Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is sounding the alarm over what he claims is growing pressure from “ruling class” donors urging President Donald Trump to trade deportations for amnesty — and warns the move could fracture the coalition that brought Trump back to the White House. “Literally the day before President Donald Trump was signing the ‘big beautiful bill,’ I got a couple phone calls from people that you would call members of the ruling class,” Kirk said on the July 7 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show. “A lot of money and a lot of connections.
They said, ‘Now, we need mass amnesty.’” “If you want to break our coalition, go and push amnesty,” Kirk said. “That right there would be a complete collapse of everything that we have worked for, everything.” Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kirk’s suspicions appear to align with previous statements from the President. Trump, for his part, has recently floated a plan to allow some undocumented farmworkers to stay in the country if their employers are willing to vouch for them, although he did not use the word “amnesty.” “If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way… I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?” Trump said at a rally in Iowa last week.
“We don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms.” THE BREAKDOWN Kirk warned that amnesty would “break” the MAGA movement. Trump has proposed a pathway for farmworkers to stay if vouched for. His administration has sent mixed signals, initially pausing farm raids, then reversing.
There is little time left to introduce and pass legislation before summer recess. Trump’s pledge marks a notable shift from his hardline campaign rhetoric and even statements made from official accounts, earlier this year. The White House X account posted on May 2, “The only DEI we support: Deport Every Illegal.” Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These new statements come after reports that Trump officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to quietly pause enforcement actions at farms, hotels, and restaurants before reversing the decision days later, The Dallas Express reported.
The internal back-and-forth has drawn criticism from conservative activists who fear the administration may be veering toward compromise. Kirk acknowledged he still “trusts President Trump’s instincts 100 percent,” but said he was concerned by outside influence. “There is a group of people that are pushing President Trump very hard to stop the deportation effort… and to try to have some sort of a come-to-the-table moment of a bipartisan compromise,” Kirk said.
“Hello, hi, I’m one of those radical right people. And I want to know what I’m not going to like.” Trump himself admitted that “serious radical right people, who I happen to like,” may not support the move, but insisted “they’ll understand.” Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Representative Andy Harris, Republican of Maryland and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said last month, “There has to be an effort to figure out how to make sure that we have the workforce we need,” listing H-2A and H-2B visas as possible options. During a period in 2019 when Trump reportedly considered another amnesty proposal, many of his supporters were outraged.
Commentator Ann Coulter tweeted, “Trump proposes amnesty. We voted for Trump and got Jeb!” Despite the ringing of alarm bells from Kirk and others, Trump appeared to attempt to thread a needle on June 8. The President told reporters during a press conference, “There’s no amnesty.
What we’re doing is we are getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program [for farm labor].” But any legislative fix may be running out of time. The House and Senate are not scheduled to be in session at the same time after July 24, a gap that will likely push any immigration bill into the fall, according to the congressional calendar. Trump has not specified when his proposal might be introduced.
