Ryan Fournier

Ryan Austin Fournier (born December 8, 1995) is an American conservative activist and political commentator. He is the co-founder and acting national chairman of Students for Trump. He drew national attention in 2025 after falsely accusing a Wisconsin elementary school associate principal, of celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Early life and education Fournier was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, on December 8, 1995, and spent his formative years in Clayton, North Carolina.

Career Fournier became politically active following his volunteer work for the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign. Prior to launching Students for Trump, Fournier was involved in various local and state political campaigns within North Carolina. Along with being the co-chairman of Students for Trump, Fournier also serves as the President of OpenPoll and xStrategies.

In July 2018, Fournier launched a boycott against Walmart for selling shirts labeled "Impeach 45," which resulted in the hashtag #BoycottWalmart trending on Twitter. Walmart pulled the items from its online store, issuing the following statement: "These items were sold by third-party sellers on our open marketplace, and were not offered directly by Walmart. We're removing these types of items pending review of our marketplace policies."

In May 2021, The Daily Beast reported that Fournier testified against long-time friend and co-founder of Students for Trump, John Lambert, in a case where the latter was accused of setting up a fictional New York law firm to pose as experienced attorneys and scam clients. Lambert was sentenced to 13 months in jail for multiple counts of wire fraud. Lambert's defense attorney has named Fournier as the co-conspirator in the case, suggesting that Lambert and Fournier used various gig sites to market themselves as licensed attorneys.

In September 2025, Fournier falsely accused the associate principal of an elementary school in Wisconsin of having posted that Charlie Kirk, who had been killed two days earlier, "deserves everything he got". He also posted her picture and her phone number and email address as well as the school's, resulting in a deluge of threatening calls and emails. The school's principal reached out to Fournier who did not respond and waited two days before retracting his post with what the principal called a "half-assed" apology.

Views In a since-deleted Facebook post on June 11, 2020, Fournier claimed that donations to Black Lives Matter were being funneled to Democratic campaigns through ActBlue, a Democratic Super PAC. Similar allegations were made by other conservative commentators, such as Candace Owens and the Hodgetwins. The Associated Press and fact-checking website PolitiFact rated the claim as false.

In a tweet dated January 31, 2021, Fournier claimed that the "Biden administration lost 20 million COVID vaccines...". According to PolitiFact, the Biden administration wasn't responsible for losing the vaccines and that the distribution infrastructure under which these vaccines went missing were set up during the Trump administration. PolitiFact rated Fournier's allegations on the missing vaccines as false.

Legal issues

2023 arrest

On November 21, 2023, Fournier was arrested in Johnston County, North Carolina, for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a deadly weapon. Charges were eventually dropped by the District Attorney.

2026 arrest

On May 26, 2026, Fournier was arrested in Washington, D.C., and charged with "simple assault and attempted threats to do bodily harm." The alleged victim was a new girlfriend.