EXCLUSIVE | 'We Should Question Any Foreign Country's Relationship With Our Government': America First Firebrand Doubles Down After Shapiro Clash

The fault lines in the conservative movement widened further this week. Young America First voices continue their unrelenting push against what they see as unchecked foreign influence. They demand priority for American lives and interests over alliances abroad.

Nicky Rudd, the bold America First advocate who stunned attendees at Turning Point USA's AmFest in Phoenix by directly challenging Ben Shapiro on the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, has now gone public with a full-throated defense of his actions.

As Rift Tv previously reported, Rudd grilled Shapiro during an AM Fest Q&A session.

He accused the Jewish Daily Wire CEO of dismissing the deadly Israeli strike on a U.S. Navy ship as irrelevant to current relations.

Rudd's question echoed across social media, igniting fierce debate over foreign policy priorities within the right.

The exchange exposed a deepening generational and ideological divide. Young activists reject the old guard's staunch support for Israel.

In the aftermath of the AmFest clash, Rift TV's Elijah Schaeffer captured the raw energy of the America First uprising.

"I asked Ben Shapiro that question because I am America First, and what does that mean? Putting American interests first," Rudd told Rift TV in an exclusive interview. "And what is the definition of American interests if not the lives of our servicemen and servicewomen? The USS Liberty was an intentional attack. There's no possible way Israelis did not know that wasn't an American ship. An Americans died, therefore, to be America First, we must stand up and fight for them."

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On his goals, Rudd declared, "I wanted to give Ben a genuine moment to actually be America First for the first time, possibly ever. Ben Shapiro has turned against free speech. He has turned against open dialogue and debate. He has made up abundantly clear that he cares more about the state of Israel than he does the United States of America.

"I gave him an opportunity, I gave him a real chance to prove that he should be part of this America First Conservative movement. But instead they use that opportunity to lie and then to disparage me to say I had malicious evil intent in my heart with my line of questioning. That is a lie. I'm Christian, I love Jesus Christ, I hate nobody but am America First and that means I will stand up for our people no matter the cost."

In 2016, Ben Shapiro led the Never Trump movement, resigning from Breitbart after falsely alleging that Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, assaulted then-fellow Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields by shoving her to the ground.

Footage showed Lewandowski brushing past Fields, contradicting claims that any sort of shove transpired.

Shapiro, alongside Bill Kristol, Katie Pavlich, Dana Loesch, National Review and others, used the incident to oppose Trump, shaping the Republican Against Trump movement's early resistance.

The American right stands at a crossroads, a civil war brewing between the old and new guards.

At TPUSA's AmFest, the America First crowd, warning they're tired of foreign priorities over American lives, made their stand.

In Charlie Kirk's spirit, debate flourished, but the fault lines deepened, questioning whether the conservative movement will prioritize America or continue its entanglements abroad.