Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk slam SPLC as 'scam' after organization labels TPUSA a 'hate group'

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk both responded to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) classifying TPUSA as a "hate group," saying that the group is a "scam." The SPLC put TPUSA and its college chapters on the activist organization's "hate map" alongside violent, white nationalist KKK chapters.

TPUSA, a nonprofit youth organization that center's around traditional values in America, family, liberty, and other viewpoints was classified as a "hate group" by the SPLC in their latest “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, which was described as a “well-funded, hard-right organization with links to Southern Poverty Law Center-identified hard-right extremists and a tremendous amount of influence in conservative politics.” Chapters are often found as clubs on college campuses and host political speaking events.

Kirk said the SPLC "added Turning Point to their ridiculous 'hate group' list, right next to the KKK and neo-Nazis, a cheap smear from a washed-up org that’s been fleecing scared grandmas for decades."

"They somehow still rake in over $100 million a year peddling their 'hate map' nonsense, sitting pretty in their Montgomery 'Poverty Palace' while crying about 'hate' to line their pockets. Even former staffers called their racket a 'con.' Their game plan? Scare financial institutions into debanking us, pressure schools to cancel us, and demonize us so some unhinged lunatic feels justified targeting us. Remember the Family Research Council? An SPLC-inspired gunman went after them. They’d love nothing more than to see TPUSA in the crosshairs. But it’s 2025, and nobody with a functioning brain buys their garbage anymore."

Kirk went onto say that the left-wing activist organization is "terrified" of what TPUSA has accomplished and that America is done with the "scam" offered by the organization. X owner and Tesla founder Elon Musk responded to the post from Kirk, declaring, "SPLC is a scam organization."

The report from the SPLC claimed that groups such as TPUSA, are “emblematic” of the political right, which has “embraced aggressive state and federal power to enforce a social order rooted in white supremacy.”

TPUSA frequently holds multiple national events such as Jewish, black, and female leadership summits. Kirk holds events at colleges where he speaks and engages with students.

The report from the SPLC also claims that TPUSA’s “primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists.”