Important ally of Trump, Kirk, 31, was shot around his neck while speaking and hastily removed
Victor Lacombe – at Utah Valley University, in the city of Orem, in the United States. The death was announced on the Truth Social network by President Donald Trump. Kirk was even taken to the hospital and undergoing surgery, but could not resist.
“The big, and even legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” wrote Trump. “No one understood or had the heart of US youth better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially by me, and now he is no longer with us.” The president decreed a five -day official mourning across the country.
Trump’s important ally, Kirk, 31, was shot around his neck while speaking and hastily removed. A university spokeswoman Ellen Treanor said Kirk was hit by the shots of a man who was in a building about 180 meters. FBI director Kash Patel said the suspect was arrested and thanked the local police to collaborate without further details about the shooter’s identity.
In images on social networks, you can see Kirk on a stage mounted under a tent. After a shot noise, the influencer leans to the side and takes his hand to his neck, already losing a lot of blood. Then the audience starts running in despair.
Known for supporting Trump’s vigorous conspiracy theories and vigorous defense, Kirk became famous when he founded Turning Point uses in 2012 at the age of 18, an organization that rapidly raised powerful republican donors funds and catapulted Kirk to the position of leading leader of the American right youth. With Trump’s political rise, the influencer associated with the billionaire and grew up in reach and importance during his first term in the White House.
The vice president, Jd Vance, with whom Kirk used to exchange messages, spoke on the networks before Trump announced the death. “Dear God, protect Charlie at the darker time,” he wrote in X, along with a photo in which they both appear accompanied by Donald Trump Jr.
The episode also provoked a manifestation of repudiation from Democratic politicians. Former Vice-President Kamala Harris, defeated by Trump last year, said on social networks: “I condemn this act, and we all need to work together so that it does not take more violence.” California governor Gavin Newsom, a strong name of the Democratic Party and seen as possible presidential, described the attack as “disturbing, vile and reprehensible.”
In Brazil, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro mourned death. “This is the modus operandi of those who preach love and pacification. May God console his young wife, children, family, led and friends. The justice of the Lord will prevail! Thank you, Charlie Kirk!” He wrote on Instagram alongside a photo in which the influencer and former president Jair Bolsonaro appears together.
Boconist Deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL) wrote in the X, in English: “May God receive Charlie Kirk and comfort his wife and two children. He will not be forgotten.” Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL) said he was shocked by Kirk’s death. “I had the honor of accompanying him in his work and I know the greatness of his mission. Another conservative victim of hatred and intolerance,” he wrote in X.
Turning Point USA, whose name means something like “moment of the turn”, played a crucial role in mobilizing young voters for Trump in last year’s election. Their events on camps from various US regions used to gather a large amount of students identified with the right.
After beating Kamala during a rally last December, Trump thanked Kirk for his work to motivate young people to vote for him. “You have the armies of the Turning Point base. It’s not my victory, it’s your victory,” he said.
Kirk had 5.2 million followers at X and featured a podcast and radio show, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He also recently coined “Fox & Friends” at Fox News, one of the most important and popular programs of the conservative broadcaster. In his speeches, he often attacked traditional media and addressed topics such as race, gender and immigration, almost always provocatively and, according to his critics, racist and macho.
The influencer has already said, for example, that the concept of white privilege “is a racist idea,” and said he agreed with the conspiracy theory of the great substitution, which elites would support immigration to the US and Europe as a way to eliminate the white population. “The great substitution is not a theory, it is reality,” he wrote in 2024. He has also said that contraceptives turn women into angry and bitter people, “as the Democratic Party wants.”
Kirk’s last X post dealt with the case of Iryna Zarutska, Ukrainian murdered by a black man whose death has become a cells among the American right in recent days. The crime was captured on video and widely released by Trump and, among others, Kirk, with the argument that the government is correct to send the National Guard to large cities to contain crime.
“If we want things to change, it is 100% necessary to politicize the meaningless murder of Iryna Zarutska, because it was the policy that allowed a wild monster with 14 criminal records to be free on the streets to kill her,” Kirk wrote. After the influencer’s death, the publication went viral.
The attack on Kirk adds to several episodes of political violence in recent years in the United States. According to Reuters, there are more than 300 cases involving victims or not, since Trump supporters invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Among the recent, the most remarkable was in July 2024, when Donald Trump was scraped by a bullet during a campaign event at Pennsylvania. A second attempted murder two months later was frustrated by federal agents.
In April this year, an incendiary broke into Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s residence and set fire while the family was inside. No one is hurt.
In June, a gunman passing a policeman in Minnesota murdered state deputy Melissa Hortman and her husband -Abos died. The perpetrator also shot in state senator John Hoffman and his wife.
