Conservative activist Erika Kirk introduced President Donald Trump at a midterms-focused Turning Point Action rally in Arizona on Friday, days after she skipped a similar rally in Georgia featuring Vice President JD Vance due to unspecified security threats.
Onstage at a Phoenix-area church, Kirk told the crowd of young conservatives they couldn’t rest on their laurels after the youth vote unexpectedly helped propel Trump back to the White House in 2024.
Instead, Kirk said, they needed to “fortify the red wall” in battleground states including Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire during the midterms.
Echoing a series of recent Trump rants online, Kirk also took aim at unnamed critics of the GOP, a potential reference to souring opinion among conservative commentators on the Iran war. The Turning Point leader slammed those who were “spreading negativity” to get “clicks and influence.” Kirk appealed to the memory of her late husband Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year, urging the audience to get involved politically, even as polls show young voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the Trump administration.
“My husband Charlie gave his life for that work,” Kirk continued. “And what gets built lasts for generations, long after the noise has run out of one-liners.”
Onstage, Trump mostly stuck to his usual stump speech, though he made occasional appeals to the youth crowd looking on.
Speaking about the administration’s suite of new tax deductions, Trump told the audience, “A lot of you benefitted from this.”
He also expressed disbelief that the Republicans are projected to suffer losses during this year’s elections, in keeping with the general trend that the ruling party loses seats during midterms.
“It should be the opposite,” Trump said. “We’re doing well. We’re doing our job. We’re ending wars all over the place.”
If the crowds at recent events are any indication, the administration could struggle to actually attract that kind of popularity.
The church where Trump spoke, which has capacity for about 4,500 people, was not entirely full. An upper level of seats was cordoned off and empty, according to pool reports.
Prior to the event, scores of supporters of all ages waited in line to get in, though the president’s motorcade was also greeted with angry crowds, who hurled insults and held signs on topics including the Epstein files and the Iran war.
Across the street near the venue, Trump backers waved MAGA banners and American flags.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Earlier this week, Vance spoke to a half-empty arena in Georgia and was heckled about the recent war in Gaza.
Turning Point organizers blamed the lackluster turnout on “shenanigans” from left-wing groups gaming an online ticket system to suppress attendance.
In Arizona, the president earned smatterings of applause as he made triumphant, if inaccurate, claims that Iran had agreed to give up its enriched nuclear material as part of the peace process. (Tehran has strongly denied this is the case.)
Despite the cheers in the room in Arizona, the administration has acknowledged that many young people are skeptical of the conflict, which the White House began in late February despite campaigning on avoiding new foreign wars.
“I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK,” Vance said at the Georgia Turning Point event earlier this week. “I understand.”
“I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue,” he added. “What I’m saying is don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic.”
