Right-wing Facebook scammers are grifting off Charlie Kirk’s death

In the days since Kirk’s assassination, more than a dozen right-wing Facebook marketing schemes have tried to profit from his death, hawking t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, and coffee mugs featuring the late activist’s image.

Networks of pages linked to anonymous LLCs like “End the Wokeness,” “GOP Gear,” “Real News Now,” “Republican State,” “Red White and Blue Zone,” and “50 Stars Nation,” among others, have spent over $300,000 on Facebook ads exploiting Kirk’s death to sell merchandise. None of these pages claim that proceeds will benefit the Kirk family or Turning Point USA.

This pattern is not entirely surprising. These Facebook pages are among the platform’s highest-spending political advertisers, often pouring millions into direct marketing campaigns aimed at selling political merchandise, primarily to older conservatives. “End the Wokeness,” for example, has spent more than $5.8 million on such ads since 2022.

The Facebook grifting off of Kirk’s death isn’t just limited to these merch vendors—a major right-wing media company has also sought to take advantage. Conservative news outlet Newsmax is currently running ads using Kirk’s likeness to sell subscriptions to Newsmax Magazine. The company created an entire Kirk-themed landing page packed with “FREE Gifts” and a “Special Offer!”

These efforts make clear that in the right-wing attention economy, even a popular figure’s death is just another opportunity for monetization. From anonymous merch vendors to established outlets like Newsmax, the sale of Kirk’s illustrates how even political grief can get repackaged as a get-rich-quick scheme.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Phoenix for Kirk’s memorial service. Part revival, part Republican Party Convention, it was a grand visual illustration of the late activist’s power and influence among American conservatives. It was also a reminder of the scale of the organization that Kirk left behind. Over the past 12 years, Turning Point USA has become a sprawling network of brands and entities that have become the envy of the political Left, bringing in tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. 

Kirk started Turning Point in an era when Republicans were in the political wilderness, around the same time other right-wing media outlets were being born—PragerU and the Daily Wire among them. In 2013, the first year I could find financial records for the group, Kirk raised just $78,000 for Turning Point USA. Ten years later, the organization’s four primary entities—Turning Point USA (a 501c3 nonprofit), Turning Point Action (a 501c4 nonprofit), Turning Point Endowment, and Turning Point PAC—had raised nearly $100 million in a single year. According to the AP, Turning Point also has a for-profit merchandise company that is not required to disclose its revenue. 

In the days since his assassination, Turning Point’s various brands have seen a massive influx of new followers across their various social media channels. Since the events of September 10th, Turning Point has added over 30 million net new followers to its multiple accounts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, with more than 12 million new followers added to Kirk’s own accounts. 

The recent growth of the organization’s social media following has basically doubled the size of Turning Point’s online megaphone, and will help Kirk’s widow and successor, Erika, reach new audiences as she takes control of the group. “I'll make Turning Point USA the biggest thing that this nation has ever seen,” Erika vowed in the days following her husband’s death. 

One thing to watch: Charlie Kirk’s personal accounts boast over 40 million followers. Will the organization seek to rebrand and repurpose his digital assets? Or will they keep them as a kind of online memorial to the powerful conservative activist? I reached out to Turning Point’s communications team to ask, and have not received a response either way. 

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has recently ramped up advertising and fundraising campaigns for his political organization, Win the Era. On Facebook, Buttigieg’s group has spent nearly $200,000 in the past 90 days to bring in grassroots donations.