Financial Structure of Turning Point USA Raises Questions About Nonprofit Spending and Executive Compensation

[00:00] Hello and welcome back to Trigger Smart.

[00:01] I did find some interesting things about

[00:03] the financials with Turning Point USA

[00:05] and it's apparent three other

[00:07] nonprofits. Now, a lot of this was

[00:09] covered on the DD Got a Podcast. I

[00:12] always get that wrong. DD Got a Podcast

[00:14] channel where he interviews an auditor

[00:16] and this is a professional auditor who's

[00:18] been doing it as a career and he found

[00:20] some very interesting things, some very

[00:22] questionable things. So, I'm going to

[00:23] cover some of what he covered and also a

[00:25] few things that I found. But the real

[00:27] question I'm trying to answer is was

[00:29] there a financial issue? So I asked Chat

[00:32] GPT to do a deep research dive and I let

[00:35] it run for about a day and a half really

[00:37] and this is basically what it came up

[00:39] with and all of this is public

[00:41] information and that's all that chat GBT

[00:43] dug into. So from the IRS filings and

[00:45] multiple summaries, Turning Point World

[00:47] is not just one nonprofit but a cluster

[00:49] of entities. The core groups within it,

[00:52] you have Turning Point USA, which is the

[00:54] main one everyone knows about. Campus

[00:56] focused 2023 revenue was about 82

[00:59] million, but the expenses were 91

[01:01] million. And they that also includes the

[01:03] $5 million grants to affiliates. And we

[01:06] know that they get contributions, they

[01:09] get donations, they have some wealthy

[01:11] billionaires apparently that throw them

[01:13] some money. 2024 85 million in expenses.

[01:17] 2024 revenue$85 million expenses 81

[01:20] million that included $10 million grants

[01:22] to America's turning point and turning

[01:24] point endowment and then we have

[01:26] America's turning point this was

[01:28] described on the 990s as education of

[01:30] students operates from the same office

[01:33] as TPUSA okay then we have turning point

[01:36] endowment

[01:38] exists to hold and grow assets for TPUSA

[01:41] held greater than 55 million in reserve

[01:43] by 2022 growing to roughly 60 to 64

[01:46] million by 2024 while TPUSA keeps

[01:49] fundraising. And then we have Turning

[01:51] Point Action political advocacy arm can

[01:54] do more overt election related work

[01:57] maybe similar to when Charlie was

[01:59] helping out President Trump. Also

[02:01] associated with Turning Point pack a

[02:03] federal pack created in 2022. And then

[02:05] we have program brands under that

[02:06] umbrella including TPUSA faith religious

[02:10] church focus program appears to be a

[02:12] project under TPUSA TP action not its

[02:14] own IRS entity. Okay, so another thing

[02:18] interesting about this and someone said

[02:20] that this was added after Charlie passed

[02:23] away, but Rob McCoy was a close ally of

[02:26] Charlie Kirk and is credited with

[02:27] helping launch Turning Point USA Faith.

[02:29] Many are saying that he did not assist

[02:31] in that the creation of it I should say.

[02:34] Um, helping launch it possibly, but it

[02:36] was just interesting that this was added

[02:38] after Charlie passed away. What

[02:39] reporters and watchdog say about this

[02:41] structure? So, it's an opaque

[02:43] organizational structure consisting of

[02:45] multiple nonprofits, packs, and a

[02:47] for-profit Turningpoint merchandise

[02:49] company that does not have to disclose

[02:50] finances publicly. NPR and Guardian

[02:53] describe it as a constellation of

[02:55] nonprofits used to run campus outreach,

[02:57] church outreach, and a massive 2024

[02:59] chase the vote gov operation. First

[03:02] question is, is this legal? Legally,

[03:05] using multiple entities is common,

[03:07] right? gives the C3C4 pack and

[03:10] endowment, but it does make money flows

[03:12] harder for the public to follow, which

[03:14] is exactly what critics latch on to.

[03:16] Now, I'm not accusing them of doing

[03:17] anything wrong because so far in this

[03:20] research, there's a lot more. I haven't

[03:22] seen anything specific, but there are a

[03:24] few things that are questionable. We'll

[03:25] see here in a second. So really the

[03:27] point is as these companies get bigger

[03:29] and as people get more greedy, they

[03:31] start creating more shell companies,

[03:33] more LLC's, and some of these companies

[03:35] don't even have employees.

[03:38] They just exist. And you're going to see

[03:41] here in a minute, um, there's some

[03:42] questionable stuff going on here. So

[03:44] next we talk about Charlie Kirk's salary

[03:46] from the nonprofits. The most detailed

[03:48] breakdowns from TPUSA form 990,

[03:51] the focus on recent years. Okay. TPUSA

[03:53] direct compensation from TPUSA's own

[03:56] 990s via paddock post 2022 filing.

[04:00] Charlie Kirk, president listed among top

[04:02] compensated executives. Article series

[04:04] shows TP USA compensation climbed into

[04:06] the high 200s to low 300s in this

[04:09] period. ProPublica summary shows him at

[04:11] 28,000 salary plus 99,000 from related

[04:15] orgs in one recent year. So that's over

[04:18] $350,000

[04:21] just from salary that he's paying

[04:23] himself from a nonprofit. And you'll see

[04:25] if you go dig a lot of these nonprofits,

[04:27] the CEO, CFO, COOS, I mean some of these

[04:30] people are making over a million a year

[04:32] that they're paying themselves from a

[04:34] nonprofit, which obviously seems very

[04:36] excessive. So in this case, you know,

[04:39] 350, 60, $70,000. Not bad for a

[04:42] nonprofit, right? Doing pretty good. And

[04:45] this doesn't count any money he would

[04:47] have made from books and things like

[04:48] that, I don't think. I'm not sure if

[04:50] that would be a separate arm from TPUSA.

[04:52] Um, and this also doesn't include the

[04:54] money from their for-profit. This is

[04:57] just strictly TPUSA itself. And now it's

[05:00] interesting because this is only for

[05:02] TPUSA, not the other three nonprofits.

[05:05] You're going to see there's some

[05:05] funniness going on with those two. So

[05:07] just from TPU USA related org's

[05:09] contribution to that salary line. He's

[05:11] around 390 to 393,000 a year in the most

[05:14] recent filings. So now let's look at the

[05:16] DD got a podcast auditor when he's

[05:18] talking about what's kind of strange

[05:20] about this.

[05:21] >> Interesting. I'm not sure why Turning

[05:22] Point needs four of these. And then what

[05:25] caught my eyes, I went I hope when I go

[05:26] and look at this I don't see Charlie

[05:28] Kirk giving himself a salary in all four

[05:31] because to me he should be getting a

[05:32] salary in TPU USA and in the other three

[05:35] it should be zero because he's not

[05:36] logging any work hours. Turning Point

[05:38] Endowment like I said literally by their

[05:40] own words manage the endowment. Charlie

[05:42] Kirk's not a financial adviser last I

[05:44] checked and what he ended up doing was

[05:46] it seems like he wanted 1.6 six million

[05:48] a year. So he divided it by four and

[05:51] then each of the nonprofits he gets

[05:53] >> like 400,000 or something,

[05:54] >> right? That that and then same with

[05:56] Tyler Boyer, he would get maybe 300 on

[05:58] all four.

[05:59] >> So what he's saying there is that this

[06:02] 300,000 390,000 whatever it was per year

[06:06] for Charlie was actually 1.6 6 million

[06:09] being 400,000 split between the

[06:11] different nonprofits that he wasn't even

[06:14] logging hours at and that he's not

[06:15] really qualified to work at like the

[06:17] endowment service. So that's where it

[06:19] gets sketchy. And same with Tyler Boyer.

[06:22] They're saying that he was getting like

[06:23] 1.2 million split among those different

[06:26] companies. So that's where you start

[06:27] getting into like sketchy area. Like is

[06:29] it illegal? I don't know if it's

[06:31] illegal, but it's definitely

[06:32] questionable.

[06:33] >> Wow. This seems like a real shady way to

[06:36] make their salaries appear less

[06:38] egregious. Let me give you an example,

[06:40] Dee. If on TPUSA, Charlie Kirk's salary

[06:43] was 1.6 million, that would catch

[06:45] attention. Remember, cuz they were quote

[06:47] audited, an auditor would catch that.

[06:49] But if it's 400,000, that's a little

[06:51] more reasonable.

[06:51] >> But why would people care if you split

[06:53] that up into four, but it still shows

[06:55] up? Even if it don't show up as one big

[06:57] lump sum, you're still paying the same

[06:59] amount of taxes. Correct.

[07:00] >> No, they care. I'm saying optically

[07:02] because no one's going to look at these

[07:03] other three nonprofits.

[07:05] >> Okay?

[07:05] >> So, you get what I'm saying? If you're

[07:06] going to look at just Turning Point.

[07:08] >> Okay? So, that's what I'm talking about

[07:09] when I say it's kind of sketchy. He said

[07:12] it himself. I don't really need to

[07:13] repeat it, but the way the finances are

[07:15] being handled looks like they're kind of

[07:17] being shady and trying to mask things.

[07:19] They want more money. They're greedy

[07:21] with the money in a nonprofit like a lot

[07:23] of previous nonprofits have been. If you

[07:26] go look at Goodwill and those kind of

[07:27] companies, you'll see in a lot of cases

[07:29] people like, "Why is the CEO getting

[07:31] paid $4 million a year for a nonprofit?"

[07:34] It's just really sketchy. And then when

[07:36] you start looking into, you know, they

[07:38] have investors, they have people that

[07:40] donate and they're getting paid these

[07:42] monstrous salaries. Would that make the

[07:44] donors happy? And what else are they

[07:46] doing with this money? I mean, like,

[07:47] check out his house. Look at this. This

[07:50] is the mansion of Charlie Kirk, one of

[07:52] the most influential conservative

[07:54] leaders in America, [music] and he was

[07:56] shot. This $6.5 million Spanish-style

[08:00] estate in Scottsdale, Arizona, spans

[08:02] over 6,800 square ft with six bedrooms,

[08:06] a chef's kitchen, a resort-style pool,

[08:09] and even a private guest casita. Once

[08:12] just a symbol of luxury, this home is

[08:14] now forever tied to a name making

[08:16] headlines across the nation. Not too

[08:18] shabby, right? Not too shabby for a

[08:21] nonprofit and being 30 years old, $6.5

[08:25] million mansion. So if you're at a

[08:27] nonprofit, you can live like this. You

[08:30] can live in luxury like a celebrity. And

[08:32] Charlie often talked about how to get

[08:33] rich.

[08:34] >> And by by the way, so you have a problem

[08:35] of the world's richest people. They

[08:37] don't know where to put their money. So

[08:38] there's only so many pen houses in

[08:40] London and Paris that they could buy.

[08:41] [music] There's only so many ranches in

[08:42] Wyoming that they could buy. And so they

[08:44] we had this problem. So you create all

[08:46] this money. the money goes upwards. It's

[08:48] a wealth inequality point to your

[08:50] earlier point. The question is then,

[08:51] well, what do rich people do with money?

[08:52] There's only so many equities they can

[08:54] buy. There's only so many shares in

[08:55] Nvidia and Apple and Microsoft they

[08:57] could justify. Well, money needs to find

[08:59] a home and it's found a home in Bitcoin.

[09:01] Okay, so now he's saying that rich

[09:03] people have nowhere to put their money.

[09:05] They just keep spending it and they keep

[09:07] putting it places. So now let's look at

[09:09] this. Charlie Cook death, what we know

[09:10] about Turning Point Funner's family, the

[09:11] fortune he left behind. So digging into

[09:14] this talks about he has his family

[09:16] obviously. So he has a six-bedroom

[09:19] Scottsdale, Arizona $6.5 million mansion

[09:22] which I believe has been evaluated as

[09:24] low as 4 or5 million. It says a month

[09:26] before he was shot and killed he

[09:27] accepted an offer of 5.25 million

[09:29] against his home. The new portal also

[09:32] cited that a realtor report suggested

[09:34] the property changed hands in June of

[09:36] 2023 for 4.75 million. As per the Times

[09:39] of India report, Crick should be Kirk

[09:42] also owned a $855,000

[09:44] condo in Florida, which is also now

[09:46] being handed over to his family. So, if

[09:49] this is correct at live mint.com, he has

[09:53] a between 4 and $6 million mansion. And

[09:56] then he also has a basically

[09:58] million-dollar condo in Florida. Not too

[10:01] shabby for a nonprofit. According to

[10:02] celebrity net worth data, Charlie Kirk,

[10:05] entrepreneur, author, and producer, was

[10:06] worth nearly $12 million at the time of

[10:09] his death. Now, that for a nonprofit

[10:13] 30-year-old who goes around and talks at

[10:15] campuses, that's extremely impressive,

[10:18] right? And considering that he had all

[10:20] those donors, were they donating part of

[10:22] his salary to him or were they donating

[10:25] the money to be used by TPUSA? Now, a

[10:27] lot of people will say that he had other

[10:29] income streams, and I would agree. He

[10:32] had a radio program called The Charlie

[10:34] Kirk Show, and he would have made money

[10:36] off of ad revenue and sponsorships and

[10:38] things like that. And then he also

[10:39] published a few books. And then they go

[10:41] on to talk about Erica, businesswoman

[10:43] and podcaster, crowned Miss Arizona. She

[10:46] owns Proclaim Street,

[10:48] and she founded the company in December

[10:50] of 2018. Erica also worked as a real

[10:52] estate agent for Concora Group and she

[10:54] also holds a doctorate of education

[10:56] degree. So between the two of them,

[10:58] business savvy, educated, uh we know

[11:01] that Charlie Kirk did not go on to

[11:03] college, but that doesn't mean that he

[11:04] can't be rich and smart with money. But

[11:07] I find it very interesting that the

[11:09] amount of money they have seems

[11:12] disproportionate to what a nonprofit was

[11:14] doing. And then we have another tidbit

[11:16] from this DDG podcast. Make sure you go

[11:19] check them out. Make sure you go

[11:19] subscribe and watch the full video. It's

[11:21] actually pretty fascinating. But here

[11:23] they talk about the life insurance and

[11:25] the questionable dealings around that.

[11:27] >> I think next we should cover this

[11:28] section right below this. I found this.

[11:30] It's hard to surprise me because I've

[11:32] been doing this so long and this really

[11:34] took me back. Let's try and like kind of

[11:36] clearly explain what's going on here.

[11:38] >> Okay.

[11:38] >> In 20, let me make sure I got the right.

[11:40] in 2023, I found somewhere near the

[11:43] bottom that they Charlie Kirk or Erica

[11:46] Kirk rather, I'm not sure which one, but

[11:48] created an LLC called GG uh LF.

[11:52] Interestingly, if you know, one of the

[11:53] kids' names is GG. So, I'm speculating.

[11:57] First, let me explain what this is, then

[11:58] I'll speculate as to what I think

[11:59] happened here.

[12:00] >> I'm guessing GG LF is their daughter's

[12:02] name and then life like life insurance.

[12:04] But, um, you'll see this is interesting.

[12:06] So, they made a separate entity just to

[12:09] get a loan to fund Charlie Kirk's life

[12:11] insurance. And if you know anything

[12:12] about life insurance, um you can get,

[12:14] you know, multi-million dollar policies

[12:17] for a few thousand a year. This was

[12:19] $350,000.

[12:22] How big is that policy?

[12:23] >> Uncommon. You you use these life

[12:25] policies in the event if the guy who's

[12:28] running the nonprofit is like the face

[12:29] of the company, right? Elon Musk is the

[12:31] face of Tesla, Charlie Kirk the face of

[12:33] this. you can kind of protect yourself,

[12:36] I guess, financially. So, you take this

[12:38] out, if something happens to him, you

[12:40] get a a portion of it, a very small

[12:42] portion, by the way, and then Erica or

[12:44] the beneficiary gets the rest. Timing is

[12:46] odd because it's 2023. Remember,

[12:49] Charlie's been the face of this thing, I

[12:51] would say, at least since 2017. I know

[12:53] it started in 2012, but meaning like

[12:55] where he was on the map, everyone knew

[12:57] [clears throat] 2017 that it took six

[12:59] years for them to think, oh, we should

[13:01] uh, you know, get a policy. So, I would

[13:04] agree that the timing is interesting.

[13:06] So, if he'd been doing this thing for,

[13:08] you know, six years, how come he never

[13:10] had this huge policy on it the whole

[13:12] time? And they were growing quickly and

[13:15] he had advisers around him and

[13:16] everything else. So, the fact that this

[13:18] was just done in 2023, like he said, is

[13:20] a little sketchy,

[13:21] >> but uh so they did anyway. And it's a

[13:24] massive premium, 350,000 a year. It

[13:27] could be upwards of 1020 million. And

[13:28] Erica's again, I'm assuming Erica, the

[13:30] beneficiary is going to get because of

[13:32] how high the premium is, right?

[13:33] >> Okay. So, he said it depends on net

[13:34] worth and we just heard from what I was

[13:36] saying previously that his net worth at

[13:38] his time of death was estimated around

[13:40] 12 million. And from what this guy's

[13:42] saying, this could be $10 to $20 million

[13:45] policy. So, is that kind of in the

[13:47] range? Maybe. Right. So, maybe it's not

[13:50] as crazy as it sounds, but very

[13:52] interesting the timing and the fact that

[13:54] this gets paid out to Erica if something

[13:55] happens to him. So, there was a loan

[13:57] taken out against TPUSA or this LLC they

[14:01] formed for $350,000. And you'll see this

[14:03] was per year. So, they did it every

[14:05] year. And this was to get a multi-tens

[14:08] of millions of dollar policy for Erica

[14:12] and the family. And and some of it goes

[14:13] to the company apparently. And um it's

[14:15] just interesting that this is in place

[14:18] and that it was just done recently. And

[14:20] then another thing I wanted to cover

[14:21] here really quick because we know that

[14:22] Rob McCoy and some of the other

[14:24] employees at TP USA are kind of under

[14:27] unofficial investigation by certain

[14:28] people like Candice and Baron Coleman

[14:30] here. And um if you haven't checked out

[14:32] Baron, you know, go check out his

[14:34] channel. He covers a lot of topics. He

[14:35] was the one that kind of originally got

[14:37] into the search the search trends that

[14:39] was happening on Google. But it's

[14:41] interesting because he was doing a live

[14:43] podcast here and during the podcast the

[14:46] very video that he's talking about and

[14:47] criticizing from Rob McCoy's church gets

[14:50] taken down during the stream

[14:52] >> and you you saw

[14:57] >> Have they pulled the video?

[15:00] No.

[15:02] You are kidding me. They do you see what

[15:04] I see?

[15:07] Ladies and gentlemen,

[15:09] WHILE WE'RE ON AIR, they have marked the

[15:13] video private.

[15:14] >> So, this is interesting. So, do they

[15:16] have people watching his video and then

[15:19] marking theirs as private so that he

[15:20] can't use it in his analysis?

[15:23] Or has there been so much pressure on

[15:25] them? Maybe they're getting nervous and

[15:27] now they're starting to take evidence

[15:29] down or thinks it could be used in a

[15:31] incriminating way down. I think there's

[15:33] a lot of funny business going on and it

[15:35] could be, you know, young guy grows up

[15:38] quick, grows a company, company grows

[15:40] quick, brings on a lot of people. They

[15:42] kind of take advantage of him, convince

[15:44] him to do certain things. Money goes

[15:46] weird places,

[15:48] getting paid a salary from four

[15:49] different nonprofits, three of which he

[15:52] didn't technically work for or at or or

[15:54] log any hours into. And then you have

[15:56] this life insurance policy for tens of

[15:58] millions of dollars. Now, I'm not saying

[16:00] definitively that anything is going on.

[16:02] There's no wrongdoing, but from what we

[16:04] see, there are some allegations. There's

[16:06] some very strange things going on, and

[16:08] there's some questions that should

[16:09] probably be answered. And then we have

[16:11] this gym here. We have Charlie Kirk

[16:14] talking about how you should live to get

[16:16] rich. And um now remember, he has a $6.5

[16:20] million mansion. He has a $855,000

[16:24] condo. living in luxury, flying around

[16:26] first class to all these different

[16:28] locations on campuses and things. So,

[16:30] let's see what he has to say about it.

[16:31] >> If you want like the secret to get rich

[16:33] there, it's actually like not super

[16:35] hard. It's like live below your means,

[16:38] save your money, invest in good

[16:40] companies, and then find good ideas and

[16:44] read a lot. Like read a lot. If you just

[16:46] read a lot and you like all of a sudden

[16:48] you'll see trends and you'll be well

[16:50] informed.

[16:51] >> So, live below your means. And that's uh

[16:53] something that he lived by for sure. So

[16:56] what are your thoughts? Do you think

[16:58] that there's anything fishy going on

[16:59] financially? It is not uncommon to have

[17:02] multiple companies. It is not uncommon

[17:04] to have some funny business with money

[17:07] going on to make salaries look less than

[17:08] they are and stuff like that. People,

[17:10] you know, companies do it all the time.

[17:12] But when it gets to a certain point

[17:14] where it's millions of dollars where

[17:16] they get paid or have donations and

[17:18] things coming in for, you know, 81

[17:20] million in a year and there's only 4

[17:22] million left at the end of the year. So

[17:24] I just want to kind of finish up here

[17:25] with what chatbt pulled from the public

[17:27] records. There's a separate data source

[17:29] saying that Turning Point Action also

[17:31] paid him 98,000 in compensation during

[17:33] 2022. And as you remember from that

[17:36] video from DD Got a podcast, the guy was

[17:38] saying that that was as high as 400,000

[17:42] per nonprofit.

[17:44] So for 2022, it was in the 300ks. But

[17:47] that's TPUSA, TP Action, and related

[17:50] orgs. But in 2023 and 2024, it looked

[17:53] like he was getting that much per shell

[17:56] company or per nonprofit. And according

[17:58] to this, based on publicly visible

[18:00] filings, he was getting roughly 400,000

[18:02] per year. That was TPUSA and TP Action

[18:06] and related allocations before any

[18:07] separate income. He also had the Charlie

[18:09] Kirk show which based on the views would

[18:11] make a pretty good chunk of money,

[18:14] speaking fees, book royalties, and then

[18:16] personal investments, real estate, and

[18:17] that kind of stuff. And remember that

[18:18] Erica had a real estate, she was a real

[18:20] estate agent. But then we have Tyler

[18:22] Boyer's compensation, 240,000 per year,

[18:25] 2023. A portion of the compensation was

[18:28] from a related organization. What's that

[18:30] related organization?

[18:32] And then you have ProPublica as saying

[18:34] is 233,000. Um the auditor said it was

[18:36] around 300,000. So from each so we'll

[18:40] say 400,000 from each for Charlie Kirk

[18:42] and 300,000 from each for Tyler Boer.

[18:45] Tyler also got paid separately from

[18:47] Turning Point Action. Another 70,000

[18:49] that was in 2022. So stacked together,

[18:52] he's in the high 300s. And this is again

[18:54] not inherently illegal, but it's the

[18:56] type of thing watchdogs highlight as

[18:57] self-enrichment risk and tightly

[19:00] controlled nonprofit networks. Even Chat

[19:02] GBT is kind of flagging this as, hey,

[19:04] you know, this is something to watch.

[19:05] This doesn't look like um even though

[19:07] it's not illegal, it looks like it's a

[19:09] self-enrichment risk, which means

[19:11] they're trying to get loaded. They're

[19:12] trying to get filthy rich through this

[19:14] nonprofit. The pattern, huge spending on

[19:17] travel, conventions, and staff versus

[19:18] comparatively modest grant making.

[19:21] Critics argue this looks more like a

[19:22] high-end events and media machine than a

[19:24] traditional charitable education or

[19:26] first class charter travel for

[19:28] leadership and companions. TPUSA90

[19:30] summaries explicitly note that TPUSA

[19:32] pays for first class or charter travel

[19:34] for CEO, COO, and other employees, plus

[19:37] travel companions when necessary for the

[19:38] mission. While it sounds like it was

[19:40] necessary every time, again, not

[19:42] illegal, but this kind of perk often

[19:44] shows up in stories about lavish

[19:46] nonprofit lifestyles. Then we have large

[19:48] repeated payments to a small cluster of

[19:50] vendors. The same filings show millions

[19:52] going to a handful of contractors.

[19:54] Resource 1, printing and publications,

[19:56] 2.9 million in 2023, 6 million in 2024.

[19:59] So that doubled for printing and

[20:00] publications 1.3 million which was

[20:03] posted under unclear discrepancy

[20:06] mosaic event productions 3.9 million to

[20:09] 4 million active engagement 2.7 to 3

[20:13] million American solutions for business

[20:15] 1.9 to2 million another printing company

[20:18] Fox News channel ads and promotion 1.4 4

[20:21] million in 2023. And of course, you have

[20:23] to market, right? So that makes sense.

[20:25] Public reporting also notes that

[20:27] millions of dollars were paid out to a

[20:28] cluster of companies linked to a handful

[20:29] of group leaders and their allies based

[20:31] on tax documents. Without clear

[20:33] independent board oversight, that kind

[20:35] of vendor pattern raises self-deing

[20:36] questions, even if nothing has been

[20:38] legally proven. Endowment hoarding

[20:40] versus program spending. AP and later

[20:42] coverage point out that Turning Point's

[20:44] endowment built up tens of millions in

[20:46] reserves, more than 55 million in 2022,

[20:49] growing to 60.9 million by 2024, even as

[20:52] TPUSA continually pushes donors to give

[20:54] to save America right now. Now, at least

[20:56] to the criticism, are donors being told

[20:58] enough about how much of their money is

[21:00] being banked versus spent on campus

[21:02] activism? Then we have this FEC matter

[21:04] involving Turning Point action. The

[21:06] final legal outcome is technical and not

[21:08] criminal conviction. But the fact that

[21:09] TP action draws FEC scrutiny for

[21:11] election conduct adds to the perception

[21:13] of a line pushing political operation.

[21:16] So the proper way to phrase this, some

[21:18] analysts online say that TPUSA's 2024

[21:20] form 90 includes a split dollar life

[21:21] insurance deal funded by a loan from an

[21:23] LLC. I haven't yet independently

[21:26] verified the exact numbers and I don't

[21:28] think anyone else has either. And then

[21:29] we have Erica's businesses and

[21:30] nonprofits. This is her for-profit brand

[21:32] ecosystem. She has Proclaim which is

[21:35] street wear Christian clothing marketed

[21:37] as made in the USA tied to faith

[21:39] messaging Bible and 365

[21:42] Bible reading app midweek rise up

[21:44] podcast it's a devotional and then she

[21:46] is a real estate agent for cororin group

[21:49] as of 2025 she's also licensed to work

[21:51] in New York City real estate according

[21:52] to media profiles then she has a

[21:54] nonprofits everyday heroes like you

[21:57] founded years before she married Kirk

[21:59] IRS records confirm it's recognized as a

[22:01] public charity but this is saying that

[22:03] its annual revenues are relatively

[22:04] small, typically less than 50,000. So

[22:06] articles estimate her personal net worth

[22:08] around a couple million and then that

[22:10] rises when you add Charlie's which was

[22:12] estimated around 12 million. There are

[22:14] some allegations and some infographics

[22:16] and things online posting that claim

[22:18] TPUSA raised 389 to 400 million since

[22:21] 2012 and they spend more money on

[22:23] marketing luxury travel and conferences

[22:25] than on direct campus support echoing

[22:27] Forbes and AP numbers. Then there's some

[22:29] reports and allegations that thread

[22:31] TPUSA through America Turning Point, TP

[22:34] Endowment, TP Action, and Turning Point

[22:36] Pack. And they argue that this allows

[22:37] donors to move money between

[22:38] taxdeductible, dark money, and pack

[22:41] channels while keeping the brand

[22:42] unified. Public IRS filings show that

[22:44] Charlie Kirk and his top lieutenants

[22:45] drew hundreds of thousands of dollars a

[22:47] year in salary from a web of Turning

[22:49] Point nonprofits, while the flagship

[22:51] charity spends tens of millions annually

[22:53] on travel, conventions, and contracted

[22:55] vendors. Watchdog groups and

[22:57] investigative reporters say the

[22:58] structure is unusually complex and

[23:00] opaque for a campus education nonprofit,

[23:03] but so far there's no court ruling that

[23:05] these arrangements are illegal. They're

[23:08] just raising a lot of eyebrows. So, what

[23:09] are your thoughts? I found all of this

[23:11] very, very interesting. Um, again,

[23:13] there's no specific allegations of

[23:16] wrongdoing. It just raises a lot of

[23:19] eyebrows. And this type of pattern has

[23:21] been seen in other companies. Right now,

[23:22] I can't say that there's anything

[23:24] nefarious going on, but they're

[23:25] definitely using a lot of tactics to use

[23:27] a lot of money, spend a lot of money,

[23:29] and pay themselves a lot of money. I

[23:30] don't know. Let me know your thoughts in

[23:31] the comments. And as always, like,

[23:33] subscribe, and share this around. And

[23:34] I'll see you on the next one.