Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson Feud at Turning Point USA Conference Over MAGA

The Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson had unkind words for each other at the Turning Point USA event AmericaFest on Dec. 18, 2025, and their feud is the talk of the town.

According to Fox News, the men's feud dominated the annual AmericaFest conference at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz., with Ben going in on Tucker for inviting white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his X show.

Ben had strong words about Tucker at the Republican event, and he did not mince words when he attacked the former Fox News host for hosting a white nationalist on his show. Ben also referenced the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in his speech.

“Kirk knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll, and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility, and that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did," he said, per The Hill.

"He built Nick Fuentes up, and he ought to take responsibility for that, just as he ought to take responsibility for glazing pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate,” he added. Ben also called some members of the MAGA movement “charlatans,” “frauds,” and “grifters,” and criticized Tucker for not calling out Candace Owens for her conspiracy theories about Charlie's death. The activist was murdered in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, and she claimed that he was "betrayed" by his team.

“The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty," he claimed. "Who offer nothing but bile and despair, who seek to undermine fundamental principles of conservatism by championing enervation and grievance. These people are frauds, and they are grifters, and they do not deserve your time.”

Tucker Carlson also spoke at the event, and he joked about Ben's critique of him.

"I hope I didn’t miss anything meaningful," he joked. "I don’t think I did. No, I’m just kidding. I watched it. I laughed. I laughed the kind of bitter, sardonic laugh that emerges from you when an upside-down world arrives.”

According to Politico, he also said, "That guy is pompous,” and promised everyone that he was not antisemitic.

“Antisemitism is not just naughty, it’s immoral," he said. “That is racism that is precisely as bad as antisemitism, but it is much more widespread and has been so far much more damaging," he added, per CNN.

"To hear calls for deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event, I’m like, what? This is hilarious.”

"Attacking millions of Americans because they're Muslim? It's disgusting. And I'm a Christian," he said. "I know there's an effort to claim I'm a secret Jihadi. I'm not. You should not attack people on those grounds! And you're seeing it from Republicans."

Charlie's widow, Erika Kirk, also spoke at the event.

“You may not agree with everyone on this stage this weekend, and that’s OK,” she said. "Welcome to America. Charlie would’ve welcomed that.”