Charlie Kirk, who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to a top podcaster, culture warrior and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday during one of his trademark public appearances at a college in Utah. He was 31.

Kirk died doing what made him a potent political force — rallying the right on a college campus, this time Utah Valley University. The event was kicking off a planned series of Kirk college appearances from Colorado to Virginia dubbed"The American Comeback Tour."

His shooting was one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures, from the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota to the 2024 shooting of Trump, that have roiled the U.S.

Trump announced Kirk's death on his social media site, Truth Social.

Kirk personified the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of Trump. He launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many Republican activists were nervous to tread.

A backer of Trump during the president's initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the centre of the right-of-centre universe.

Kirk had more than five million followers on his X account and drew an audience of more than 500,000 monthly listeners to podcasts of his radio program, The Charlie Kirk Show. He also authored or contributed to several books, including Time for a Turning Point and The College Scam.

'A very, very good friend': Trump

Turning Point's political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump's 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives.

The group is known for its events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.

Trump on Wednesday praised Kirk, who started as an unofficial adviser during his 2016 campaign and more recently became a confidant."He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person," Trump told the New York Post.

Kirk showed off an apocalyptic style in his popular podcast, radio show and on the campaign trail. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he said that Democrats"stand for everything God hates." He called Trump's election race against Kamala Harris "a spiritual battle."

"This is a Christian state. I'd like to see it stay that way," Kirk told the 10,000 or so Georgians, who at one point joined Kirk in a deafening chant of"Christ is King! Christ is King!"

Kirk also remained a regular presence on college campuses. Last year, for the social media program Surrounded, he faced off against 20 liberal college students to defend his viewpoints, which included the belief that abortion is murder and should be illegal.

WATCH | Trump announces Kirk's death: 

Charlie Kirk shot dead at university event, Trump says

5 hours ago

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk has died after being shot during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Multiple media reports also say Kirk has died, and the New York Times said a spokesperson confirmed his death. Video of the incident circulating on social media showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd when a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot rang out.

Admirers stressed that, for all of Kirk's confrontational rhetoric, he relished debate and the free exchange of ideas.

"His entire project was built on reaching across the divide and using speech, not violence, to address and resolve the issues!" William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, posted on X.

Father of two

His style has been hugely influential for a new generation of conservatives. Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida spoke on the Capitol steps after the shooting Wednesday, reflecting on Kirk's influence on her political journey.

"I was supposed to go to medical school. Charlie Kirk called me the day before I was supposed to leave, and recruited me to go be the national Hispanic outreach director for the organization," she said.

"I was with him at many of them, debating those kids, and that conversation needs to happen. You can't squelch that."

Kirk, a father of two, was married to podcaster Erika Frantzve.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by a then 18-year-old Kirk and William Montgomery, a Tea Party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirk's zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the Republican nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr. during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on Trump. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

Kirk said he was organizing buses to travel to Washington to back Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, and later invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answering questions from a congressional subcommittee about that day's riot.

A new conservatism

Kirk's evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his political perspective, and he argued that there was no true separation of church and state.

He also referenced the Seven Mountain Mandate, which specifies seven areas where Christians are to lead — politics, religion, media, business, family, education and the arts, and entertainment.

Kirk argued for a new conservatism that advocated for freedom of speech, challenging Big Tech and the media, and centring on working-class Americans beyond the nation's capital.

"We have to ask ourselves a question as a conservative movement: Are we going to revert back to the party of the status quo ruling class?" he said in his speech opening the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2020.

"Or are we going to learn from what I call the MAGA doctrine? The MAGA doctrine, which is a doctrine of American renewal, revival, one that America is the greatest country in the history of the world."