OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
4:20 PM – Friday, November 7, 2025
A 19-year-old University of Iowa student named Justin Pham Calhoon was caught on video flipping over a promotional table set up by the campus chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), leading to his arrest.
Calhoon reportedly goes by the name “Niko” and uses she/her pronouns, according to journalist and editor of The Post Millennial Andy Ngo, meaning that Calhoon identifies as a transgender woman.
The incident unraveled on Wednesday as he was offered free hot chocolate by TPUSA members holding a small event. The TPUSA event, called “Cocoa and Conservatives,” involved TPUSA members offering warm beverages and distributing promotional materials like buttons near the Tippie College of Business on T. Anne Cleary Walkway.
“No thanks,” Calhoon says in the video, before grabbing the table. The video quickly went viral on social media, and it shows Calhoon approaching the table, declining the offer, then abruptly overturning it — scattering cups, buttons, and other items onto the ground — before laughing and walking away.
TPUSA leaders described the all-women TPUSA group as being “visibly shaken” following the incident, and the disruption halted their event.
This wasn’t an isolated act either, as court records have since revealed that Calhoon had allegedly done something similar just over a week earlier, on October 27th, when he flipped a table at a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) event.
University police later issued an arrest warrant for that prior incident on November 3rd, but Calhoon’s arrest on November 5th covered both cases.
He now faces two misdemeanor cases in Johnson County, Iowa, according to Johnson County Jail court filings obtained by the Iowa Pulse.
A second video, from the earlier October 27th incident, has also since surfaced online. In the footage, Calhoon — wearing a woman’s black dress — approaches the table set up by YAF and similarly flips it over. He then raises his middle finger to the camera before walking away.
Calhoon faces two counts of Disorderly Conduct — Disturbing a Lawful Assembly or Meeting, two counts of 3rd Degree Harassment, and one count of 5th Degree Criminal Mischief across both cases.
Court documents indicate that the University of Iowa student was released without bond and is under no-contact orders in both cases. The student has two non-jury trials scheduled for March, according to the Iowa Pulse.
“A trans person named Justin Pham Calhoon flipped over a TPUSA table after being unable to control himself. Mainstream trans activists encouraged trans people & their allies to be violent to intimidate political opposition,” Ngo posted on X.
TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at another college campus on November 10th while, notably, answering a question about transgender individuals who carry out mass shootings.
His accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, also previously had a transgender romantic partner.
Meanwhile, since Kirk’s murder, applications for new TPUSA chapters have risen across the country, with the organization reporting that more than 120,000 students have inquired about starting chapters in high schools and colleges.
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