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    Supreme court lets Trump fire FTC commissioner for now and will hear arguments later

    The US supreme court on Monday let Donald Trump fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, for now, while agreeing to hear arguments in the case in December, setting up a major test of presidential power over government agencies designed by Congress to be independent.The court granted a justice department request to block a judge’s order that had shielded Rebecca Slaughter, who sued to challenge Trump’s action, from being dismissed from the consumer protection and antitrust agency before her term expires in 2029.The supreme court said it will hear arguments in the case, which could lead to the justices overruling a landmark 90-year-old precedent upholding job protections put in place by Congress to give the heads of certain federal agencies a degree of independence from presidential control.The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from Monday’s order letting Trump remove Slaughter for now.John Roberts, the chief justice, on 8 September had paused an order from Loren AliKhan, a Washington-based US district judge – – a move that allowed Trump to keep Slaughter out of her post – to give the court more time to consider how to respond to the justice department’s request.Federal law permits a president to remove FTC commissioners only for cause – such as inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office – but not for policy differences. Similar protections cover officials at other independent agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board.Slaughter was one of two Democratic commissioners who Trump moved to fire in March. The firings drew sharp criticism from Democratic senators and antimonopoly groups concerned that the move was designed to eliminate opposition within the agency to big corporations.AliKhan in July blocked Trump’s firing of Slaughter, rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that the tenure protections unlawfully encroach on presidential power. The US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit on 2 September in a 2-1 decision kept the judge’s ruling in place.The supreme court did not set a precise date for the arguments scheduled for December.The lower courts ruled that the statutory protections shielding FTC members from being removed without cause conform with the US constitution in light of a 1935 supreme court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v United States. In that case, the court ruled that a president lacks unfettered power to remove FTC commissioners, faulting Franklin Roosevelt’s firing of an FTC commissioner for policy differences.The Trump administration in its supreme court filing in Slaughter’s case argued that “the modern FTC exercises far more substantial powers than the 1935 FTC”, and thus its members can be fired at will by the president.Lawyers for Slaughter in court papers pushed back against that contention, arguing that the FTC’s development over the decades is “a story of continuity, not transformation”. More

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    Democrats urge Trump border czar investigation over bribery allegation

    Democrats have urged treasury watchdogs to investigate reports that Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent in return for political favours.In the alleged scheme, Homan promised immigration-related government contracts when he joined the Trump administration in exchange for the money, according to unnamed sources quoted by multiple media outlets. The justice department subsequently shut down a bribery investigation.On Monday, Congressman Dave Min of California, a member of the House of Representatives oversight committee, wrote to treasury inspector general Russell George and treasury inspector general for tax administration Russell Martin to call for scrutiny of whether Homan reported the payment and whether it was connected to his private consulting firm.“History suggests that we should follow the money – especially if it went unreported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” wrote Min, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s Fighting Corruption Taskforce. “Under federal law, all income, legal or illegal, must be reported to the IRS, including payments stemming from bribery.“Knowingly failing to report this income would likely violate federal tax law. Accordingly, I request that your offices investigate whether Mr Homan properly reported this payment on his 2024 federal tax return.”Homan oversees the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations of people in the country illegally. An unapologetic immigration hardliner, he explained a decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members by stating: “I don’t care what the judges think.”Homan was previously an official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) under Barack Obama and its acting director in Trump’s first term. During Trump’s four years out of power, he ran a consulting business to help companies obtain immigration-related government contracts.In the recorded sting operation, Homan accepted a $50,000 bribe contained in a bag from the restaurant chain Cava, claiming he would keep the money in a trust until he had completed his service in the Trump administration, a source told the Reuters news agency.Homan was then investigated for bribery and other crimes but this was shut down after Trump took office, reportedly because he did not hold a government position at the time and because of the difficulty of proving that he had agreed to carry out any specific acts in exchange for the money.At a press briefing on Monday, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that Homan had accepted such a payment. “Mr Homan never took the $50,000 you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight,” she told one reporter.“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100% because he did absolutely nothing wrong,” Leavitt added. She insisted that FBI agents and prosecutors found no evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing by the border czar.But Carol Leonnig, one of the MSNBC journalists who broke the story, responded on social media: “White House spokesperson says that Homan never took $50,000; we reviewed internal document saying Homan accepted the cash payment from undercover FBI agents in September 2024.”Political pressure on Homan is mounting. On Sunday Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator for Massachusetts, posted on the X platform: “The act was caught on camera. The administration must turn over the tapes to Congress. Every decision made by Homan must be scrutinized for possible corruption.”Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut added on Monday: “$50,000 cash in a bag – clearly Border Czar Tom Homan isn’t afraid to solicit personal payments in exchange for government favors. Trump leaders aren’t serving the country – they’re failing it, putting personal profit first. Another example of rampant corruption in this admin.”Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania wrote on X: “White House knew Homan had accepted $50K to influence contracts. They appointed him anyways. Then they disbanded the DOJ’s Public Integrity unit and quashed the Homan investigation. There’s no end to the corruption in Trump’s White House.” More

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    The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s hate for opponents: practising politics the wrong way | Editorial

    At Sunday’s memorial for the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump paid a peculiar tribute. Having quoted Mr Kirk’s words of forgiveness, he put aside the script. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie,” he said. “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.” It was a stark and clarifying admission. Mr Trump does not seek to criminalise hate speech so much as to criminalise speech he hates.The US is being dragged into a state of emergency. Speech is framed as terrorism. Satire is rebranded as enemy propaganda. Employers punish workers for personal posts. The predictable result is a chilling climate of surveillance and reprisal, in which citizens learn to keep quiet. The assassination is not just being used to police manners; it is being used to reconstruct the public square so that dissent equals disloyalty, and disloyalty is treated as a security threat.Hannah Arendt warned of the existential peril in blurring the line between truth and lies: then truth doesn’t stand; it becomes optional. Mr Trump’s reported falsehoods about paracetamol and autism will harm mothers, stigmatise families and erode trust in medicine. But in Trumpland such costs are outweighed by the political payoff of pitting supporters against the scientific “establishment”.His assault is twofold. First, speech is being weaponised through partisan media, online influencers and harassment networks that seek to capture attention while corroding the conditions for open dialogue. Second, state power is weaponised by cowing social media platforms, threatening network licences and politicising information. Handing TikTok to rightwing billionaires is a morbid symptom of democratic decline.“Authority is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority,” said the US supreme court. That defines the first amendment: citizens, not the state, decide which ideas survive, with narrow limits like fraud or defamation. By presuming to define “truth”, Mr Trump subverts self-government. Hate rallies thrive in Trump’s America because, since 1969, speech is unprotected only if intended and likely to incite “imminent lawless action”.The US is a free-speech outlier. Other democracies accept broader, more collective trade‑offs to protect vulnerable groups, maintain public order and prevent incitement and harassment. Each country is different but the bargain is similar. Speech is presumptively free, yet words are considered acts with foreseeable harms. Words can mobilise mobs, direct harassment and orchestrate violence. The point isn’t to shield anyone’s feelings, it’s to make coexistence possible.Mr Trump has inverted the American model. Rather than robust exchanges under neutral rules, he selectively rewards allies while degrading the conditions of honest debate. All this while the infosphere is saturated with viral lies, making it easier to justify punitive state action “to keep order”. That is how an emergency becomes a system.The answer is not the censor’s pen nor a free-for-all. It requires resilient democratic plumbing; social media platforms made accountable for publishing harms; and properly defining dangerous conduct. The aim – particularly in the US – must be to preserve free expression as the bedrock of self-government while dismantling the machinery that warps attention toward outrage and partisan mobilisation. Mr Trump’s speech was disgraceful. When power learns to hate its opponents, democracy will fail. More

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    Donald Trump and Elon Musk meet and shake hands months after messy split

    Donald Trump met with billionaire Elon Musk, his once trusted adviser with whom the president had a spectacular public falling out, at a memorial event for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, raising speculation that the two could be reconciling.Trump shook hands with and chatted to Musk, who once led the president’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which took a hatchet to the US federal workforce and agencies in the early months of Trump’s second administration.The pair sat in the stands of a stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where tens of thousands had gathered to pay tribute to Kirk, who was shot dead on 10 September at a Utah university campus.Video of the two was shared by the official White House account on social media platform X, which Musk owns.Musk donated more than $270m to Trump’s presidential campaign, barnstorming key battleground states for the Republican.After the election, he oversaw the launch of the DOGE, a controversial initiative that eliminated thousands of government jobs deemed by the agency to be part of a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse.But Musk broke with Trump over the White House’s flagship tax and spending bill, which Musk called “utterly insane and destructive.” The extraordinary feud, which largely played out over social media, saw Musk accuse Trump of being named in the so-called “Epstein files” – documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In July, Trump said he would “take a look” at the idea of deporting Musk.After the falling out, Musk went as far as to announce he was launching his own “America First” party, but little has materialised so far. Musk on his X account posted an image of him and Trump sitting together at the memorial, captioning it: “For Charlie.”It is not known whether Sunday’s meeting was the first between the pair since their falling out.With Agence France-Presse More

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    Trump news at a glance: president calls Charlie Kirk a ‘martyr’ at memorial

    Donald Trump gave a rambling, freewheeling address at the Charlie Kirk memorial in Arizona on Sunday, taking aim at Joe Biden and trailing a major announcement on autism as well as praising Kirk, who was shot dead on 10 September.In front of a crowd of tens of thousands, Trump said Kirk was a “great American hero” and “martyr” for freedom. During the event he sat side-by-side with billionaire Elon Musk, a once trusted adviser with whom the US president had a spectacular public falling out.He frequently veered into topics entirely unrelated to Kirk, discussing his use of federal forces to police cities and taking a moment to promote an announcement at the White House on Monday.Here are the key stories at a glance.Trump says ‘I hate my opponents’ at Kirk memorial Trump’s remarks were an awkward mix of eulogy and campaign speech, during which he frequently veered away from reading somber remarks about Kirk’s life and violent death to make offhand comments and jokes.“He did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them,” Trump said, before breaking from his prepared remarks to add: “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them, I’m sorry.”Read the full storyErika Kirk says she forgives shooter During an emotional address at his public memorial in Glendale, Arizona, the widow of rightwing youth organizer Charlie Kirk said she forgives the man charged with killing her husband.“My husband, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” Erika Kirk said, before an at-capacity crowd. “That man, that young man – I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it is what Charlie would do.”Those in the stadium rose to their feet in applause.Read the full storyKirk memorial mixes rally and revival as mourners vow to spread Maga messageLauren Gambino was at the memorial and writes: The memorial was part spiritual revival and part political rally … Mourners obliged the red, white and blue “Sunday best” dress code, filling the at-capacity venue with stars, stripes and Maga hats …As the afternoon wore on, the speeches became sharper and more political – a battle cry that implored the government officials present to be aggressive in “wielding the sword against evil”. There were only a handful of explicit references to Democrats and the left – but many speeches mixed personal remembrances of Kirk with a searing vilification of his ideological opponents.Read the full storyAnalysis – Vance speech at Kirk memorial has an eye on 2028 David Smith writes that JD Vance’s appearance at the event comes as he methodically builds a profile that blends Trump’s populist bombast with a sharper focus on economic nationalism and cultural warfare.Smith writes: Vance’s presidential campaign for 2028 is already said to be in “soft launch” mode as he positions himself as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. He has reportedly expressed a desire for Susie Wiles, the White House of chief staff, to manage his potential campaign.His most overt move came in March, when he was appointed finance chair of the Republican National Committee – a role unprecedented for a sitting vice-president. It positions him at the nexus of Republican money, allowing frequent interactions with mega-donors.Read the full storyTrump officials reportedly set to tie Tylenol to autism riskDonald Trump’s administration is on Monday expected to tie pregnant women’s use of the popular medicine Tylenol – known as paracetamol elsewhere in the world – to a risk of autism, contrary to medical guidelines, the Washington Post has reported.Trump officials are also expected to announce an effort to explore how the drug leucovorin could purportedly and potentially treat autism, according to the Post report published Sunday, which cited four sources with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.Read the full storyTrump says Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch likely part of US TikTok dealRupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch will probably be involved in the effort to buy TikTok in the US, Donald Trump said in an interview on Sunday.The president was asked about the status of the sale of the app during an interview with Peter Doocy on The Sunday Briefing on Fox News. Trump administration officials have signaled that a deal for the Chinese-owned social media platform was imminent, though there has been some confusion about the status of the agreement.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

    Donald Trump said he was appointing his former lawyer Lindsey Halligan to be US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia after an extraordinary outburst in which he overtly put pressure on his attorney general to more aggressively pursue senior public officials he regards as his political enemies.

    Nineteen people detained at an immigration detention center that the Trump administration opened within Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison were entering their fifth day on hunger strike on Sunday, according to advocacy groups.

    Seven US states and the nation’s largest city announced this week that they have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, in an effort to strengthen the region’s health guidance as the national health landscape fractures. Maryland announced they would join the alliance on Friday.
    Catching up? Here’s what happened on 20 September. This article was amended on 22 September 2025 to clarify the Charlie Kirk memorial was held in Arizona, not Alabama. More

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    Vance puts Charlie Kirk’s Christian faith front and center – with an eye on 2028

    JD Vance went into confessional mode. “I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public,” he said. “As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.”The crowd at rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial service at a football stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday rose to its feet and roared its approval.The apparent ad lib by the US vice-president showed his ability to read the room. The service had put Kirk’s Christian faith front and centre. Vance’s moment of self-revelation could also have political utility if and when he runs to succeed Donald Trump as president in 2028.Trump, a thrice-married New Yorker with little knowledge of scripture, secured the evangelical vote with promises that included a pliant supreme court. Candidate Vance would have to win them all over again, and knows the new generation of young Christians who idolised Kirk would be a good start.The 41-year-old former Ohio senator has already taken a lead role in mobilising Kirk’s online army at Turning Point USA, likely to be a crucial part of the next Republican electoral coalition, and seeking to claim his mantle as “youth whisperer”.After Kirk was shot dead at an event in Utah, Vance posted a heartfelt tribute on social media, describing him as “true friend” who had advocated for him to be Trump’s running mate.He personally escorted Kirk’s casket from Utah to Arizona on the vice presidential plane Air Force Two. After disembarking, his wife Usha held hands with Kirk’s widow Erika – both dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses – as Vance followed dutifully behind.Vance then guest-hosted Kirk’s podcast from his ceremonial office and demanded that anyone caught celebrating the murder be named and shamed. “Hell, call their employer,” he said.Some of this may be the genuine response of a friend. But it is also impossible to ignore Vance’s ruthless ambition. The author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, drawing on his upbringing in Ohio and Kentucky, only joined the Senate in 2023 and is now vice-president.In her new book, 107 Days, former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris described Vance as a “shape-shifter” and “a shifty guy” who, in last year’s vice presidential debate against Tim Walz, “sane-washed the crazy” and played the role of “a mild-mannered, aw-shucks Appalachian”.Vance’s presidential campaign for 2028 is already said to be in “soft launch” mode as he positions himself as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. He has reportedly expressed a desire for Susie Wiles, the White House of chief staff, to manage his potential campaign.His most overt move came in March, when he was appointed finance chair of the Republican National Committee – a role unprecedented for a sitting vice-president. It positions him at the nexus of Republican money, allowing frequent interactions with mega-donors.Vance has methodically built a profile that blends Trump’s populist bombast with a sharper focus on economic nationalism and cultural warfare. Vance is sceptical of foreign intervention in Ukraine and elsewhere. He bared his teeth in February when, sitting in the Oval Office, he berated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for showing insufficient gratitude to Trump.His media strategy builds on Trump’s “podcast election” playbook, emphasising unfiltered platforms to rally the base. His appearance on the memorial Charlie Kirk Show demonstrated a merger of Maga’s grassroots fervour with Turning Point’s youth-focused activism – a partnership likely to define the party’s outreach strategy in future elections.Vance’s willingness to engage critics in online debate has an echo of Kirk’s go-everywhere, talk-to-anyone approach. When US forces recently struck a vessel allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, Vance wrote on X: “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”Brian Krassenstein, a podcaster and Trump critic, responded to Vance’s post by stating: “Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.” Vance shot back “I don’t give a shit what you call it.” (Rand Paul, a Republican senator, responded: “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”)Charlie Sykes, a political commentator and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, says: “The only question I have is whether JD Vance wants to be the heir apparent to Donald Trump or to Charlie Kirk.“The line between people wanting to be influential podcasters and real political power is getting somewhat shaky. Apparently JD Vance has decided his route to power is to essentially try to fill Charlie Kirk’s shoes and engage in his kind of rhetoric.”Vance’s lead in hypothetical 2028 Republican primary polls is commanding, a testament to his proximity to Trump. A June 2025 Emerson College Polling survey of 416 likely Republican primary voters found Vance at 46% support, dwarfing secretary of state Marco Rubio (12%) and Florida governor Ron DeSantis (9%).His performance on Sunday will have done no harm, especially with the religious right. He referenced God 10 times, spoke of “the truth that Jesus Christ was the king of kings” and said of Kirk “He would tell me to pray for my friends, but also for my enemies. He would tell me to put on the full armour of God and get back to work.”His white shirt, red tie and blue suit were all the same shade as Trump’s, and he delivered his remarks from a lectern with the presidential seal. It was a glimpse of a possible future featuring an occupant of the White House who could prove even more hard-edged, pitiless and authoritarian than Trump himself.Sykes adds: “I would never describe Trump as more moderate but I do think that JD Vance’s rhetoric could be a warning that, if you think things are bad, they can possibly get even worse.” More

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    Trump officials reportedly set to tie Tylenol to autism risk

    Donald Trump’s administration is expected to tie pregnant women’s use of the popular medicine known as Tylenol to a risk for autism, contrary to medical guidelines, the Washington Post has reported.Trump officials on Monday are also expected to announce an effort to explore how the drug leucovorin could purportedly and potentially treat autism, according to the Post report published Sunday, which cited four sources with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.Medical guidelines say it is safe for pregnant women to take Tylenol, the over-the-counter pain medication whose active ingredient is acetaminophen.Yet earlier in September, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr planned to announce that use of Tylenol by pregnant women was potentially linked to autism spectrum disorder, which is defined as a neurodevelopmental condition marked by social as well as communication difficulties and behaviors that are repetitive.Meanwhile, as the Post reported, some medical trials involving administering leucovorin to children with autism have shown “what some scientists describe as remarkable improvements in their ability to speak and understand others” – though those trials are considered early.The Post’s report came a day after Trump publicly said “we’re going to have an announcement on autism on Monday”.Without offering specifics, the president added: “I think it’s gonna be a very important announcement. I think its gonna be one of the most important things that we will do.“Reuters contributed reporting More

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    Thousands gather at Charlie Kirk memorial in Arizona where Trump to pay tribute to slain organizer

    Thousands were gathering in Arizona on Sunday for a public memorial honoring Charlie Kirk, the rightwing youth organizer who was fatally shot during an event at a Utah college.Donald Trump, his vice-president, JD Vance, and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, were among a long list of prominent officials and figures expected to pay tribute to the slain activist, a reflection of his deep imprint on the president’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.The memorial service was being held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, a 63,000-seat home of the Arizona Cardinals football team and the venue where Taylor Swift launched her Eras tour. A massive security presence, led by the US Secret Service, was in place, with the event expected to receive security on par with the Super Bowl. A man armed with a gun and a knife was detained on Saturday at the venue, with inactive law enforcement credentials and claims that he was providing private security.A spokesperson for Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization said the man was doing “advance security for a known guest” but it wasn’t properly coordinated with the Secret Service or Turning Point. The spokesperson also said it was not believed the man was “attempting anything nefarious”.Americans are grappling with the brutal killing and complicated legacy of the 31-year-old conservative “youth whisperer”, Trump ally and podcasting provocateur, who was gunned down on 10 September in a brazen act of what prosecutors have labeled political violence – and which has deepened fears about the trajectory of a profoundly divided nation.Kirk was struck by a single bullet in broad daylight as he spoke before a crowd of 3,000 mostly college students at Utah Valley University, the first stop on his national “American Comeback” campus tour. Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with capital murder in Kirk’s killing and said they will seek the death penalty.In the wake of Kirk’s death, Trump and his advisers have sought to cast blame on Democrats, even though elected leaders and party officials have uniformly condemned the killing. Officials have said they believe the suspect acted alone.Prosecutors have said that they suspect Robinson killed Kirk because he personally had become sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”. But, citing three sources familiar with the investigation into Kirk’s killing, NBC reported Saturday that federal authorities have not found any link between Robinson and leftwing groups, on which the Trump administration has threatened to crack down after the deadly shooting.Fueled by an outpouring of grief and rage on the right, conservatives are demanding punishment for those who mocked or disparaged Kirk – a campaign of retribution critics say mirrors the very cancel culture he railed against. Since his death, teachers, students, journalists and late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel have been fired, suspended or disciplined over comments related to Kirk or his death, in a clampdown that free speech advocates, democracy scholars and other comedians say amounts to government censorship.The speaker program underscores Kirk’s personal relationship with Trump, the president’s family and other prominent Republicans. Vance traveled to Utah after Kirk’s death to fly his casket to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two. After the 2024 presidential election, Kirk was a frequent presence at Mar-a-Lago as Trump put together his cabinet and had a prime seat for his second inauguration in January.Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012, at the age of 18, to organize young conservatives. Over the course of 13 years, he transformed it into a rightwing juggernaut with a deep reach into high schools, colleges – and social media feeds.On Thursday, the board announced that Erika Kirk was unanimously elected to succeed her husband as CEO and chairperson of Turning Point’s board of directors. More