On Oct. 15, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) announced via Instagram that Benny Johnson, Eric Trump, Lara Trump and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville will speak for the upcoming “This is the Turning Point Tour” event on Wednesday, Nov. 5 in Neville Arena. The event, hosted by the TPUSA chapter at Auburn University, is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., with doors opening at 5:00 p.m.
Tickets for the event are free and on a first-come, first-served basis. Students get priority in reserving tickets, and general attendees can join a waitlist. The tickets can be found on the TPUSA website.
On Sept. 10, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a campus debate event at Utah Valley University. Before his passing, Kirk and the TPUSA team planned on hosting college events through the fall. In a response to Kirk's death, the team announced the fall tour would continue in memory of the founder.
“Our campus tour this fall will continue. There will be even more tours in the years to come,” Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, said in a livestream two days following his death.
The “This is the Turning Point Tour,” which started on Sept. 22 at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with speaker Michael Knowles, is making 11 stops. The Auburn event, which is the second-to-last stop of the tour, will follow a stop at the University of Mississippi on Oct. 29, where Erika Kirk and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance are the keynote speakers.
Eric Trump, one of the speakers for the Auburn event, is the son of President Donald Trump. In 2006, after graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Eric Trump was named the executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization. In this role, Trump expanded the Trump’s real estate through acquiring and renovating numerous golf and hotel properties. When his father was first elected in 2016, Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump, Jr., were named directors of the family business trust. Throughout his father’s presidential campaigns and administrations, Eric has played a role as a senior advisor and national surrogate.
The other visiting family member is Lara Trump, Eric Trump's wife whom he married in 2014 at the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Lara Trump, who initially worked for Inside Edition from 2012 to 2016, has served various roles in Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, served as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee from March 2024 until December of the same year, and is currently the host of her own weekend show on Fox News called “My View with Lara Trump.”
“Absolutely MASSIVE announcement… Eric & Lara Trump, Coach, and Me at Auburn… Let’s gooooo,” another Auburn event speaker, Benny Johnson, said on X on Oct. 15 in response to the announcement.
Benny Johnson is a long-time right-wing political commentator. Johnson has gained an online presence through his own podcast, “The Benny Show Podcast,” appearances on Fox News and his contributions to TPUSA. According to his website, Johnson has previously worked as a host at Newsmax, digital director of National Review, creative director at International Journal Review and viral politics editor at TheBlaze and at Buzzfeed.
“Excited to welcome @TPUSA to the Loveliest Village on the Plains in a few weeks,” Tuberville, the fourth event speaker, shared on X on Sept. 22 in response to the announcement of the campus tour.
Senator Tuberville, or “Coach Tuberville,” was the coach of Auburn University’s football team from 1999 to 2008. In 2004, the team went undefeated, and he was voted the Associated Press’s Coach of the Year. After retiring from coaching and working for ESPN as an analyst, Tuberville decided to enter politics. In the 2020 election, Tuberville beat incumbent U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D–Alabama) to become a senator of Alabama. Despite initially planning on running for re-election, on May 27 of this year, Tuberville announced that he would run for governor of Alabama in 2026.
“We were working on this with Charlie before he lost his life. He wanted to come to Auburn, and we were working out the details. Obviously, things have changed, but what hasn’t changed is the fact that we’re still going to bring his thoughts and memory to Auburn. My understanding is that it’s going to be a hard ticket to get. We’ve got a lot of great Americans on that campus that really love Charlie and want to continue [his legacy],” Tuberville said while appearing on “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast on Oct. 16.
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