President Donald Trump began an address to the nation Wednesday night by expressing horror at the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a close ally who was killed hours earlier in a shocking shooting on a college campus in Utah.
“All who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” Trump said in a recorded statement from the Oval Office.
Then the president quickly pivoted to blaming the “radical left” for the assassination, even though an investigation into the shooting at Utah Valley University is still ongoing and authorities have not yet identified the shooter or their motives.
“For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop,” Trump said.
The response showcased Trump’s instinct to attack his perceived political enemies in moments of crisis and tense national debate. Trump’s combative approach to his role of healer-in-chief when tragedy strikes also represents a break from tradition, according to presidential historians who spoke with Newsweek.
“When political violence happens in this country, most presidents attempt to lower the temperature of the heated debate that may have led to a political assasination,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
In contrast, “President Trump injected partisan politics immediately into the tragic death of Charlie Kirk,” said historian Douglas Brinkley. “It’s unfortunate that the president on one hand has been able to properly eulogize Kirk, and then at the same time lose some credibility by trying to demonize Democrats for the death.”
TO MY GREAT FELLOW AMERICANS… pic.twitter.com/oRsrE5TTHr
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2025
Kirk’s assassination left Trump with an unusually delicate balancing act as the president and his team crafted a response while simultaneously reeling from a personal loss.
Kirk was a popular figure in the White House, and his death stunned Trump and advisers when news of the shooting broke around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. A gruesome video of the moment Kirk was struck by a bullet in the neck quickly rocketed across the internet.
The 31-year-old Kirk was a close friend of several people in Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. The co-founder of the conservative organizing group Turning Point USA, Kirk was an influential voice on the right with younger conservative voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Apart from his personal connection to Kirk, Trump also has firsthand experience with political violence, having survived a near-miss assassination attempt at a campaign rally last year in Butler, Pennsylvania. A man is currently on trial for a separate assassination attempt that occurred two months later in Florida.
Trump outlined his shared history with Kirk in his Oval Office speech linking the shooting to the rise in political violence in the country. But Trump presented the violence as one-sided, citing as examples the attack against himself and others targeting conservative figures such as Kirk. He also mentioned attacks on U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents and the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York last year.
Notably absent was any mention of recent political violence targeting Democrats, such as the assassination earlier this year of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, the attack against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband in 2022, or the foiled plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
Trump also decried “those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country,” but failed to mention the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. More than 100 police officers were injured in the riot and four later died by suicide.
“The idea that progressives are always prompting violence just doesn’t hold up,” Brinkley said.
Still, that didn’t fit into the narrative Trump presented to the nation as he grieved Kirk’s death. His response was in keeping with a president who is always keenly aware of the politics of the moment.
“Regardless of the president’s sincere fondness and appreciation for all Charlie Kirk has done for him,” said a source who has worked with Trump and is familiar with his thinking, “the president never misses an opportunity to promote his agenda and look for political opportunity.”
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