November 19, 2020

Turning Point USA to Hold Superspreader Event in Palm Beach

The sixth annual Student Action Summit will go on, COVID-19 be damned.

Students crowd into a convention center for the 2019 TPUSA Summit.SMG/Zuma

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The pro-Trump student group Turning Point USA will hold its sixth annual Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach in December, COVID-19 be damned.

As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer reported in 2018, the group, founded by Trump acolyte Charlie Kirk, trumpets the idea that conservative students are persecuted on high school and college campuses, taunts liberals with a #BigGovernmentSucks hashtag, and maintains a watchlist of professors thought to be socialists. The December 19–22 summit—which could very well end up being a superspreader event—promises to feature Kirk, Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, septuagenarians Rudy Giuliani and Dennis Prager, and the lame duck president’s son Donald Trump Jr.

A Turning Point USA press release says that the summit “will be following all state and local Covid-19 guidelines to ensure the safety of all participants,” though it doesn’t specify whether masks will be required or whether the event will be indoors. It’s also not clear exactly how many people will attend, but the organization’s website says that “thousands” of student activists will be invited. Florida’s public health advisory discourages gatherings of more than 10 people and recommends avoiding crowds, closed spaces, and close contact. Palm Beach County has issued a mask mandate, but thanks to an executive order from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, individual violators can’t be fined.

TPUSA has not responded to a request for comment.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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