MAGA faithful are being routinely fleeced by hundreds if not thousands of groups purporting to aid the MAGA movement in it's political goals. Their cult leader the Malignant Loser is first among the fleecers. One hugely profitable money vacuum is Turning Point run by right-wing provocateur and hustler Charlie Kirk. The group focuses its attention largely on a younger demographic, to get out their voted and hooking them with a toxic mix of xenophobia, bigotry and misogyny that the movement was built on. To no one's surprise, Kirk himself is doing quite well financially while producing slim to no results, as the Associated Press reports:
"The Make America Great Again political movement has been lucrative for Kirk, the 29-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization, Turning Point.
The nonprofit rocketed to prominence by latching on to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and has raised roughly a quarter-billion dollars since, much of it spent cultivating conservative influencers and hosting glitzy events. The organization also enriched Kirk and his allies, according to an Associated Press review of public records, which found top Turning Point officials collected pricey salaries, enjoyed lavish perks and steered at least $15.2 million to companies that they, their friends and associates are affiliated with.
But for all that money, the group has struggled to help Republicans win general elections. That’s particularly true in Turning Point’s adopted home of Arizona, where their slate of deeply conservative candidates in the longtime Republican stronghold lost statewide races last year, among them Kari Lake’s unsuccessful bid for governor."
Active primarily in purple state Arizona, the organization is trying to branch out into two key battleground states in 2024: Georgia and Wisconsin. There's serious question among big MAGA donors what the return on their investment will be, given the organization's track record:
"While Turning Point isn’t the first organization to draw scrutiny over spending, it has become a unique source of frustration for some Republicans. They point to its support for far-right candidates who struggled in marquee races, as well as the hefty sum they now seek to do work that is already being done by veteran operatives. That sets up a potential clash between competing wings of the conservative movement that could complicate the GOP’s effort to hold a House majority while reclaiming the Senate and White House next year." (our emphasis)
The results of Kirk's grift might not be good, but he's doing well financially:
"Compensation also soared, with Kirk’s climbing from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, tax records show. Millions of dollars more were paid out to a cluster of companies linked to a handful of group leaders and their allies, according to tax documents and business filings.
Kirk bought three high-end properties, all worth over a million dollars, which include his new Spanish-style mansion near Phoenix, as well as a nearby apartment and a beachside condo on Florida’s gulf coast."
Looking on the bright side, the money that Kirk and his friends pocket and spend on luxury homes is money not spent on the MAGA candidates they're supposedly working for. But it's all in a good day's grift.
(photo: The master grifter and his pupil/ Shutterstock)
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