In something that has become part of the new normal in Donald Trump's United States, he himself broke the news. It was this Friday, on the Fox News morning show."I think we have him," said the US president about the suspect in the murder of ultra-conservative activist and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk, who was killed last Wednesday by a bullet fired from a rooftop at a distance of about 180 meters from a high-powered hunting rifle. Kirk was at Utah Valley University, at the start of one of the large outdoor public events he regularly organized on campuses across the country.
Spencer Cox, governor of that western state, confirmed the suspect's identity in a press conference. His name is Tyler Robinson, 22, and a resident of Washington, a county in southwestern Utah, on the border with Nevada, about 400 kilometers from the crime scene.
Robinson surrendered at the St. George police station at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday after a frantic search lasting just over 30 hours, led by the FBI, whose director, Kash Patel, has been criticized for his lapses in leadership. Authorities released four photos of the suspect as well as two before-and-after videos in the hope that the public would help identify him. They also offered a $100,000 reward.
The arrest was ultimately made possible thanks to a tip from Robinson's father (whose money is unclear), who recognized him in the photos. He tried to convince his son to turn himself in, and the latter told him he preferred to commit suicide first. The father asked him to speak with a family friend, a young religious man who, according to investigators, did manage to persuade the suspect. It was the Washington County Sheriff's Office that notified the FBI that they had the name they were looking for.
Cox didn't mention the father. He referred instead to"a family member" who drew attention to comments Robinson had made about Kirk."He specifically spoke about how much he disagreed" with him days before the Utah Valley event, according to the governor, who ruled out the possibility of further arrests. Robinson, the relative said, considered the ultraconservative activist to be"full of hate" and doing everything he could to "spread it."
The suspect's parents are registered Republicans and live in a community that is a Mormon stronghold. In the home where he grew up, gun and hunting culture were deeply rooted, and photos of the Robinsons' social media accounts demonstrate the family's passion for rifles.
Despite previous speculation, the suspect was not a student at the university where the murder took place. Many details are still missing about his life before he decided to write his name in the history of gun violence in the United States. His future, however, is beginning to become clearer. The State of Utah announced late Friday morning that it will seek to indict him on several crimes, but especially one: capital murder, which could carry the death penalty. The Department of Justice is also considering joining that case, for which he would have to be found guilty of a federal crime.
At the press conference in Orem, the location of the university where Kirk was killed, Governor Cox addressed incriminating messages found by investigators. In a Discord chat, Robinson inquired about how to obtain a rifle like the one he ultimately used. Agents also found inscriptions (which appear to have been borrowed from internet culture) on both fired and unfired cartridges.
One read: “Hey, fascist! Catch this [bullet]!” Another featured a seemingly homophobic comment. In a third, Robinson carved a verse from Bella Ciao, an Italian anti-fascist anthem popularized during World War II and now enjoying a second life thanks to TV shows and video games.
According to Cox, the suspect “had become politicized in recent years” and considered the influence of Kirk’s public figure to be harmful, especially strong on social media and among a young audience, whom he tried to seduce to the far-right cause while encouraging them to report teachers who spread what he considered “Marxist ideas.”
The"politicization" Cox attributes to Robinson, who has no criminal record and was a good student, conflicts with the information that, although he was registered to vote, he had no party affiliation. He did not exercise his right to vote in the last election.
In light of these revelations, the American right as a whole considered proven what they had already assumed from the beginning, even before learning the identity of the attacker: that his crime must be viewed within the context of the long history of political violence in the United States, a country that has seen four presidents assassinated while in office.
This confirmation has served as an opportunity for Trump to insist on something he's been repeating these days: he attributes to the"radical left" all responsibility for the breeding ground that led to the murder of Kirk, an ultraconservative activist known as much for his debate prowess as for his extremist anti-abortion, xenophobic, and anti-LGBTQ+ stances, as for his proud Christian nationalism.
The US president, who also insists on ignoring the connection between what happened and the fact that the United States is a heavily armed country, promised Thursday night to respond to the death of someone he considered"almost like a son," he said on Fox News the next day, by"beating the hell out of the 'radical left' lunatics." He called the murder suspect an "animal" and joined the chorus of those calling for his execution. These statements foreshadow (even more) measures by his administration aimed at silencing progressive discourse in the United States.
Governor Cox, the main promoter of the idea of capital punishment (legal in Utah), took the microphone for the second time during the press conference to attack social media (“a cancer on our society”) and to issue a passionate call to put aside differences, given that Kirk's murder has once again underscored the deep divisions and tensions that have hijacked political discourse and public life in the United States.
“I still believe in our country,” Cox said, his tone strained, “and that there’s more good than bad in us.” “We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence: it spreads,” he added, with rhetoric certainly more conciliatory than Trump’s. “Because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point, we have to find a way out, or things will get much, much worse.”
After the governor, it was Patel's turn. The FBI director took advantage of his intervention to defend himself against the criticism heard in recent days, especially since on Wednesday, a few hours after the attack, he announced on X the arrest of a murderer who turned out not to be a murderer, clearly anxious to solve as quickly as possible his first big case since Trump appointed him to a job for which this MAGA (Make America Great Again) podcaster had no experience.
“This is what happens when you let good cops do their job,” Patel said at the beginning of his speech, praising the “speed” with which the investigation was resolved: “less than 36 hours; 33, to be exact.” “A historic period of time,” according to the FBI director, who provided data that he believes proves the agents’ good work, such as the fact that they received “some 11,000 leads,” conducted “some 300 interviews,” and only took 16 minutes to arrive at the crime scene.
He ended his remarks with a nod to his"friend" Kirk and a strange farewell."See you in Valhalla," he said, in a Wagnerian reference to the place reserved in Norse mythology for the final resting place of heroes.
Patel had arrived in Orem the night before, during which he participated in a disappointing press conference that only served to release a video of the attacker's escape and to confirm that he was still on the loose after firing a single bullet, which hit the famous far-right influencer in the neck. The shot caused profuse, fatal bleeding and sparked panic on campus. Shortly after that appearance, during which Patel did not speak, Robinson, who is now in the Utah County Jail, turned himself in.
“Like a son”
The moment of Kirk's death was captured on hundreds of cell phones belonging to the nearly 3,000 attendees, and those recordings later spread like wildfire across the internet. In his interview on Fox News, Trump said Friday that he hadn't wanted to watch the gruesome video of the moment the bullet hit Kirk's neck and the blood gushed out, preferring to remember him"as he really was." The US president also confirmed that he would attend the funeral of his "friend," who died at the age of 31.
He was"a brilliant guy," Trump said of an activist who was also key to his second election victory, last November:"He helped me with TikTok," the Republican added. Kirk was essential in mobilizing the youth vote and, since entering the scene 13 years ago, when he was just 18, he worked tirelessly to attract young people not necessarily involved in politics, especially men, to the MAGA movement with his extremist ideas.
The American president also didn't miss the opportunity to return to the attack on the left."I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble, but I don't care," he replied to a question from the Fox & Friend host, who timidly suggested that"the radicals on the right" could also be part of the problem."How do we fix this country?" she added."Those on the right tend to be radical because they don't want crime. The radicals on the left are the problem."
Kirk's murder initially generated a certain consensus that it was time to "tone down" the debate. This attempt at a cooling of tempers was short-lived, given the stance taken by Trump, who survived two attacks last year and insists on refusing to acknowledge the existence of victims of political violence on the other side. Democrats and Republicans have been at odds since Wednesday over the memory of the ultraconservative activist and his legacy, and over who is more to blame for the polarization in the country, the left or the right.
The revelation of the identity of the suspect in the MAGA influencer's killing and the initial reports released by authorities about his motives do not indicate that this debate will subside, no matter how many calls for restraint and common ground Governor Cox makes. Nor does it indicate the unpredictable ways in which the history of this new era of political violence in the United States will continue to be written. Another aspect of the new normal in Trump's America.
