The Pulitzer Prize: We are a country obsessed with guns and violence

What we should expect in the coming days, certainly also in the coming months, is confirmed both by the news and by the words of Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett: The American right will continue to openly exploit , without shame, the terrible death of Charlie Kirk. You'll see. Trump began to exploit this tragedy before poor Charlie Kirk had even been declared dead.

Everett has just landed in Paris. He shares over the phone with Corriere della Sera his feelings and fears following the murder, on Wednesday at Utah Valley University, of one of Trumpism's most influential figures—one of Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro's sons (the latter, on X, wrote that he was heartbroken)—who, through his podcasts, has brought a very young generation of Americans to the president's court. A political influencer.

Yesterday, Trump announced that Kirk, 31, had been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest honors in the United States. This further confirms, according to Everett, how murder can be transformed into a political act. A quiet observer of American customs, Everett speaks with his usual calm and firm tone, like someone who, on the cusp of 70, has grown accustomed to living in a country where gun violence dominates the news and politics.

Mr. Everett, America seems on the brink of a new civil war. Trump speaks of a manhunt in reference to the search for Kirk's killer and attacks the radical left. Far-right influencers blame the shooting on the Democrats.

This is the scenario the Trumpian right would like to create. If your goal is to sow divisions within society, even after the brutal murder of a 31-year-old, then there is little to discuss. Indeed, there is no room for discussion or debate. Making the death of a human being political is very sad. We should take a step back, take a cautious distance, at least until we know more. Condemn it, of course, but be careful with your words, without fomenting further hatred and violence. The Republicans' goal is to divide.

What does this murder say about America today?

Charlie Kirk's death has to do with the nature of the United States, a country obsessed with guns and violence.

What happens now? Will Kirk's murder spark a new spiral of violence in America?

I hope not. What will happen is that Donald Trump's base will rally even more around the president. I fear that Charlie Kirk's death will be exploited for even more violence. I repeat, at the risk of sounding boring: politicalizing this murder is a huge misstep by the White House. No one should die this way. We should be mourning right now.

Kirk is one of the sons of Joe Rogan, a Trump supporter, sometimes critic, whose podcasts are widely followed. He's part of a generation that enjoys popularity on certain campuses, capable of influencing masses of people who turn out to vote. Is this the direction of American politics?

It's a very sad transformation, in my opinion, of political debate, of debate in general, especially within American academia. I'd like to point out that I never considered Kirk a threat. Free and open debate is not something progressives fear. Kirk had views opposite to mine, on gender issues, on guns, on immigration, but I would never have had a problem engaging with him.

Someone wrote that there's a problem with freedom of expression in America.

What I believe in is avoiding promoting violence. Lately, unfortunately, our universities have failed to foster the spirit of debate that has always distinguished them.