Conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk, one of the best-known media figures of Trumpism and a close ally of the US president, was shot in the neck on Wednesday while speaking at a mass event at Utah Valley University, according to Donald Trump himself. Several videos circulating on social media show Kirk, 31, being shot and beginning to bleed profusely while speaking seated under a tent in front of hundreds of people at an outdoor event. The university initially reported that a suspect had been detained, although it later retracted its statement.
Trump, who had already confirmed that Kirk had been injured, wrote on his social media platform, Truth: “The great, even legendary, Charlie Kirk, has died. No one understood or had the hearts of young Americans better than he did. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and is no longer with us.” “Melania and I’s condolences go out to his beautiful wife, Erika, and their family. Charlie, we love you!” the president concluded his message. The death of the radical commentator, who had been taken to the hospital in critical condition, was also confirmed by his spokesman, Andrew Kolvet.
Trump has ordered flags on government buildings across the country to be flown at half-staff until 6:00 p.m. Sunday (Washington time) in tribute to the slain far-right activist, a father of two young children and immensely popular among younger conservatives. Flags were immediately lowered from their flagpoles in a somber White House after the news broke.
According to one of the videos, Kirk is shot precisely at the moment when a member of the audience with whom he is debating asks him about mass shootings; the commentator was a staunch defender of firearms and had argued that the shooting of Americans was, unfortunately, a price"worth" paying to maintain the right to bear arms."Do you know how many trans Americans have been perpetrators of mass shootings in the last ten years?" the viewer asks. Kirk replies,"Too many." His interlocutor replies that there have been five, and asks again if he knows how many mass shootings there have been in the country in that decade."Do you count gang violence or not?" the commentator replies. He immediately collapses from the bullet.
The search for the killer continues in the area surrounding the university and has expanded to other areas. Utah Valley University has confirmed that no one is in custody at this time."There are no suspects in police custody; this is an ongoing investigation," university spokesperson Ellen Treanor said in a statement. Four law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Utah Department of Public Safety, university police, and Orem County police, where the school is located.
US President Donald Trump had asked for prayers for Kirk, one of his closest and oldest allies. “We should all pray for Charlie Kirk, who was shot. A great man through and through. God bless him!” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth, after the attack broke. The US president was himself the target of a shooting in July of last year in Butler, Pennsylvania, and escaped with a minor ear injury.
🚨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.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) September 10, 2025
His condition is unknown.
This isn't a hoax, it's been confirmed. America's political fever is now drawing real blood. pic.twitter.com/PwN69Spwut
Kirk, who held ultraconservative views against immigration, diversity, and abortion rights, was one of the best-known figures in the American conservative movement, where she gained immense popularity after founding Turning Point in 2012 at the age of 18. Since then, the organization, which raised $4.3 million annually ten years ago, has expanded exponentially, raising more than $90 million last year. It is present in more than 850 colleges across the country, where it mobilizes students, encourages them to register to vote, and organizes events with conservative speakers.
Trump and his entourage consider him an essential figure in his return to the White House. The commentator never stopped supporting the now-president during his journey through the wilderness in the first years of Joe Biden's term, following the Republican electoral defeat in 2020, and visited him at his private Mar-a-Lago residence, from where the former real estate mogul planned his return to the political spotlight. Kirk, in the president's eyes, is the person to whom he owes most for the turnaround in the 2024 elections among the younger electorate, where Trump obtained—especially among male voters—a greater increase in support compared to the 2020 elections.
The commentator has developed a close friendship with the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Junior, whom he accompanied on his trip to Greenland just two weeks before the Republican leader's inauguration.
The event he attended on Wednesday was the first stop on a fifteen-stage tour across the country to promote his conservative message. Exceptionally skilled in the art of debate, one of his habits at these events is to ask the audience to ask him questions or present arguments, which he always counters with conservative arguments. Apparently, at the time of his shooting, he was participating in precisely this type of panel discussion, an event he calls the Prove Me Wrong Table.
His fame was such that he had become the target of numerous digs and allusions in films and television series. Among the most recent was the satire inflicted on him by the animated series South Park, where in its new season the character of Eric Cartman became a plump version of the podcaster for one episode.
Reactions poured in immediately after news of the attack broke. In addition to Trump, former President Joe Biden wrote on social media that both he and his wife, Jill, were praying for the victim's family and loved ones."There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It has to stop now," he urged.
California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who is very active on social media, has called on Americans to reject political violence, describing the attack on the conservative activist as"disgusting, vile, and reprehensible." Former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords, whose promising career was cut short when she was shot in the head while participating in a street rally, has expressed her"horror" at the incident."There will always be political disagreements in democratic societies, but we must never allow the United States to become a country that addresses these disagreements with violence," she wrote.
US Vice President J. D. Vance, who maintains an excellent relationship with Kirk and communicates frequently with him through messaging apps, has, like Trump, asked for prayers for the recovery of his ally, “a truly good guy and a young father.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close associate of Trump, has called the attack “despicable.”
