CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR CHARLIE Kirk was shot and killed at an event he was hosting at a university in Utah yesterday.
Kirk was speaking to students at Utah Valley University when he was shot and his death has rocked the Republican Party.
The 31-year-old was a prominent conservative figure and an ally of the US President Donald Trump. Trump and his vice president JD Vance were among many who called for prayers for Kirk in the hours after the shooting.
In a sign of Kirk’s fame and significance to the MAGA movement, Trump ordered flags around the US, including at the White House, to be flown at half-mast.
A father of two, Kirk was a conservative activist for much of his life. In 2012, at the age of 18, he co-founded Turning Point USA, an organisation that advocates for conservative politics at schools and universities. He was speaking at Utah Valley University yesterday as part of his work for the organisation.
Kirk had built up a significant following and hosted an extremely popular podcast, with more than 8 million followers on Instagram and over four million YouTube channel subscribers.
Turning Point, and Kirk, backed Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016 after initial reservations. From then on, Kirk became an ardent Trump supporter. He served as a personal aide to his son, Donald Trump Jr.
In 2020, Kirk campaigned for Trump and the president, although he lost the presidency to Joe Biden, won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state. The organisation focused on energising young conservatives to vote in the presidential election.
Trump and other high-profile Republicans have spoken at Turning Point events on multiple occasions.
Kirk was no stranger to controversy. In the past, he promoted misinformation surrounding Covid-19, rejected scientific findings on climate change, and denied that there is systemic racism in American society. He was accused of being antisemitic, and promoted incorrect claims of election fraud after Trump lost the 2020 election.
He was also openly homophobic and compared homosexuality to afflictions like alcoholism and drug addiction, saying the friends and families of gay people should “correct their error”.
While he made his name through provocative debates with progressive college students, Kirk also had enemies among the “Groyper” movement, the explicitly racist and antisemitic element of the conservative movement in the US, largely due to his support for Israel.
But his popularity in the wider MAGA movement was obvious from the tributes paid since his murder.
In a post to Truth Social confirming the news of Kirk’s death, Trump wrote: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.
“He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Republicans and Democrats alike across America have expressed horror at Kirk’s death and condemned any politically motivated violence in the US.
