Chris D’Elia was set to headline a Turning Point USA tour date at a university, sharing the lineup with Erika Kirk, Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr. The booking marked a surprising attempt by the comedian to rebuild his career through the same right-wing media pipeline that has offered second chances to other canceled celebrities.
According to sources, the plan collapsed almost immediately once his name appeared on the lineup and people began revisiting the allegations that ended his mainstream career back in 2020.
TPUSA has since deleted its posts promoting D’Elia, and he is no longer listed as a participant in the event, though his name reportedly remained on the tour website for a time afterward.
D’Elia addressed the situation on his Instagram story, denying he was ever doing the event and lashing out at people commenting on the news, though he did not explain why he had been booked in the first place or why he pulled out.
The backlash appears to have come largely from within TPUSA’s own audience. Baron Coleman, a lawyer turned political commentator and YouTuber known to be friendly with Candace Owens, spent close to an hour on his show going through the allegations against D’Elia and criticizing TPUSA for booking him at a university event.
Coleman said his issue was less with D’Elia himself and more with the organization’s decision to platform him given the accusations, especially in front of a college-age audience, which he noted matches the age range described in many of the allegations.
The allegations against D’Elia date back to May 2020, when multiple women came forward on social media accusing him of pursuing relationships with underage girls, often initiating contact through Snapchat. Several accusers have described a controlling dynamic in which D’Elia allegedly discouraged them from saying no to him.
Around the same time, a resurfaced clip from the podcast TFATK showed D’Elia realizing that a Snapchat photo he assumed would disappear had instead been discovered by a recipient’s mother, a moment that became widely circulated after the allegations broke.
In the aftermath, D’Elia lost his Netflix projects and sponsorships, and comedians who had previously been close to him, including Theo Von, distanced themselves publicly. Despite the fallout, D’Elia has continued performing on a touring schedule.
The TPUSA booking appears to have been intended as a reintroduction of D’Elia to a new audience. Instead, it drew renewed attention to the accusations, resulting in his removal from the event before it took place.
