There are two legacies hanging in the balance this weekend in Phoenix as Turning Point USA puts on its annual AmericaFest conference, first is its late founder, Charlie Kirk’s and the other is President Donald Trump’s. 

At the convention center here in Arizona, as many as 25,000 attendees are expected to gather to celebrate the life of Kirk, who was tragically murdered just months ago, but also to try to chart a course forward for the movement he marshaled.

Arriving a bit late on Thursday, I was greeted by Lucas, a TPUSA employee from Detroit in his mid-twenties. He was a picture-perfect ambassador, a clean-cut kid who is eschewing his generation’s almost epic bout of despair and instead leaning in to create positive change.

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“The energy has been amazing,” he told me, referring to the huge upswing in interest in TPUSA since Kirk’s horrible murder.

“Not the way you’d want it to happen,” I somewhat darkly noted, but Lucas said, “You have to find the silver lining, I guess.”

Lucas and the hundreds like him are honestly an inspiration, while so many of their generation are out of shape from toe to top, they see a bright future for America that so many of us in advanced years have long ago forgotten.

But do not get the impression that at AmFest this year all is hugs and kumbaya. Iin fact, what you will find here are the early stages of a war to define what Donald Trump’s legacy, and the legacy of his MAGA movement will be.

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Thursday night’s lineup on the big stage was a potent mix, featuring both Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson, whose current feud over Israel has become a bit more than nasty.

I won’t litigate the feud here, it’s all on video after all, but the broader point is that some lines are being drawn ahead of the first presidential race in a while, in 2028, that presumably will not include the name Trump on the ballot.

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At Amfest, we finally have more than tea leaves to tell us what the conservative movement after Trump and Kirk will look like — we have the actual tea, and a few stains to boot.

The factions are becoming clear, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika, in her speech Thursday enthusiastically endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president, while Shapiro said, more moderately, that Vance would have to build his own coalition.

Is Shapiro lining up a movement behind a potential candidate like Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who has not been a member of Donald Trump’s, let’s face it, somewhat obsequious court of the Oval Office, and if so, can Erika Kirk’s power thwart such a play?

This weekend in Phoenix has assembled the people with the strongest claim to the MAGA movement — a once disparate band of misfits whose allegiance to the “orange man” who kept winning put them at the forefront of American power and politics.

Many of the grave and profound conservative voices and pundits of old, who give no truck to the New Right have fled ship for think tanks or psuedo-right-wing journals that exist only to destroy Trump and his movement, but they are not the vanguard. The real fight is here.

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What plays out over this weekend in Phoenix will have profound implications not just for next year’s midterms, but for the presidential race in 2028.

Legacies are matters of the future, and it is only the young attendees at Amfest who will see the longest lasting fruits of the American conservative movement — a movement still firmly shaped by Charlie Kirk.

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It is both remarkable and stark to see the myriad and often giant images of their Charlie around the convention center amid his earthly absence. Each image is a reminder both of his life’s great success and its tragic end.

But Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be a statue, or a plaque. His legacy will live in the hearts of the young kids assembled in Phoenix this weekend. Maybe they are naïve. Maybe they are not withered and weathered by life’s brutal storms. God bless them for their hope. We could use a bit more of it.

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Two theme parkgoers were trapped more than 100 feet in the air for more than 30 minutes this week after a roller coaster in Texas malfunctioned.

The Circuit Breaker roller coaster at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin unexpectedly stopped at the first drop, leaving Matthew Cantu, 24, and Nicholas Sanchez, 20, dangling at a 90-degree angle Wednesday night, KXAN-TV reported, citing a publicist representing the two men.

“For more than 30 minutes after the ride stopped, family members reported receiving no clear updates, while witnesses said staff provided conflicting explanations, including comments that the riders ‘weren’t strapped in currently,’” the publicist’s news release said, People magazine reported.

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“A sensor triggered a ride delay,” the Circuit of the Americas told Fox News Digital in a statement Saturday. “It was resolved, and the ride proceeded without incident.

“As with all amusement attractions of this sort, delays occasionally occur. We regret the inconvenience and are glad that out of the 25,000 people that have ridden the coaster, only two have this badge of courage.”

The Circuit Breaker is Texas’ first “tilt” roller coaster, which means the track tilts 90 degrees for a nearly vertical drop during the ride.

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The ride opened as a preview in October and will officially open next year, according to KVUE-TV.

Austin-Travis County EMS responded to the incident before 10 p.m. Wednesday, evaluating one of the men who refused medical attention, KVUE reported.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Austin-Travis County EMS for comment.

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Another tilt roller coaster, known as the Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point in Ohio, has similarly malfunctioned multiple times since it opened this summer. 

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Vice President JD Vance closed out AmericaFest 2025, Turning Point USA’s first convention since founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination, by telling a raucous crowd that the “America First” movement is open to free thinkers who love their country.

Vance appeared shortly after Erika Kirk, who took TPUSA’s reins after her husband’s death in September, held a discussion with surprise guest Nicki Minaj. The vice president told the crowd that the political coalition forged by President Trump is strong enough to surmount disagreements within.

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“People of every faith come to our banner because they know that the America First movement will make our lives better,” he went on. “They know Democrats don’t care about anything other than trans-ing their kids.”

Vowing to stand with “every patriot in this room to defend the country we so dearly love,” Vance dismissed conservative infighting that had gone on earlier in the conference, while not naming any of the podcasters or subjects involved.

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“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests,” Vance said, as some of the earlier speakers name-dropped each other amid divisions over Israel, Ukraine aid and other controversial issues on the right.

“We don’t care if you’re White or Black, rich or poor, young or old, rural or urban, controversial or a little bit boring, or somewhere in between… [P]eople of every faith come to our banner because they know that the America First movement will make their lives better. And they also know that the Democrats don’t care about anything other than maybe trans-ing their kids.”

“So if you love America, if you want all of us to be richer, stronger, safer, and prouder, you have a home on this team. I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform, and I don’t really care if some people out there — I’m sure we’ll have the fake news media — denounce me after this speech.”

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Later in the speech, however, he said that such infighting is not necessarily a sign of a weak or fractious movement.

“Some of you are impatient at the pace of progress and my response to that is ‘Good,’” he said, appearing to refer to criticisms of the Republican Congress’ progress on the America First agenda.

“I know some of you are discouraged by the infighting over any number of issues. Don’t be discouraged,” he added.

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“Wouldn’t you rather lead a movement of freethinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?” he quipped.

He said Charlie Kirk once told him that politics is not a “dress rehearsal or a game” but a series of decisions that will shape the future of a country.

“My friends, commit to these things, and I promise you victory: I promise you closed borders and safe communities. I promise you good jobs and a dignified life. Only God can promise you salvation and heaven. But together we can fulfill the promise of the greatest nation in the history of the earth,” he said, as he closed his speech.

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During his address, he delved further into what is important to fulfilling “America First.”

“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other — we have got to build, and President Donald Trump is a builder,” he said. “We’re building a better country right now. We build by adding, by growing, not by tearing down.”

Vance declared that 2025 represented the first year in more than half a century with negative net-migration and that millions of illegal immigrants have either left the U.S. or been deported.

“When you restore sanity at the border, it shows up everywhere else,” he said, pointing to rent costs, gas prices, inflation and unemployment declining.

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“We made it clear that in the United States we believe in hard work and merit –we don’t treat anybody [a certain way] because of their race or their sex, so we have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history which is exactly where it belongs.”

He said that to honor Kirk’s life, the Trump administration will continue working to end the “scourge of left-wing violence” including by not only arresting Antifa members who throw bricks, but “who bought the brick — and we’re going to prosecute them too” — referring to shadowy, deep-pocketed leftist interests.