In the weeks since the brutal and public assassination of Charlie Kirk, the conservative movement has not been allowed to mourn. Instead, it has been forced to watch as Turning Point USA, the organization he built into a political juggernaut, descends into a state of “internal chaos.” The grief has been eclipsed by a bitter civil war, a battle for the narrative of Kirk’s final days, fueled by a series of explosive “leaked” text messages that threaten to burn his entire legacy to the ground.

At the center of this firestorm are two formidable women: Erika Kirk, his widow, who was unanimously elected CEO just eight days after his death; and Candace Owens, the movement’s most vocal firebrand, who has appointed herself chief investigator and is waging a public crusade against the very organization her friend founded.

The match that lit this inferno was a single, devastating screenshot.

Shared by Candace Owens, the image allegedly from a private, nine-member group chat, contains a message from Charlie Kirk himself, reportedly sent just days before his death. It reads: “Just lost another huge Jewish donor. $2 million a year because we won’t cancel Tucker.”

For years, rumors have swirled about the internal pressures at TPUSA. This text was the receipt. It was tangible proof that Kirk, in his final days, was at war with his own benefactors, caught between his loyalty to figures like Tucker Carlson and the demands of powerful pro-Israel donors.

In a normal scandal, the organization would deny, deflect, and discredit. But this situation is anything but normal. In a stunning, almost surreal twist, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet went on the record and confirmed the text is “authentic.” He didn’t just confirm it; he embraced it. “I actually am really excited that the truth is out there,” Kolvet stated, revealing that the screen grab was one he had shared.

That admission has legitimized Owens’s crusade and torn the organization in two. It proved that Kirk was, as Owens has alleged, under immense pressure. It also set the stage for a direct confrontation, one that now defines the battle for TPUSA’s future.

Candace Owens is not just hinting at a conspiracy; she is screaming it. She has “intensely pursuing” the circumstances of Kirk’s death, dropping “new theories” and accusing the TPUSA leadership of actively “manipulating people to not dig deeper.”

Her primary target is, implicitly and explicitly, the new CEO. In the most brutal and personal attack yet, Owens publicly posed the question that has been whispered in private: “What kind of a widow would not want the truths of her husband’s murder to come out?”

The attack is a direct challenge to Erika Kirk’s leadership and her handling of her husband’s memory. Owens claims the organization is “lying and gaslighting” its followers, turning a tragedy into a fundraising opportunity. “They want us to believe that the only way to respect Charlie is to donate money to Turning Point USA instead of asking what exactly happened on that day,” Owens fumed. “You should not grieve by lying and gaslighting.”

This is not just a personal feud. It is an ideological schism that the “leaked” text exposed. The “Tucker” mentioned is, of course, Tucker Carlson, who had appeared on Kirk’s program. Carlson himself confirmed the rift, stating on his own show that Kirk “did not like Bibi Netanyahu” and felt the Israeli Prime Minister was a “destructive force” who “uses the United States to fight wars serving Israel’s interests.”

The leaked text is the smoking gun. It proves Kirk was willing to sacrifice a $2 million donor to protect his alliance with Carlson and his “America First” stance, which was increasingly critical of foreign entanglements.

For Owens, this is not the only secret the new TPUSA leadership is hiding. She has also begun leaking other messages, claiming the deeply Evangelical Kirk was undergoing a profound spiritual crisis. She alleges he was “softening to Catholicism,” “praying with a rosary,” and had even texted her directly, “Catholicism is looking better and better.”

This claim is, in some ways, more explosive than the donor text. It paints a portrait of a man fundamentally at odds with the very Evangelical base he cultivated. It suggests a leader in deep personal and spiritual conflict, a “legacy” far more complex and perhaps, to his own organization, more dangerous than that of a simple martyr.

While Owens wages this public war, Erika Kirk has remained a portrait of calculated composure. Her rapid ascent to CEO, vowing to make TPUSA “the biggest thing this nation has ever seen,” has been jarring for many. Her focus has been on continuity, fundraising, and legacy. But her silence in the face of Owens’s direct, personal, and relentless attacks has been deafening. The video that sparked this very article is titled with the question on everyone’s mind: “Will Erika Kirk Finally Confront Candace Owens?”

Her silence, and the organization’s attempt to circle the wagons, has only fueled Owens’s supporters, who see her as the last honest broker. Owens herself has warned against “shills” in Charlie’s chair, a comment many interpret as a direct shot at Erika, Ben Shapiro, or others who represent the “establishment” wing of the party.

The rift is now so great that it has drawn the attention of President Donald Trump. At the ceremony where he awarded Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trump himself seemed to take a side. He publicly questioned the eulogy Erika Kirk gave for her husband, in which she claimed Charlie followed the gospel’s call to “love for our enemies.”

Trump scoffed. “You know, I heard he loved his enemies and I said, ‘Wait a minute, is that the same Charlie that I knew?’” the President mused. “I’m not sure. But I didn’t want to get into it. He was able to fight people that were enemies, and he didn’t necessarily love those enemies so much.”

This was a stunning public rebuke. It was a clear signal that Trump, the kingmaker of the MAGA movement, sensed a disconnect. He was driving a wedge between the man he knew—the “fighter” who was privately complaining about donors—and the beatified, sanitized “legacy” being crafted by his widow.

The “leaked” texts have done more than just roil an organization. They have ripped the curtain back on a movement at war with itself. The battle lines are drawn. On one side stands Candace Owens, armed with her “receipts” and a righteous fury, demanding a full accounting of the pressures—financial, political, and spiritual—that defined Charlie Kirk’s final days. On the other stands Erika Kirk, the new CEO, silent, ambitious, and in control of the multi-million dollar machine her husband left behind.

The truth is out there, as the TPUSA spokesman said. But the fight over what that truth means has only just begun.