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ANALYSIS: Sympathy for the murder of the founder of TPUSA didn’t stop left-wing pushback
At least 15 Turning Point USA clubs were blocked on college campuses this year following the assassination of founder Charlie Kirk.
The College Fix reviewed its own archives, Google News, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s “Students Under FIRE” database to compile the list. This does not include high school clubs that faced obstacles.
Of the 15 blocked clubs, a little over half were ultimately approved by administrators following backlash, including Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and Fort Lewis College in Colorado.
As of this writing, at least seven remain blocked, including one at St. John’s University in New York and another at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.
Furthermore, The Fix identified at least 13 different Turning Point USA clubs who faced violent protests, attacks, or sign thefts in relation to various events.
For example, a video captured someone tossing coffee on a table at the University of California Berkeley.
Signs were also stolen and thrown across a room during a Turning Point event at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
In some cases, student government leaders boasted about their role in blocking chapters of the free-market student group.
“TPUSA chapter is trying to get chartered on our campus, and we said hell no,” Juleea Berthelot, a student and vice president of National Students for a Democratic Society, said during a November conference.
“We showed up to the student Senate meeting with over 100 students… and they were denied their charter, which was a huge win for us,” she said at the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression conference.
The Fix also reported:
During the weekend conference, Berthelot linked her activism against the TPUSA chapter to larger anti-Trump efforts.
“We’re fighting back against the expansion of the Trump agenda and his goons’ control on college campuses, and that looks like fighting back, making sure that TPUSA chapters do not get established on our campuses,” Berthelot said.
She also said leftist student activists are more motivated because of the Republican president’s re-election.
“In a f—ed-up way, thank you, Trump,” Berthelot said.
St. John’s University student government leaders also zeroed in on Kirk’s prior comments in its decision to reject a TPUSA group.
“Many of the questions posed were not centered on our proposal or compliance with university requirements but instead focused on how we would respond to potential backlash tied to the ideologies of TPUSA’s founder,” conservative student leader Massimo Guerriero told The Fix in January.
Leftists did not even have sympathy for the Turning Point USA group that hosted Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025.
As reported by the Cougar Chronicle, “a large network of student clubs and off-campus organizations have spent the months following the shooting perpetuating extremist propaganda, violent rhetoric, and even the harassment of conservative students on UVU campus.”
Universities must have ‘viewpoint-neutral reasons’ for denying a group
A national free speech group said there are few reasons a college can use to deny official recognition.
“[C]olleges and universities…may deny recognition to a student organization only for legitimate, viewpoint-neutral reasons, such as failing to meet objective registration requirements or comply with generally applicable campus policies,” Charlotte Arneson told The College Fix via email.
“Once a school creates a system for recognizing student organizations, it must apply its criteria consistently and without regard to viewpoint,” the campus rights advocacy program officer said.
Schools must uphold their obligation “to protect students’ expressive rights and apply their policies in a viewpoint-neutral manner, and should not deny recognition because they disagree with a group’s [views or affiliations.]”
FIRE also sent along data suggesting the two most targeted groups on college campuses are Turning Point USA and Students for Justice in Palestine.
Turning Point USA did not respond to a request for comment earlier this week on the data and advice for groups that are facing obstacles to approval.
