Charlie Kirk is a conservative activist and media personality in the US who was among the most visible in the nation, and a close ally of President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday he died at the age of 31 years by being shot dead at the time of hosting a college event at Turning Point USA, the organisation he co-founded, in what police are terming as a targeted shooting.
On a shocking news that President Donald Trump made, he paid his tribute on Truth Social: The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. There was no one who was more aware or knew more of the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America than Charlie did.
Kirk was regarded as the future of conservative activism – at the same time, a highly polarising figure.
Who was Charlie Kirk?
Kirk was the son of an architect who had spent his childhood in a prosperous suburb of Chicago in Prospect Heights, and he has attended an Illinois community college, before dropping out and committing himself to political activism.
He too sought, without success, admission to West Point, the prestigious US military academy. Kirk frequently tongue-in-cheek cited his lack of college degree when arguing with students and scholars about esoteric subjects like post-modernism.
He was a prolific speaker and toured the nation talking at Republican gatherings, many of which proved successful with Tea Party members of the ultra-conservative wing, and he was popular on social media with millions of followers daily on his talk radio show.
Turning point, which he began in his 18 th year, was designed to disseminate conservative ideas on US liberal leaning colleges.
The incident at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, during which he was shot, was the opening act of a 15-stop nationwide tour, called the American Comeback Tour, scheduled to see college campuses, during which the participants were encouraged to debate with Kirk.
What was Charlie Kirk’s political stance?
His social media and his daily podcast by his name regularly provided segments of him arguing with students over topics of climate change, faith and family values.
The comments of Kirk about gender, race and politics were regularly attacked by the liberal critic. One of the issues that he addressed was his resistance to gun control.
Only a few months ago he wrote: It is worth the price of, unfortunately, a few gun deaths annually, in order to have the Second Amendment.
At the start of the podcast put together by Kirk, a clip of Trump himself can be heard: “I want to thank Charlie, he is an incredible guy, his spirit, his love of this country, he has done a fantastic job in creating one of the strongest youth organisations ever made.
One of his greatest legacies is the non-profit that he created; Turning Point USA – though much of his legacy came after President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.
It has a mission that targets young people that is to organise students so that they can advance the ideals of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. It currently enjoys chapter membership in over 850 colleges.
It was instrumental in the get-out-the-vote campaign in the last year of Trump and other Republicans running. He is also hugely credited to assist in the registration of tens of thousands of new voters and flipping Arizona to Trump.
Kirk and Trump relationship improved with the winning of Trump where Kirk was present at the inauguration of Trump in January 2017 in Washington DC. During both terms in the Trump administration, he could be seen in the White House regularly.
As stipulated by the New York Times, he played golf with Trump two days before the 2025 presidential inauguration of the president.
In January he accompanied Trump son, Donald Trump Jr to Greenland because the then-incoming president was making a case that the US was due to own the Arctic territory.
Kirk also addressed the Oxford Union – a debating society at Oxford University – earlier this year, and in 2020, wrote a best-seller, The Maga Doctrine, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign.
Who are his family?
The centre of his politics was Kirk and his young family who were evangelical Christians.
In May 2021, he got married to Erika Kirk, a businesswoman and one time Miss Arizona and they had two kids.
She is the founder of Proclaim, a faith-based line of clothes, a podcast host and foundational two non-profit organisations, according to her webpage.
She would also often be seen with Kirk on a social occasion as well.
The couple frequently shared their family life on Instagram, however, their children remained anonymous.
Kirk uploaded a picture of himself at the beach in August when they were celebrating third birthday of his daughter.
Erika Kirk is pursuing a doctorate in Bible Studies.
On Wednesday, prior to the incident in which her husband was shot, she wrote online: “Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Charlie Kirk Assassination: Videos Of Suspected Shooter on College Roof.
On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, a well-known right-wing activist and a close ally of the US President Donald Trump, was shot dead at an event at Utah Valley University. The video footage of the event on social media depicted a crowd of 31-year-old radio host and podcaster talking to a large crowd when a loud crack, a shot, echoed.
In a few seconds Kirk appeared to be lifting up with his right hand as a lot of blood burst out on the left side of his neck. There was loud gasping and screaming in the air and shocked onlookers began ducking and fleeing.
The police claim that Kirk was shot dead with one shot after being fired at on the roof of the school Losee Centre, a building on the campus premises of 100-200 yards (approximately 90-180 metres) of the scene.
Videos taken during the shooting and some shot before the shooting depicted a man dressed in dark clothes walking on the roof of the Losee Centre. Camerawork that captured the assassination only seconds before the shooting depicted a body lying close to the roof of the structure. A video shot shortly after the shooting has someone running on the rooftop.
Some 20 minutes after Kirk began talking at the event, he was reportedly shot. By the way, however, the topic of the conversation that he was having at the time when he was shot was gun violence and mass shootings in America.
The Utah department of public safety later added that Kirk had been killed in a targeted attack. However, the suspected shooter has failed to be arrested as per the Mayor of Utah David Young.
The suspect was not a person who had been arrested by the police at the university where Kirk was speaking, a person who was familiar with the investigation but was not authorised to speak publicly confirmed this to me.
To date, the law enforcers have not released any motive as to why the attack took place yet the event of the shooting created fears that it was of a spike of political violence that has cut across the political divide.
These attacks involve assassination of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband in their home in June, firebombing a Colorado parade over Hamas to release hostages and a fire at the home of the governor of Pennsylvania, who is a Jew in April. The most infamous of them is the shooting of Trump on one of the campaign rallies last year.
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