Fox News and the right-leaning Turning Point USA youth movement once seemed rather closely aligned, but those days appear to be over.
TPUSA founder and leader Charlie Kirk recently revealed in an interview that the network has banned its popular on-air personalities from appearing at any of the group's events, including its most recent AmericaFest gathering, according to the Post Millennial.
Yet, despite the lack of any Fox News stars in that event's lineup of speakers, Kirk insisted it was still a "record event" with more than 13,000 tickets sold.
The claim from Kirk that Fox News banned its star personalities from participating in any TPUSA events seemingly confirms anonymously sourced reports earlier in the year that the relationship between the network and the political activism group had grown sour.
The Daily Beast initially reported in July -- and updated that report in October -- that the once-close relationship between Fox News and TPUSA, in which network stars would appear at and broadcast from events while group leaders like Kirk often appeared on network shows, was no longer a thing.
"Fox’s relationship with Turning Point is basically over," an unnamed network insider told the outlet. "They don’t want their talent associated with them anymore."
The likely reason cited for the split was the fallout over the $787 million settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems and a decision by network executives to distance themselves from "known election deniers and conspiracy theorists.
Mediaite reported that another probable reason for the apparent break-up of Fox News and TPUSA was Kirk's fierce criticism of the network over its firing of then-ratings king Tucker Carlson, which also occurred in the wake of the costly defamation lawsuit settlement and resulted in the network stepping back from anything that even remotely resembled questioning the disputed results of the 2020 election.
Earlier this week, Kirk sat down with Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlowe to discuss TPUSA's "record event" AmericaFest gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, to which more than 13,000 tickets were reportedly sold.
While discussing some of the celebrities that spoke at the event, including actors, athletes, comedians and commentators, Kirk said, "Well, what’s missing? We don’t have a single person from Fox here, and in the years past, we have."
"I love Fox. They’ve been very good to me. I hope we can heal our relationship, because for whatever reason, it’s gone off the reservation," he continued.
"Since Tucker’s departure, I haven’t been on -- and so, we had to do an event without Fox, and that was a great thing, man, because sometimes desperation is the mother of innovation, right?" Kirk added. "We kind of grew accustomed to -- Jesse Watters, love him, Greg Gutfeld, love him -- but that wasn’t a thing, we couldn’t do it, they’re not allowed to be here."
A spokesman for TPUSA, Andrew Kolvet, told the Post Millennial, "We would love to book Jesse [Watters], Laura [Ingraham], Greg [Gutfeld], Pete [Hegseth], Kayleigh [McEnany], and others. We've enjoyed having them at many of our events in the past and hopefully will again in the future. But the show goes on, and more importantly, the fight to save America continues."
He added, "The takeaway is clear: The grassroots is passionate, informed, and the media landscape is changing. People are getting their content from new places. There is no monopoly on news and influence, and TPUSA is at the epicenter of that evolving landscape."
