Trump frustrated with a powerful conservative group after its outreach to Ron DeSantis

Few Republican groups have had as meteoric a rise as Turning Point USA.

Started in 2012 to energize young conservatives, the group has quickly grown to become a sort of quasi-party apparatus in its own right through organizing, holding rallies with prominent conservatives and, perhaps most importantly, tying itself closely to former President Donald Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

But, like for many groups on the right, the past few months have been rough following the GOP’s underwhelming midterm performance. Some Republicans now question whether the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, were overhyped, particularly after top-of-the-ticket losses for candidates it went all in for in Arizona, the state where it bases its operations and which it seeks to use as a testing ground.

A bigger problem for Kirk and Turning Point, however, is that they may be losing the confidence of their most important supporter: Trump.

With the 2024 primary campaign heating up, multiple people close to Trump told NBC News that he and some around him are frustrated by Kirk’s overtures to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A close Trump adviser who spoke with the former president just last week about the matter said that Trump has “been watching” Kirk’s relationship with DeSantis since Turning Point hosted rallies across the country last summer for high-profile GOP candidates with the Florida governor as the headliner.

More recently, Trump noticed Kirk starting to ally himself with DeSantis in his effort to shake up the Republican National Committee, according to the adviser, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Kirk was vocal in wanting to oust the incumbent chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, who was originally handpicked by Trump for the job.

DeSantis, on the other hand, publicly praised her challenger Harmeet Dhillon — who was boosted heavily by Kirk — in comments that made waves at the RNC’s winter meeting last month. And he made those remarks in an interview with Kirk.

“Trump feels like he has made Charlie and Charlie’s ungrateful and [Trump’s] not been happy for a while,” the adviser said. “He’s like, ‘You call him and you tell him he’d be nothing without my son.’”

“I see that [Kirk’s] trying to cover all his bases,” the adviser continued. “Trying to triangulate between Trump and DeSantis. And Ron may not care, but Trump notices.”

Trump Jr., a close Kirk ally, pushed back on the notion of any discord.

“Few people in politics have been a stronger or more loyal ally to both my father and our entire family than Charlie,” Trump Jr. said in a statement. “I know my father appreciates Charlie’s early endorsement and all of us value his friendship. No amount of BS quotes from anonymous sources, who have no clue what they’re talking about, will ever change any of that.”

Other Kirk allies, as well as a spokesman for Trump, also disputed suggestions the relationship has frayed.

“Charlie endorsed President Trump’s candidacy to be the next president of the United States, and he and Turning Point have always been great allies of the president,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

Kirk, too, said all was well.

“I love President Trump and support him for 2024,” he said in a statement. “All media drama is noise.”

But a second person who remains in Trump’s political orbit and requested anonymity to speak openly on the matter was less rosy: “Trump world is very aware of what’s coming out of Turning Point.”

“Charlie and Turning Point were very close to Trump since the beginning,” this person said. “But the distance has grown since the beginning of 2022. And then you get to the end of 2022, there’s a coordinated effort for TPUSA to build that relationship with Ron. Why? Charlie wants to be next to the new shiny thing on the block.”

“Like so many others,” the person added, “there would be no Charlie Kirk without Donald Trump.”

A schism between Trump and one of his chief backers could have major implications in the 2024 Republican primary, which has started to heat up with the upcoming entrance of Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Trump’s escalation of his broadsides against DeSantis. 

Turning Point figures to be a significant player in the 2024 primaries. The organization has experienced significant growth in recent years as Kirk and its leadership have sought to expand its core mission and become a greater force in the political landscape. As NBC News reported last year, the group enjoyed a financial windfall during the pandemic, according to tax records.