JD Vance took the stage at Turning Point USA on Sunday and didn’t waste a second. He defended scrapping diversity programs with racially charged language, telling the crowd:
“We don’t treat anybody different because of their race or their sex, so we have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it had belonged. In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”
Amid a weekend clouded by infighting, Vance tried to play peacemaker—sort of. On the topic of controversial figures like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, he said:
“When I say that I’m going to fight alongside of you, I mean all of you — each and every one. President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests.”
In a video shared by Bulwark, he added: “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or de-platform. 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. … We have far more important work to do than canceling each other.”
Vance’s speech leaned heavily into culture wars—immigration, vaccines, transgender policies—and he used the memory of Charlie Kirk, who was killed in September, to rally the base:
“If you miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight what he died for? Do you promise to take the country back from the people who took his life?”
The weekend had been messy. Ben Shapiro called out MAGA influencers, Vivek Ramaswamy labeled some figures as extremists, and Steve Bannon fired back, calling Shapiro “a cancer, and that cancer spreads.”
By Sunday, the focus shifted to unity—and the midterms. Vance fired up the crowd against Democratic Senate candidates:
“We are gonna kick their ass next November.”
Other Republicans tried to turn chaos into cohesion. Rep. Byron Donalds said:
“I choose to build a movement, be part of a movement, that stands on principle, on strength, that loves the people in the movement, even sometimes when they piss you off. You can’t form a winning unit if you can’t stay focused on the mission at hand.”
Donald Trump Jr. put the blame squarely on the left:
“The real enemy? It’s not Steve Bannon or Tucker Carlson or Ben Shapiro, it’s the radical left that murdered Charlie and celebrated it on a daily basis.”
Vance’s objective was clear: double down on the MAGA base, embrace culture-war flashpoints, and hope the rest of the party falls in line.
JD Vance: "I didn't bring a list of conservatives to denounce or de-platform. 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…We have far more important work to do than cancelling each other." pic.twitter.com/WPGAXFx2jb
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) December 21, 2025
