“Do we not love President Trump?” Charlie Kirk yelled to several thousand assembled high school and college kids gathered at the Palm Beach County Convention Center for the Turning Point USA student action summit. “We love our president, and what the media is trying to do to destroy him is reprehensible!”

Kirk, the conservative youth group’s 25-year-old founder, whipped the crowd up into loud chants of “USA! USA!” as he insisted that the “fake news” media refuse to acknowledge that conservative young people exist. He was here to prove them wrong. Kirk urged students in MAGA hats to proclaim their love for Trump at top volume. “Hey media, show this!” he shouted at the few cameras in the back of the room. “Show this!”

-snip-

The group has also come under fire for bringing Citizens United-style dark money to student leadership campaigns. That dark money heavily subsidized students’ attendance at the summit. TPUSA’s budget for the fiscal year ending in June 2017 was about $8 million, nearly double the previous year, and is expected to be close to twice that for 2018. Turning Point has been showered with money from the oil and gas industry and other billionaires, and it has ties to groups funded by the Koch brothers.

Ostensibly created as a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on free-market economics, the group has run into trouble because of its close association with Trump and its work on Republican campaigns. The New Yorker reported last year that students from the group were enlisted to campaign for Republican candidates in 2016, possibly in violation of campaign finance laws that bar nonprofits from working on behalf of specific candidates.

Outside the convention center Thursday, the Trump administration was blowing up. The defense secretary resigned, Trump was threatening to shut down the government over border wall funding, and the stock market was tanking. But inside the bubble, Trump was only winning. Trump Jr. was one of the most anticipated speakers of the day. Kids ducked out of breakout sessions early to get better seats to see the president’s son.

Trump Jr. only took questions from the audience that were texted in—a cellphone number harvesting scheme that could help the 2020 Trump campaign. “Today, JFK would be considered alt-right!” he told the crowd. He insisted that the election in November, in which the GOP lost 40 seats in the House, was “probably the most successful midterms in 40 years.” He also touted his father’s hastily announced decision to pull US troops out of Syria. “You know why I know that’s a great idea?” he said. “Because all the neocons who have kept us in foreign wars for decades are going crazy.”

-snip-