The US president announced this Friday in an interview on the Fox News morning show that he believes "with a high degree of certainty" that the killer of his ally Charlie Kirk is "in custody." Trump, who offered few details and said he received the information"five minutes before going on air," also said that someone "very close to [the suspect] ratted him out," adding that authorities would expand on this confusing information throughout Friday."Local law enforcement and the governor... Everyone has done a great job," he concluded.

Later, several American media outlets named a 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

Regarding the lead that led to the arrest, the Republican said it was a religious pastor, a"friend" of someone involved in the investigation, who convinced the suspect's father to turn him in. The suspect, according to the governor of Utah, the state where the crime took place, could face the death penalty, which is legal in that part of the country. Trump joined this hope on Friday that the alleged killer will be brought to justice.

If the information given by the president is confirmed - and, true to himself, he added two strange nuances: that he was giving the news “based on what” he has heard and that he “is not free” from being corrected -, it has taken 36 hours to capture the suspect in the murder, last Wednesday, of the conservative activist. The FBI announced late Thursday night, in a disappointing press conference in Orem (Utah), that the guy who shot Kirk in front of a crowd and from a distance of about 70 meters was still on the run, a bullet that hit him in the neck and killed him instantly while he was participating in a public event on the campus of Utah Valley University.

In an appearance on the show Fox & Friends −with three hosts sitting on white sofas with New York in the background, perhaps the show to which Trump has given the most television time since entering politics−, the President of the United States stated that Kirk was “like a son” to him. He also highlighted how important this “brilliant guy” was in his second electoral victory, last November: “He helped me with TikTok,” Trump recalled.

Kirk was essential in mobilizing the youth vote, and since his arrival 13 years ago, when he was just 18, he worked tirelessly to attract young people, especially men, who weren't necessarily involved in politics, to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement."I've never seen them turn to one person as much as they did to Charlie," Trump added.

The US president also didn't miss the opportunity to place all the blame for the rising political violence ravaging the United States on the left."I'll say something that'll get me in trouble, but I don't care," he replied to a question in which it was timidly suggested that the "radical right" could also be part of the problem."They tend to be radical because they don't want to see crime. The radical left is the problem."

He didn't want to watch the video

He also revealed that he hadn't wanted to watch the video of the moment the bullet struck Kirk's neck while he was in the middle of one of the events he used to organize at universities across the country to spark debate within these generally progressive-minded institutions. Trump, who confirmed he would attend the funeral of the ultra-conservative commentator, who died at the age of 31, said he preferred to remember him"as he really was" and described the video, in which he is seen nearly dying live, with blood gushing out, as"horrible." That moment, immortalized on hundreds of cell phones of the nearly three thousand attendees, has spread like wildfire across the internet.

According to the initial findings of the investigation, the suspect committed the crime with a"high-capacity" hunting rifle that officers found wrapped in a towel "in a forest near" the scene. There have also been reports that there were bullets marked with messages in support of the trans community.

Throughout Thursday, the FBI, which received some 7,000 tips, released four photos and two videos of the suspect, while offering a $100,000 reward for assistance in capturing the alleged killer. FBI leaders Kash Patel and Dan Bognino traveled to Salt Lake City to participate in the investigation and, supposedly, in a major announcement that never came.