes, this is the real truth.
09:41You cannot hide this.
09:43You never hide this.
09:44Okay.
09:45You have to tell people what it is, how it is, and if something is really happening or not.
09:51Yes.
09:52Right now, based on the conversation coming out of Phoenix yesterday, it doesn't look like that question even got asked.
10:01Before you go, I'm very excited to announce that I've written a new book titled...
10:05Thank you, Brian Kala-Cohen, for this video, man.
10:08I watch this videos always.
10:10Yes, subscribe to him.
10:11And you ask me as well.
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