Turning Point USA Raised $389 Million Under Charlie Kirk—Including $13.1 Million From A Texas Foundation Overlooked Until Now

- Turning Point USA raised $389 million from its founding in 2012 through mid-2023, according to its tax returns.

- In its first year, Turning Point USA brought in just $79,000, but a decade later—after Kirk had become a conservative star—annual contributions had soared 1,000-fold to $80 million.

- Turning Point USA’s first contribution, $10,000 from fund manager Foster Friess, came after Kirk met him at the 2012 Republican National Convention, and Friess ended up backing the group for years, with his widow pledging $1 million to launch new chapters after Kirk’s death.

- The Wayne Duddlesten Foundation, founded in 1981 by a late Houston real estate developer, is the largest direct donor in IRS records, giving $13.1 million—Duddlesten’s backing of Turning Point USA does not appear to have been reported previously.

- Other major backers include foundations tied to the late advertising executive Jack Roth ($8.7 million), the late Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus ($7.1 million), Franklin Templeton’s former CEO Charles B. Johnson and his wife Ann ($4.6 million), Dunn Capital founder William Dunn ($4.5 million) and Waste Management founder Dean Buntrock ($4.1 million).

- Other billionaire-linked foundations that backed Turning Point include those associated with ex-Marvel chair Isaac Perlmutter, tech entrepreneur Darwin Deason, shipping-supply magnate Richard Uihlein, grocer John Catsimatidis, the late former Univision chair A. Jerrold Perenchio and sandwich-chain founder Jimmy John Liautaud.

Are you in danger for criticizing Israel?
Charlie Kirk’s death has ignited a war, and the Israel lobby is worried

The battle over Charlie Kirk’s legacy continues with conservatives’ changing views on Israel at the heart of it. The Israel lobby is shaken, and polls suggest a political “earthquake” may be taking place

By Philip Weiss October 3, 2025

The battle for the legacy of Charlie Kirk continued this week with the publication of a long letter from the late evangelical activist to Benjamin Netanyahu last May. Kirk professes love for Israel and the Jewish people, then warns Netanyahu that Israel is getting “CRUSHED” on social media in the United States over charges of “apartheid” and “genocide” but suggests how an active p.r. campaign can undo those losses.

Israel advocates, including the financier Bill Ackman, pointed to the letter as evidence of the charismatic leader’s devotion to Israel. And not—as commentator Candace Owens and others have said– that Kirk was turning on Israel in recent months. The controversy is important because Kirk, who at 33 was killed during a speech in Utah September 10, led a youthful movement to help get Trump elected. If Israel loses Kirk’s base, it really is in crisis in the U.S. discourse.

Or as Kirk himself said in July: “I’ve been trying to tell them [Israel supporters], There’s an earthquake coming in this country on this issue and in the country, and they don’t believe me.” Kirk’s letter to Netanyahu only shows that he was souring on Israel. It warns that consumers of social media know that the U.S. gives billions to Israel but “they’re less aware of what we get in return.” It would have been nice if Israel had sent an airplane with a star of David on it full of aid to the U.S. after a hurricane, he says, and suggests the action team that Israel could put together here to counter its reputation for genocide.

The letter was surely circulated to donors. Kirk was dependent on donors to support his political organization, Turning Point USA. In statements last summer, Kirk was plainly anguished about the Israel issue. “I’m trying to find this new path,” Kirk said of his Israel views in a “focus group” on Israel he convened with young conservatives. “I love Israel… I saw where Jesus rose from the dead and he walked on water…” But he questioned American aid to Israel. “Also I’m an American, and I represent a generation that can’t afford anything.”

In that focus group, Kirk sounded many criticisms of Israel, though not always endorsing them: –Supporting Israel is not in the U.S. interest. We’ve spent hundreds of billions and Israel may have dragged the U.S. into the Iran conflict. Maybe the U.S. should “decouple” from Israel, Kirk ventured.

–The antisemitism charge against Israel critics has lost its meaning. “If you call everyone an antisemite, if they don’t take a puritanical view of the Netanyahu government, that’s bad for everybody,” Kirk said.

–The Israel lobby works against U.S. interests. “I’m told by some people that if I criticize AIPAC that’s antisemitic,” Kirk said, before speculating that AIPAC goes against American interests. “Do you think that AIPAC represents, I’m not saying I believe this, a sort of cutting in line in prioritization away from the American people… We vote, we’re citizens, but a separate group gets higher priority…”

–Israel is like other “broken” institutions. It keeps saying it has a “messaging problem,” when it is actually “doing something wrong,” Kirk said. –Kirk refused to cancel Tucker Carlson after Carlson’s attack on the Israel lobby and its wealthy Jewish supporters.

The last issue was particularly volatile. Last July Carlson gave a speech to a Kirk summit in Florida that smacked of antisemitic themes. Carlson said that rich financiers in Jeffrey Epstein’s “constellation” who care only about Israel are wrenching Americans away from their real concerns, such as the affordability crisis, and telling them to care about Iran. Carlson said that the career of Bill Ackman, the most important pro-Israel activist in the country right now, demonstrates that “useless” people end up with billions.

snip

Jewish Telegraph Agency
By Grace Gilson
September 30, 2025

Before his death, Charlie Kirk told Israeli P/M Bibi Netanyahu that Israel faced a ‘5-alarm fire’ over PR strategy In a letter, Kirk lamented that Israel was losing the “information war” in the United States.

Prior to his death, slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning the leader that Israel was losing support within the “conservative MAGA community” and exhorting him to do a better of job of making Israel’s case to the world. Netanyahu teased the existence of a supportive letter from Kirk soon after the Turning Point USA co-founder’s assassination in Utah earlier this month. Now, the New York Post has obtained and published the letter, dated May 2.

In it, Kirk espouses his own staunch support for Israel but told Netanyahu he felt he was “defending Israel in public more than your own government. I’m accused of being a paid apologist for Israel when I defend her; however, if I don’t defend Israel strongly enough, I’m accused of being anti-semitic,” Kirk wrote. “I know you’ve got a 7 front war and my kvetching pales in comparison. But I’m trying to convey to you that Israel is losing support even in conservative circles. This should be a 5 alarm fire.”

Indeed, support for Israel among Republicans has significantly waned over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza. A June poll by Quinnipiac University found that sympathy for Israelis had dropped by 14 points among Republicans over the last year. The drop has been sharper among younger conservatives like those targeted by Turning Point USA.

Netanyahu appeared to cite the letter in a preemptive denial of Israel’s involvement in Kirk’s death earlier this month. Conspiracy theorists on the far right speculated that Israel had played a role in the assassination because Kirk’s support for Israel was softening.

Kirk had long considered himself a defender against antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States and emphasized that in his letter to Netanyahu. “Everything written here is from a place of deep love for Israel and the Jewish people,” he wrote. “I think it’s important to be brutally honest with those you love. In my opinion, Israel is losing the information war and needs a ‘communications intervention.’”

To remedy Israel’s drastically falling support in the United States, Kirk proposed seven potential solutions: a rapid response media team to push back on criticism, a team of “pro-Israel experts” who can “fact-check misinformation,” an “Israel Truth Network” website to debunk “negative Israel questions,” a speaking tour in the United States of released Israel hostages, a PR campaign featuring interviews with Israelis, more efforts to explain the “Iranian threat” and marketing Israel as a “political candidate.”

Some of the strategies he suggested reflect elements of the media practices adopted by the American right wing. “The question is whether Israel has the willpower to step up its game in this information war,” wrote Kirk. ‘From my vantage point, the status quo is not working. Israel is getting CRUSHED on social media and you are losing younger generations of Americans, even among MAGA conservatives.”

Kirk appeared to have taken his own advice. Last month, he hosted a discussion with Gen Z students from Turning Point USA in which they discussed lessening support for Israel and increasing antisemitism. “The Holy Land is so important to my life, and it pains me to see support for Israel slip away,” Kirk concluded before encouraging Netanyahu to call him at his private number.

It was unclear if Netanyahu took him up on the offer.

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