Turning Point USA gets sweetheart deal from City of Portland
City insider alleged to help End Times death-cult, plus Ken Graves humblebrags.
Multi-millionaire Erika Kirk is only paying $2,720 to rent the Portland Expo for her May 15 Make Heaven Crowded End Times revival. That’s $2,230 below the usual advertised non-profit rate of $4,950 listed on the city’s own website.
Why so cheap? Especially since Turning Point USA raked in $85 million in 2024. The latest available numbers show annual spending of $81 million annually, with a little more than $26 million in assets. And those totals are before their founder Charlie Kirk was murdered at Utah Valley University back on Sept. 10, 2025.
C. Kirk, btw, spoke in southern Maine less than a month before his death, at a “Maine Civic Action” event held in Old Orchard Beach, when he repeatedly dissed Mainers, Portland, Lewiston and our Somali neighbors.
During his speech, Kirk acted like a real asshole while spewing a series of hateful lies about Maine’s immigrant community. Then he did a Q & A, led by The Maine Wire’s “Scott” Robinson. (Apparently “Scott” was Kirk’s nickname for “Steve Robinson,” the Bowdoin-educated bootlicker responsible for Maine Policy Institute’s racist online presence.)
If you want to be tortured by a smug rich dude from Away’s perspective on Maine, you could listen to his lecture “What’s the Matter with Maine?” here. However, I don’t recommend it, especially if you’re already aware that he’s an arrogant racist… as you can see in the following excerpt from his polemic pre-assassination soliloquy of lies presented, unchallenged, to his unquestioning Maine sycophants.
“Your leaders, who should all be run out of office, they made a traitorous decision to not just be colonized by foreign ideas, but foreigners themselves. And here is the part that you all know what’s happening. You get called mean and nasty names for saying that out loud. But there’s something wrong with the fact that Maine continues to import people from the Third World and call it progress. Lewiston is unrecognizable. South Portland is unrecognizable. I say this as someone who’s been coming here over the last 10 years. The fact that half of the kids in some Portland schools, half do not speak English and they speak a different language. Immigration without assimilation is an invasion, and Maine is being invaded…Somali immigrants are not making the state better. They’re not making you happier. They’re not making Portland safer.”
According to the spokesperson for the City of Portland, the rental contract was not made with TPUSA. Instead, the deal was struck with Calvary Chapel Greater Portland, the Westbrook chapter of the Young Earth Cult profiled in The Crash Report last week. That contract — signed in Oct 2025 — was made under the auspices of the church holding a “Calvary Chapel Worship Night” at the city facility, not hosting a Christian-Nationalist traveling carnival.
The Make Heaven Crowded tour — currently underway and slated to visit 33 cities— features fiery preaching by the tear-filled widow of the martyred influencer who encouraged a virulent racist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ lifestyle. E. Kirk is accompanied by a posse of Bible-thumping loudmouths who engage in spiritual warfare with demons on a regular basis in order to bring about Jesus’ kingdom on Earth.
And in Portland, the carnies will be joined by local cult leader — and self-described mentor to Charlie Kirk (more on that in a bit) — Ken Graves who will likely pontificate on the importance of End Times Churches seizing control of government and the rest of society, all part of the plan to trigger the Rapture, then Seven Years of Tribulations, followed by the return of Jesus Christ, incarnate, for a millennium of Christly reign, after all the sinners are cast into the Lake of Fire.
The reason for the cheap rent, according to the spokesperson for the city of Portland, was “based on what was presented to us as what the event was at the time of booking,” Jessica Grondin said via email. “We did not feel this event fell under the rate that has been reserved for concerts in the past.”
Grondin sent me a rate sheet from 2024 (below) that shows the non-profit rate as $2,720, which, as mentioned above, is dramatically cheaper than the 2026 rate currently listed on the city’s website now, in March of 2026.
2024 rental info provided by Portland spokesperson.
Current rental rates according to City of Portland website.
Grondin also provided a copy of the contract for the May 15th event, which is clickable below for those eager to peruse the fine print. I’m gonna highlight a trio of contractual points that Portland activists might use to prevent TPUSA from staging their Christo-Fash political event — at a deep discount — in a building owned by a city populated mostly by humans disgusted by the faux-Christians’ racist rantings.
Firstly, the “non-assignability clause” in Section 15 states “Lessee may not assign this agreement.” To assign — in real estate-speak— is the act of transferring rights or other benefits to another party. Pretty simple. And Calvary Chapel clearly violated the contract by turning the night’s rental over to TPUSA. Also, Calvary Chapel Portland’s own pastor (who signed the contract and booked the gig) isn’t being allowed to speak, further proof the event has been “assigned” to TPUSA. Thus, the contract should be rendered null and void.
Most of the rest of the contract isn’t pertinent for monkey-wrenching purposes, except for “Section 9: Termination by CITY.” As you can read below, the city reserves the “absolute right” to terminate the contract without prior notice under certain conditions.
Despite the big announcement bragging about the Portland Expo show by both the local cult and TPUSA, the downtowners at City Hall were NOT aware of the shift from “local church gathering” into a Turning Point Christo-political rally. As of Feb. 27, they still believed the event was merely a “Calvary Chapel Worship Night.” Until I reached out for comment, that is.
The story, though, was a little different at the 212 Canco Road headquarters of Portland’s “Public Assembly Facilities” department, 3.5 miles away from the watchful eye of City Hall.
Bait and switch
“There are some in the [Portland Expo’s] office that aren’t so happy about this event,” according to Pastor Travis Carey, Calvary Chapel’s signatory on the contract. Luckily, the boss of the Portland Expo, according to Carey, is a “born-again believer” who knows Senior Pastor Ken Graves, and, apparently, the boss silenced any workplace dissent.
At least that’s what Pastor Carey told the Feb. 12 meeting of the local TPUSA-Faith chapter held at his church on Spring Street in Westbook. According to the livestream, linked below, before introducing his special guest (the above-mentioned Pastor Graves), Pastor Carey explained to the assembled 60 people (and the couple hundred on Youtube) how he feared that the libs in Portland would find out the Make Heaven Crowded circus was coming to town.
“My fear — me of little faith — my fear was that someone within the municipality of Portland would try to throw a wrench in the gears if they found out it was a faith event,” he told the audience. “Maybe they’d find out it was a Turning Point event.” But then the pastor broke out into a wide grin. “And wouldn’t you know it: the manager, the guy in charge in the whole office, is a Born-again believer. Not only a Born-again believer, but this gentlemen actually spent time at Pastor Ken’s church. He knows Ken. He knows Calvary Chapel. A really dear brother. And he testified that there are some in the office that aren’t so happy about this event. But he’s the boss. So God has been really kind to us.”
The contract, as you can see below, was signed on behalf of the city by Andrew Downs, “public assembly facilities director” for the city of Portland.
Is there a City of Portland employee in cahoots with the bait-and-switching Young Earth Creationists? I’ve reached out multiple time to Downs to ask about the accuracy of Pastor Carey’s claims and haven’t heard back.
City spokesperson Grondin also declined to answer questions regarding the Pastor’s assertion that city workers unhappy with the TPUSA event were overruled by “the boss.”
Again, the signed contract makes zero mention of Turning Point USA and, according to City Hall, no additional agreements or codicils have been made. So no matter what the preacher claims, the bait-and-switch is a clear contractual violation. And under Section 9.2, this misrepresentation is grounds for contract termination by the city.
Is Erika Kirk a security issue?
Section 9.3 of the contract is another provision antifa activists could cite. “If the event,” according to the terminations clause, “presents a substantial security problem” then the city can cancel, no problemo. Back when this event was merely a “Calvary Chapel Worship Night,” I’d argue, there wasn’t much of a security risk.
However, the pivot to TPUSA loathsome revival is gonna bring out all the haters, both the anti- LGBTQ/Muslim/Women MAGA chuds and the good folks who despise TPUSA’s fascistic mission. In these fierce days, I don’t think a face-off, on public property, is conducive to anything other than turmoil.
Also, Erika Kirk is not to be trusted, according to Charlie Kirk’s bestie Candace Owens, whose new documentary Bride of Charlie is very very long. The doc includes assertions, by Owens, that Charlie Kirk claimed on multiple occasions to be a “time traveler.”
(A brief aside: My ears always perk up whenever time travel references appear in political discourse. For the record, I don’t believe Charlie Kirk was a time traveler. After all, someone coming from the future would be privy to assassination attempts and able to avoid them. Unless he’d grown tired of rushing around on the time-space continuum and decided to turn his recent time-stop on this time-line into a suicide mission.)
Also, in terms of security at the Portland Expo Make Heaven Crowded event, there’s gonna be a lot of nut-jobs who idolized the now-dead Charlie Kirk in attendance. And in certain circles within that community, some have suspicions that Erika Kirk may have been involved in the murder of her husband.
I have yet to see any actual evidence of this claim. However, the theory gets play in multiple places, including a very popular Christian-Nationalist-End-Times-Flat-Earther podcast that I listen to (so YOU don’t have to) where the host-and-guest delved into their alt-theories of Charlie Kirk’s death, including hypothesizing how a firearm hidden in the microphone could’ve fired the fatal shot into the now-dead man’s neck.
For some reason, many of these Kirk-fan-boys just don’t believe that a Mauser Model 98 .30-06 in the hands of Tyler Robinson, fired a single shot from a distance of 142 yards from Kirk, is what killed their hero on the Utah Valley University campus last fall. Instead, they view Robinson as a patsy, facing aggravated murder charges, plus felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly shooting Kirk.
Anyways, there’s all sort of Kirk-related conspiracies in the Q-anon-adjacent zone, which can attract the wrong folks to party at the Portland Expo . Which also means the city should probably bring in some magnetometers in order to ensure the gun-nuts don’t shoot Ericka Kirk or other attendees.
Another security issue I’d be concerned with, from a public safety standpoint, is the Make Heaven Crowded ticket policy. There is none. This is a first come, first serve event. General admission. The preacher says 3,000 are welcome, but the city contract limits the crowd size to 2,400.
(There is a TPUSA registration form on the Make Heaven Crowded website, but registering doesn’t get you a ticket. Instead, it gives TPUSA your contact info.)
The free-for-all non-ticketing means opportunities for multiple problems and hijinks. Consider, for instance, a group of Queer activists attending in super-glam and revealing outfits. I’m sure the Make Heaven Crowded security would deny admission. Or, conversely the same same Queer activists play nice to get inside, but then rise to disrupt every time hate is spewed from the ersatz pulpit under the basketball lights.
Of course, security would try to remove hecklers, but that would violate the free speech of the attendees.
Because, as city spokesperson Grondin told me, “When the City rents out its facilities for events, the First Amendment prohibits us from discriminating based on the viewpoints of the event sponsors.” Which should also mean, the renters (aka TPUSA) don’t have the right to limit any speech during the event. Especially since “no tickets” in a public space actually means open-to-the-public.
Anyways, sounds like a real shit show waiting to happen and an event that could be easily manipulated by those who want to monkey-wrench en masse.
Also, re: spokesperson Grondin’s First Amendment claim. I responded by asking “would the city rent the Expo to someone interested in running a film festival that included what some people would call hardcore pornography?”
No response. Also no response to questions concerning whether Portland PD would be involved in security plans for the event, if all the associated security costs have been determined and I asked specifically about the non-assignability clause in the contract.
All this to say, it would seem pretty easy for the city to just cancel the damn thing. “Sorry, you signed a contract for a church event, not TPUSA,” the Expo’s director could say. “Here’s your $680 deposit back.”
Then Make Heaven Crowded can try to book a space under its own name. If they can. According to Pastor Carey, TPUSA told him there were NO other churches in New England willing to host the Making Heaven Crowded jamboree.
Which means if the Portland gig gets cancelled, for Erika Kirk and company, the venue of last resort might turn out to be Pastor Carey’s Calvary Chapel, located in a Westbrook industrial park. Seats about 500, with plenty of free parking in the lot shared with a local HVAC company.
Also, it’ll be interesting to see how the Portland City Council reacts to the news of a discounted rate at a city rental property for an evening of misogynistic rantings about the local LGBTQ community being demonically-possessed. Also, considering Portland is already in a financial crisis, with reports of almost two dozen established local non-profits losing their property tax exemptions in order to generate revenue for the city-by-the-sea, I betcha the City Council won’t let a Westbrook church pull a bait-and-switch. Especially not to sneak in a super-wealthy, old-time racist religious revival whose dead founder repeatedly insulted our Somali neighbors, many of whom live within shouting distance of the Portland Expo.
Ken Graves and Charlie Kirk were in a group chat together
Senior Pastor Ken Graves Calvary Chapel - Bangor is slated to speak at the TPUSA event, but not local Pastor Carey, who said the Make Heaven Crowded organizers declined his offer to preach. Graves, tho, was wanted. Because, as Graves brags, he was a major influence on Charlie Kirk.
According to a sermon given by Graves three days after Kirk’s murder, the two met several years earlier at Liberty University, where they both were giving speeches at an event. And Graves was so impressed with the young Christian agitator that he gifted Kirk his personally annotated copy of The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization by the Indian-Christian intellectual and social reformer Vishal Mangalwadi. That book, then, apparently became a major influence on the TPUSA founder.
(If you’re not familiar with Ken Graves — called by some “The Viking Preacher” — of Calvary Chapel-Bangor, located in the town of Orrington, consider yourself lucky. In a nutshell, the gravelly voiced Christian-Nationalist is an anti-LGBTQ preacher who has “planted” two dozen Calvary Chapels in Maine. Also, he’s a Biblical literalist and believes the Earth is 6,000 years old.)
During his Sept. 14 sermon, Graves also told his congregation that for the last several years, he was in Kirk’s group chat of anti-vaccine pastors “that [Kirk] got acquainted with during Covid-tyranny.”
The chatters chatted almost daily, Graves said. And, according to the Viking Preacher, Kirk also spoke to Calvary Chapel-Bangor’s congregation in Orrington (tho I haven’t found that video) and would’ve visited again last year when Kirk was vacationing at a rich donor’s estate on Mount Desert Island (Leonard Leo, perhaps?), but for an unknown reason, Kirk didn’t show up.
It’s obvious Graves had some real affection for Kirk. “Tall, lean, six foot five, spindly little arms, great big head,” he said with a smile, remembering his first impressions of Kirk. “And in that head, a brain that’s firing on all cylinders.”
A day or so after Kirk’s death, Graves reached out and texted Vishal Mangalwadi to tell the author “something you should know if you’re not already aware of…” In short, he didn’t know if the Indian Christian intellectual was aware that Graves gave Charlie Kirk his book and Kirk loved it. (Around 7:50 in the vid below.)
And then, according to Graves, “I was blessed, he responded. I didn’t, he didn’t know.” Gibberish preacher diction aside, it appears that Graves is claiming that Mangalwadi didn’t know Kirk was a fanboi. Which makes Graves more of a hero, I guess, in the on-going narrative inside his noggin.
Thing is, not to quibble over details, but Mangalwadi was def aware of Kirk’s love for his book. After all, he was interviewed by Kirk on the Charlie Kirk Show on Sept. 16, 2020, which includes many references to The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization. In fact, the show notes describe Mangalwadi “as one of the most insightful guests to appear on The Charlie Kirk Show yet. The two discuss the foundational aspects of Western Civilization found in the Bible; grunge rocker Kurt Cobain; the true nature of Hinduism, and so much more. This is a conversation with an author who has informed so much of Charlie’s thinking, so buckle up, here we go!”
Anyways, not sure what Graves was getting at with his Mangalwadi story, but (along with his belief in the 6,000 year old Earth and other oddities) it def makes Graves an unreliable narrator and makes him seem like a creepy and pathetic dude in need of validation from a stranger.
Also, as I’ve said before, no matter what Graves claims, it’s obvious he’s one of the those faux-Christian grifters who has bastardized their alleged savior’s teachings. The list of Graves chud-tastic utterances is too long to go into here, but I did find his reaction to the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson indicative of Graves’ general demeanor. “I hope and pray for an execution date that inspires his repentance.”
Not very WWJD for a fella who claims to a devoted follower of Christ.
FYI: In The Crash Report on Tuesday, March 10, you'll learn which Maine State Rep's online store sold a $99 "tactical baby gift box" that included a baby bottle with a bullet in it "because the 2A starts at birth." Bottle is fully functional, but DO NOT put in the microwave.
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