When President Donald Trump announced Charlie Kirk’s death, he pledged to pursue not only those directly responsible for the violence but also “the organizations that fund it and support it.” Organizations say Trump would not have to look further than the Biden administration. Federal officials went far beyond misusing taxpayer dollars, crossing into unlawful attacks on political speech.
The Media Research Center (MRC) has repeatedly sounded the alarm about federal rhetoric and actions it says were designed to damage conservative figures and organizations, including Kirk and his group, Turning Point USA, write the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Back in 2022, the MRC revealed internal documents showing that the Biden administration used the Department of Homeland Security’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) to undermine Christians, conservatives, and Republicans.
Through TVTP, DHS sent funds to the University of Dayton, which circulated a “pyramid of far-right radicalization.” That chart placed mainstream conservative organizations—including Kirk’s Turning Point USA—alongside neo-Nazis and other extremist groups.
The implication, critics argue, was clear: the federal government gave legitimacy to the idea that traditional conservative groups foster domestic terrorism.
Among the organizations included on the pyramid were the American Conservative Union Foundation, Blue Lives Matter, Breitbart, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Fox News, the Heritage Foundation, the Make America Great Again movement, the National Rifle Association, PragerU, the Republican Party, and the Tea Party Patriots.
Kirk highlighted the report on X, writing: “Breaking: Biden DHS paid $40 million on ‘anti-terrorism’ program comparing TPUSA, Heritage, PragerU to Nazis, using Antifa propaganda.”
After the report’s release, MRC founder Brent Bozell appeared on “The Charlie Kirk Podcast” to discuss the findings. “It is now unequivocal, a proven documented fact that the Biden administration is using federal funds to go after Republicans, to go after conservative organizations and to go after Christian organizations,” Bozell told Kirk. “And by the way, Charlie, they have targeted Turning Point USA as part of this.”
Kirk, visibly unsettled, asked, “Is this illegal? It certainly feels as if the federal government should not be legally allowed to use taxpayer funding to fund efforts that are categorizing organizations like ours as in symmetry with domestic terror?”
In 2024, the Biden administration again drew fire for its treatment of Kirk—this time through a Ukrainian NGO funded by the State Department. That organization, called Texty, published what Fox News described as an “Enemies List” targeting individuals and groups critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Both Kirk and Turning Point USA were featured.
The MRC claims the TVTP initiative and the Ukraine-linked list were only two examples among 57 censorship efforts carried out under the Biden administration to stifle its critics.