Turning Point USA Chapter President Resigns Following Racist Chat Leak
The president of Florida International University's Turning Point USA chapter has resigned after a series of racist, antisemitic, and homophobic group chat messages were leaked to the public. Ian Valdes stepped down from his leadership role after offensive WhatsApp logs from the conservative youth group were published by The Miami Herald.
Offensive Content Revealed in Leaked Messages
According to the newspaper, which obtained two and a half weeks' worth of WhatsApp logs dating from September and October 2025, participants in the TPUSA group used the N-word more than 400 times. The messages also contained a string of slurs targeting Black, Jewish, gay, and disabled individuals, with additional derogatory references to women as "whores" and disturbing invocations of Nazi lore.
The organization confirmed Valdes' resignation in a statement posted on Instagram, stating: "The Turning Point USA chapter at Florida International University has been made aware of the recent incident involving chapter leadership. The chapter president has stepped down from leadership, turned over social media, and we are currently reconstituting our leadership team."
Political Fallout and Republican Response
The controversial chat was reportedly started by Miami-Dade County Republican Executive Committee Secretary Abel Carvajal last year following the assassination of TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk. While Carvajal has not stepped down over his own messages in the chat, his organization's chair, Kevin Cooper, revealed that a majority of the party's board had voted to request his resignation last week.
Cooper stated: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms Abel Alexander Carvajal's racist group chat. His words and actions are reprehensible." Florida state representative and former Miami-Dade County GOP chair Alex Rizo told The Miami Herald that a full party meeting and vote on Carvajal's position will take place imminently.
Several other Republican officials have joined the condemnation, including state representative Juan Porras and GOP state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia, and Ana Maria Rodriguez, all of whom have called for Carvajal's resignation.
Defiance and Previous Controversies
Despite mounting pressure, Carvajal has refused to resign, telling The Miami Herald over the weekend: "No action has been taken to remove me from board. If you have been told otherwise, that is a blatant falsehood. I have received the support of countless members of Miami-Dade [executive committee] – who have known me for several years and know who I truly am."
This is not the first controversy involving the university's TPUSA chapter. In 2018, The Miami New Times published logs from an earlier chat that revealed members joking about rape. A similar scandal emerged last fall when Politico published 2,900 messages from a Young Republicans Telegram chat in which members described sexual assault as "epic," made light of the Holocaust, and praised Adolf Hitler.
Vice President's Defense of Controversial Speech
Vice President JD Vance defended the group during an appearance on the ongoing Charlie Kirk Show in October, commenting: "The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That's what kids do. And I really don't want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke – telling a very offensive, stupid joke – is cause to ruin their lives."
He later rejected the idea that prejudice was "exploding" on the American right in a December interview with NBC News. The resignation of Ian Valdes marks another chapter in the ongoing controversy surrounding offensive speech within conservative youth organizations, raising questions about accountability and the boundaries of political discourse on college campuses.
