Conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk, one of the best -known media figures of the and great ally of the US president, has died after receiving a shot on the neck this Wednesday while intervening in a massive event at Utah Valley University, as Donald Trump himself announced. In several videos that circulate on social networks you can see how Kirk, 31, is shot and begins to bleed profusely while talking sitting under a tent before hundreds of people, in an outdoor act. Initially the university had reported that a suspect had been arrested, although it has later retracted.
Trump, who had already confirmed that Kirk had been injured, has written in his social network, Truth: “The great, even legendary, Charlie Kirk, has died. No one understood or had the heart of young people in the United States better than him. He was loved and admired by all, especially for me, and is no longer among us.” “The condolences of Melania and mine go to her beautiful wife, Erika, and her family. Charlie, we love you!”, The president concludes.
Trump has ordered that the flags in official buildings throughout the country flutter halfway up to 6 pm on Sunday (Washington time) in tribute to the murdered activist, father of two young children. Immediately, the White House flags descended on their masts.
The death of the commentator, who had been transferred to the hospital in critical condition, has also been confirmed by his spokesman, Andrew Kolvet.
As it appears in one of the videos, Kirk receives the bullet impact precisely at the time a member of the public with whom he asks about mass shootings. “Do you know how many Trans Americans have been authors of mass shootings in the last ten years?” Asks the viewer. Kirk replies: “Too many.” In turn, your interlocutor replicates that there have been five, and ask him again if he knows how many massive shootings there has been total in the country in that decade. “When or not, the violence of criminal gangs?” The commentator replies. Immediately it falls collapsed by the bullet impact.
The search of the murderer continues in the area near the university and has expanded to other areas. Utah Valley University has confirmed that, for the moment, there is no one stopped. “There is no suspect in police custody, it is an investigation in progress,” said the spokeswoman for the institution, Ellen Treanor, in a statement. Four police forces participate in the investigation: the Federal Investigation Agency (FBI), the UTAH Public Security Department, the University Police and the OREM County, where the educational center is located.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, had asked for sentences for Kirk, one of his old and most old allies. “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who was shot. A great man from head to toe. God bless him!”, He had written on his social network, Truth, after knowing the attack. The US president was subject to himself, from which he left with a slight wound in an ear.
🚨MAJOR BREAKING: Charlie Kirk was shot in the NECK during a live event at Utah Valley University. Reports say he was hit near the neck during a Q&A.
His condition is unknown.
This isn’t a hoax, it’s been confirmed. America’s political fever is now drawing real blood.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis)
Kirk was one of the best known figures of the American conservative movement, where he became immensely popular since he founded Turning Point when he was 18 years old. Since then, that organization, which ten years ago raised 4.3 million dollars annually, has expanded exponentially to raise more than 90 million dollars last year. It is present in more than 850 university centers throughout the country, where it mobilizes students, encourages them to register to vote, and organize acts with speakers of the conservative wing.
Trump and his environment consider him an essential figure on his return to the White House. The commentator never stopped supporting the now president during his desert journey in the first years of Joe Biden’s mandate, after the republican electoral defeat in 2020, and went to visit his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, from where the former real estate magnate planned his return to the political foreground. Kirk, in the eyes of the president, is the person who owes the turn in the 2024 elections among the youth electorate, where Trump obtained – especially among the male voters – a greater growth of support with respect to the 2020 elections.
The commentator has developed a great friendship with the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Júnior, whom he accompanied his trip to Greenland just fifteen days before the investiture of the Republican leader.
The act in which he participated this Wednesday was the first stop of a fifteen stages tour throughout the country to promote his conservative message. Exceptionally skilled in the art of debate, one of his customs in this type of event is to ask the public to ask questions or present arguments, that he always rebates with conservative thesis. Apparently, at the time of receiving the shot, he participated precisely in this type of round table, an act that he calls Prove Me Wrong Tableor “The table of ‘show me that I am wrong.”
His fame was such that he had become target of numerous pullas and allusions in films and television series. Among the most recent, the satire inflicted by the cartoons of the series South Parkwhere in his new season Eric Cartman’s character became an episode in a roll version of the podcaster.
The reactions happened immediately after the attack was known. In addition to Trump, former president Joe Biden wrote on the social network X that he and his wife, Jill, prayed for the victim’s family and loved ones. “There is no place in our country for this type of violence. You have to stop,” he urged.
The Democratic governor of California, very active on social networks, has launched an appeal to Americans to reject political violence and has described the attack against the conservative activist as “disgusting, vile and condemnable.” On the other hand, the former Democratic former Gabby Giffords, whose promising career was truncated upon receiving a shot in the head when he participated in an electoral act in the street, has expressed his “horror” for the event. “There will always be political disagreements in democratic societies, but we should never allow the United States to become a country that faces these disagreements with violence,” he said.
The United States vice president, who maintains an excellent relationship with Kirk and communicates frequently with him through messaging applications, has asked, such as Trump, prayers for the recovery of his ally, “a good type of truth and a young father.” Republican senator Lindsey Graham, very close to Trump, has described the attack as “despicable.”
