Slain podcaster, Trump ally Charlie Kirk built influence among young conservatives

Charlie Kirk, who rosebush from a teenage conservativist campus activistic to a top out podcaster, civilization warrior and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday during one of his trademark public appearances at a college in Utah. He was 31.

Kirk died doing what made him a potent political force — rallying the right on a college campus, this time Utah Valley University. The event was kicking off a planned series of Kirk college appearances from Colorado to Virginia dubbed "The American Comeback Tour."

His shooting was one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures, from the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota to the 2024 shooting of Trump, that have roiled the U.S.

Trump announced Kirk's death on his social media site, Truth Social.

Kirk personified the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of Trump. He launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread.

A backer of Trump during the president's initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the centre of the right-of-centre universe.

Turning Point's political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump's 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote.

The group is known for its events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.

Trump on Wednesday praised Kirk, who started as an unofficial adviser during Trump's 2016 campaign and more recently became a confidant. "He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person," Trump told the New York Post.

Kirk showed off an apocalyptic style in his popular podcast, radio show and on the campaign trail. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he said that Democrats "stand for everything God hates." Kirk called the Trump vs. Kamala Harris choice "a spiritual battle."

"This is a Christian state. I'd like to see it stay that way," Kirk told the 10,000 or so Georgians, who at one point joined Kirk in a deafening chant of "Christ is King! Christ is King!"

Kirk also remained a regular presence on college campuses. Last year, for the social media program "Surrounded," he faced off against 20 liberal college students to defend his viewpoints, which included the belief that abortion is murder and should be illegal.

Admirers stressed that, for all of Kirk's confrontational rhetoric, he relished debate and the free exchange of ideas.

"His entire project was built on reaching across the divide and using speech, not violence, to address and resolve the issues!" William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, posted on X.

His style has been hugely influential for a new generation of conservatives. Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida spoke on the Capitol steps after the shooting Wednesday, reflecting on Kirk's influence on her political journey.

Charlie Kirk shot dead at university event, Trump says

"I was supposed to go to medical school. Charlie Kirk called me the day before I was supposed to leave, and recruited me to go be the national Hispanic outreach director for the organization," said Luna.

"I was with him at many of them, debating those kids, and that conversation needs to happen. You can't squelch that."

Kirk, a father of two, was married to podcaster Erika Frantzve.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by a then 18-year-old Kirk and William Montgomery, a Tea Party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirk's zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

Kirk announced he was organizing buses to travel to Washington to back Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, and later invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answering questions from the Jan. 6 subcommittee.

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