The great and the good of the MAGA movement gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, for AmericaFest 2025.

As the first big Turning Point USA meeting since the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, the widowed Erika Kirk kept to her promise of continuing the movement in her late husband’s honor.

Like Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk has become something of a divisive figure, batting off complaints from critics that she’s exploiting her husband’s murder, claiming America doesn’t have a gun problem despite the way in which Charlie was killed, and even conspiracy theories about her relationship with Vice President JD Vance.

AmericaFest 2025 faced plenty of problems, but away from infighting between the MAGA movement when Ben Shapiro blasted notable figures, including Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Steve Bannon as “frauds and grifters,” Erika Kirk dealt with her own dilemmas as she took to the stage

As well as laying out her grand plans for Turning Point USA in 2026, Kirk spoke out on a variety of issues…well, eventually.

Kirk has to improv her AmericaFest speech (OLIVIER TOURON / Contributor / Getty)

Stepping up as audio of Charlie Kirk played, it included a mention of how he’d want his wife to lead TPUSA if something happened to him. A waving Erika came out to pyrotechnics of red, white, and blue, confetti, but things unravelled as her iPad malfunctioned and she was left without a speech.

Going off the cuff, Kirk told the sold-out crowd: “The enemy has thrown a lot of curve balls at us today. And one of them is the fact that my entire speech has been wiped because my iPad won’t even turn on.”

There was an awkward silence from the audience as Kirk referred to a “fun technical difficulty that we can figure out.”

They say you should never work with children or animals, but technology should definitely be added to the list.

Without her speech, Erika Kirk tried to ‘wing it’ off by giving some stats about who was in attendance. After getting cheers after revealing 54% of those there were women, Kirk continued: “All 50 states represented. We have 25 countries represented, plus Puerto Rico. But I have the list here. Don’t worry, guys, Egypt is not on the list.”

Many think this is a clear dig at Owens, who, among her many conspiracy theories, claimed that an Egyptian plane had been tracking Erika Kirk days before her husband’s death. After a pause for applause during her improvised speech, Kirk chuckled: “Oh, how funny, I say ‘Egypt’ and my iPad turns on. That’s fun – where were we?”

Elsewhere, Kirk gave Vance the nod for the role as the next President of the United States, announced two TPUSA tours, and a full election program.

It would also be amiss without mentioning the controversial appearance of Nicki Minaj at AmericaFest, with the “Anaconda” artist taking heat from the Barbz after she fully threw her might behind the MAGA movement.

The drama hasn’t gone unnoticed by Kirk, who said: “Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring. Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.”

In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, Erika and TPUSA’s endeavors seem to be working. She claims membership has boomed, noting that 80% of those attending this year’s AmericaFest were there for the first time.

Hopefully, she’ll be able to afford to buy herself a new iPad.