The bitter infighting over antisemitism, free speech and bigotry during Turning Point USA’s annual national conference not only exposed fissures in President Donald Trump’s movement but also laid bare a challenge for his potential successor.

How would his likely heir apparent handle an explosive debate among Republicans over whether extremists and conspiracy theorists should be embraced or excluded from the conservative coalition?

On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance gave an answer, suggesting he was more than willing to forgo imposing any moral red lines.

“When I say that I’m going to fight alongside of you, I mean all of you — each and every one,” Vance said at Turning Point USA’s annual gathering, AmericaFest. “President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests.”

Vance’s plea for a big-tent coalition, however, belied the cracks visible in the past week in his party. The annual conservative gathering was just a year ago a platform united under Trump and elevated by its co-founder, Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s assassination in September galvanized Republicans and fueled conspiracy theories among them.

This year, the event showcased intense jostling over the direction of Trump’s movement and whom it would platform.

Last week, Ben Shapiro warned that the “conservative movement was in serious danger” from those willing to amplify conspiracies, including Candace Owens, a podcaster widely accused of antisemitism who has also spread unfounded theories about Kirk’s death.

On Friday, Vivek Ramaswamy, an Indian American running for governor of Ohio as a Republican, also criticized a faction of the party. He went after those who have embraced the idea that so-called “heritage Americans” — a predominantly white group whose families have been in the country for multiple generations — have a greater claim to the nation than more recent arrivals.

Those comments appeared to put Ramaswamy at odds with Vance, who has spoken out against “importing millions and millions of low-wage serfs” and argued that mass migration was the “theft of the American dream.”

Ramaswamy also took on those who have issued derogatory attacks against Vance’s wife, Usha Vance. And he said Fuentes and others promoting hateful views had “no place in the future of the conservative movement.”

Vance, however, left open the possibility that they did.

“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce and deplatform,” Vance said, arguing that Kirk had welcomed debate. “We have far more important work to do than canceling each other.”

Vance has previously disavowed Fuentes, calling him a “total loser” during the 2024 campaign. On Sunday, he again criticized antisemitism and “ethnic hatred,” including attacks on his wife, while playing down Fuentes’ influence.

But as vice president, Vance has repeatedly refused to pick a side in intraparty fights over bigotry.

When the emergence of a Telegram group chat showed Republican elected leaders and young party activists using racist and homophobic language, as well as invoking Adolf Hitler, Vance compared them to “anything said in a college group chat.” He also embraced false claims about Haitian Americans in the 2024 race, declining to condemn those who spread racist conspiracy theories.

On Sunday, Vance declined to issue warnings about extremist figures like other speakers at the conference, instead arguing that the coalition was open to all as long as they “love America.”

After receiving the endorsement for president of Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, Vance encouraged supporters to unite around Trump’s immigration policies and the targeting of diversity initiatives. The White House has argued that they have unfairly led to the disenfranchisement of white men.

“We don’t treat anybody different because of their race or their sex, so we have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history,” Vance said. “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”

While Vance has not announced plans to run for president, he showed signs Sunday that he had his eyes on the future. He criticized Democrats’ potential leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, and mocked Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Black Democrat in Texas running for Senate, for what he called a “street girl persona.”

Crockett said the vice president was seeking to distract. “Republicans like JD Vance attack my nails and lashes because they can’t keep up with me when it comes to debating the issues,” she said.

The New York Times