US President Donald Trump has taken the death of the ultraconservative activist as a personal matter. He considered him"a member of the family." Not only that: on the political front, Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead on Wednesday while participating in a debate at Utah Valley University in Orem, was one of his closest allies and was key to the youth mobilization that fueled the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement and the Republican himself in his return to the White House last November.
This Thursday, an emotionally shaken, visibly tired, and furious Trump continued with his plans to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. He did so at the Pentagon, alongside his wife, Melania Trump, where he announced that he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Vice President and Second Lady J.D. and Usha Vance did cancel their presence at the memorial services in New York to join Kirk's family in Salt Lake City and offer his widow and two children the comfort of the White House. In the afternoon, Vance traveled on his official plane, Air Force 2, with the MAGA leader's coffin to transport his remains from Utah to Arizona, where he resided in Scottsdale, in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.
The US president also planned to speak by phone with Kirk's widow in the afternoon. He did so before traveling to New York to watch a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Before boarding the presidential helicopter, he told White House reporters that he plans to attend his young ally's funeral, which he estimates will take place in a couple of weekends. He also called Kirk's killer an"animal" and added,"We'll beat the hell out of those radical left lunatics."
This morning, before speaking about the attack that ended the 20th century in the United States in September 2001, he announced that he will posthumously honor Kirk with a medal that has been awarded since 1963, has been received by eight presidents, and last year was worn by Hillary Clinton, Denzel Washington, and Pope Francis, among others. Trump also plans to give it to his ally Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York.
“We miss him terribly,” he said of Kirk at the beginning of his remarks, at a lectern placed at the site where the passenger plane that terrorists flew into the Pentagon crashed, killing 189 people. “I have no doubt that Charlie’s voice and the courage he instilled in the hearts of countless people, especially young people, will live on. I am pleased to announce that I will soon be posthumously awarding Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The date of the ceremony will be announced soon, and I can only guarantee you one thing: we will have a very large crowd. A very, very large crowd.”
Recorded message
Trump had reacted forcefully on Wednesday to Kirk's death, which the president confirmed on his social media platform. He defined it as"one of the darkest moments in American history" in a message of just over four minutes recorded in the Oval Office. In it, he blamed exclusively the"radical left" for the breeding ground of tension that led to Kirk's murder, perhaps forgetting that the problem of political violence, a growing epidemic, is accumulating victims on both sides of the political spectrum in a decidedly polarized country.
Trump cited only a few precedents, all with conservative victims. He spoke of the attacks against him (two last summer); the attacks on immigration agents in recent months; the case of Luigi Mangione, the young man who shot the CEO of United Healthcare, one of the country's largest insurers, in the back; and the 2017 shooting of around 20 Republican members of Congress, including speaker Steve Scalise. He did so to attack the"radical left," which, he said,"has compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the worst mass murderers and criminals in the world."
“It is time for all Americans and the media to face the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those who disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump added. His administration, he promised, “will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity.” He added, “As well as those who persecute our judges and law enforcement officers. The political violence of the radical left has hurt too many innocent people and claimed too many lives.”
Trump hinted that his administration will take appropriate action against this"radical left" before learning the identity of the killer, his political leanings, and his motivations. For now, the State Department announced, through Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau's account, that foreigners who celebrate Kirk's death by"glorifying violence and hatred" on social media "will not be welcome" in the United States.
The FBI was still searching for the suspect more than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, officials announced at a press conference in Salt Lake City that they had found the rifle he used, a"high-capacity" hunting weapon. They also released two images of the alleged killer in the hopes that this would aid in his arrest.
