Charlie Kirk's "The American Comeback Tour" event at Utah Valley University on Tuesday was the first stop on a fall tour in which attendees were invited to debate the conservative political activist and Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder at a "Prove Me Wrong" table in a public setting.
In a Facebook post in August, an events account for TPUSA promoted the event as "a lively discussion of Freedom & America."
"Join Charlie Kirk on campus for a lively discussion of Freedom & America! Don't agree with Charlie? Great, you go to the front of the line. See you there!" the group posted.
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Utah Valley University's student newspaper, the UVU Review, reported the campus had a "divided opinion" on Kirk being invited to speak, and some students had started an online petition asking administrators to stop him from coming.
Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk debates students during his "American Comeback Tour" event on the University of Tennessee's campus in Knoxville, March 13, 2025.
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK
The university issued a statement on Sept. 3 titled "Free Expression and Neutrality," writing, "UVU, including its leaders speaking on behalf of the institution, does not take official positions on political, social, or cultural controversies unless they directly impact our mission, operations, or core values."
Kirk had steadily grown in influence since founding TPUSA in 2012 as a place "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principals of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government," according to the organization's website.
While Kirk had been holding TPUSA events on campuses for years, they reached a new level of online attention since early last year as clips from his “Prove Me Wrong” debates exploded on TikTok -- often drawing tens of millions of views.
Kirk first launched his own TikTok in early 2024 in the lead-up to the presidential election and started posting edited clips from his campus events where students line up to debate him. Those quickly went massively viral, expanding Kirk and TPUSA’s reach online outside just conservative circles.
TPUSA sources say the clips have become one of its most powerful recruiting tools, targeting young people on TikTok.
TPUSA says it has a presence on more than 3,500 high school and college campuses in the U.S. with more than 250,000 student members, and more than 450 full- and part-time staff. It says it's the largest and fastest-growing conservative youth activist organization in the country.
Kirk's social media accounts boast millions of followers and President Donald Trump credited him with turning out young voters that helped him win the 2024 presidential election.
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Trump's appearance at TPUSA's "AmericaFest" in December was his first rally-style speech after winning the election the month before, one of several speeches he has made to the organization. He praised Kirk's impact on his campaign.
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"I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk. He's really an amazing guy, amazing guy and his whole staff for their relentless efforts to achieve this very historic victory … It's not my victory, it's your victory. It's a great honor," Trump said.
Kirk also spoke at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican conventions that nominated Trump to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee.
In addition to the Utah Valley stop, the tour was to continue on to other college campuses in Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Kirk was scheduled to debate progressive influencer Hasan Piker at Dartmouth College on Sept. 25.
Posts from TPUSA's social media accounts boasted of large turnouts at similar events at college campuses in the spring.
ABC News' Jared Kofsky, Tonya Simpson, and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.