What Makes a Martyr?

It’s not just American conservatives who are trying to immortalize Charlie Kirk. His name was a rallying cry at a large far-right gathering in London. His death was the No. 1 topic at a right-wing party conference in Madrid. Even the mayor of Lima, Peru, held a memorial for Kirk, comparing him to martyrs in Rome who helped spread Christianity.

In the U.S., Kirk’s consecration as a MAGA saint has been swift.

There are proposals to name portions of highways after him and to mint coins with his face on them. Oklahoma is considering a bill that would require all state colleges to build a statue of Kirk. Yesterday, on what would have been his 32nd birthday — and was officially a National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk, thanks to an act of Congress — President Trump held a ceremony to posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Martyrs are potent. Their deaths can be used to infuse a cause with quasi-sacred meaning. They can be used to unite people behind that cause and against an enemy. They can be used to justify violence.

There are a number of criteria that experts say make someone a good martyr — and Kirk ticks all the boxes.

Three ingredients

George Floyd made an effective martyr. Ashli Babbitt less so.

If you haven’t heard of Babbitt, it’s because efforts to elevate her after her death never reached the heights many on the right had hoped for.

Babbitt died in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. She was killed by a police officer when she tried to breach a door that was one of the last barriers between rioters and members of Congress.

Trump and other prominent MAGA figures framed her death as the execution of an “innocent.” There was a burst of Babbitt hashtags and T-shirts in QAnon and far-right circles, where she remains a martyr to this day.

But efforts to broaden her appeal beyond that never really bore fruit.

Floyd, a Black man, died facedown on the pavement when a white police officer knelt on the back of his neck. “I can’t breathe,” the words he repeatedly uttered in his final moments, became the rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. People across the globe marched in his name. Pilgrims still flock to the site of Floyd’s death outside a convenience store that was renamed after him. Murals of him abound.

What accounts for the difference?

I asked Tom Holland, a historian who has studied Christian martyrdom, what the most compelling martyrs had in common. He listed three criteria.

First: a public, dramatic and ‘innocent’ death.

Floyd’s victimhood was never in any serious question. The world watched the video of him taking his last breath.

Babbitt’s death split the right. Senior Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham called the Jan. 6 rioters “domestic terrorists.” The House speaker at the time, Kevin McCarthy, said the officer who shot her “did his job.”

Second: The death should have a cause linked to it.

Martyr means witness in Greek; the early martyrs were witnesses to God. Babbitt and Floyd both had causes linked to their deaths. In Babbitt’s case, it was Stop the Steal; in Floyd’s, it was Black Lives Matter.

But they differ again when it comes to Holland’s third piece of criteria.

Third: Martyrs need a powerful movement.

Movements have the resources to invest these deaths with greater meaning — to tell their stories in a way that galvanizes people.

In May 2020, when Floyd died, America’s left was mobilized ahead of that year’s presidential election. By the time Babbitt died, Trump had lost that election and was a few weeks from leaving office. It wasn’t yet clear where MAGA was going.

A powerful tool

Kirk’s death, Holland noted, can be made to fit all the criteria. He was shot while debating college students. He was already recruiting young voters to the MAGA cause. And he’s being mourned by a movement that’s more powerful than ever.

The ripple effects of Kirk’s death have already gone beyond statues and plazas. He’s become a powerful tool. The administration has used his death to crack down on free speech and liberal groups. It has threatened to deport people who trivialize Kirk’s murder and has canceled some foreigners’ visas.

While guest-hosting an episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller declared that the administration was “at war” with the left, and he vowed “to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy” what he called a “vast domestic terror movement.”

The government would do this, Miller said, “in Charlie’s name.”

Interested in providing feedback on this newsletter? Take our short survey here.

MORE TOP NEWS

Israel pressured Hamas to return more bodies

Israeli officials and the families of hostages accused Hamas of violating the new cease-fire deal by failing to immediately return the bodies of many deceased captives. Hamas said that it was committed to releasing all remains, but that widespread devastation in Gaza was making it difficult to retrieve them quickly.

The Israeli government is considering limits on aid to Gaza to penalize Hamas for not turning over more remains, and it may also keep the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt closed.

The U.S. and the Arab world teamed up to push for a breakthrough in cease-fire talks in Egypt. Here’s how it happened.

Madagascar’s military took power

Madagascar erupted into celebrations yesterday over the removal of President Andry Rajoelina, who was ousted by the military after weeks of youth-led protests over the government’s failure to provide basic needs.

After Parliament voted overwhelmingly to impeach Rajoelina, soldiers entered the presidential palace and announced the dissolution of all major institutions, except the lower house of Parliament. The president, who went into hiding on Monday, insisted that he remained “fully in power.”

OTHER NEWS

The U.S. military killed six people in another attack on a boat in the Caribbean, Trump said. He accused them of smuggling drugs.
France’s prime minister offered to freeze an unpopular pension overhaul until after the presidential election in 2027.

Russia opened a terrorism investigation against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an anti-Kremlin tycoon, and other exiled Russians.
Twenty inmates accused of belonging to a major gang slipped out of a Guatemalan prison, setting off a nationwide manhunt.
A fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh killed at least 16 people. The blaze also engulfed a nearby chemicals warehouse.
The trade tension between China and the U.S. is catching almost every other country in the crossfire.
A national strike and demonstrations against austerity proposals disrupted air traffic and public transit in Brussels.

SPORTS

Football: Why was Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, at the Gaza summit in Egypt?

Cycling: Here’s the story of the 2025 Monument races in 20 photographs.

Tennis: A player who used kissing as his defense in a doping case has been suspended for four years.

WORDS OF THE DAY

Job hugging

— The act of workers hanging on to cushy gigs as the job market in the U.S. cools down.

MORNING READ

For Tadashi Yanai, the founder of the Japanese brand Uniqlo, conquering the U.S. market is personal. Yanai, 76, came of age in postwar Japan, steeped in U.S. culture. He wore Converse, watched 1950s sitcoms like “Father Knows Best” and drew inspiration for Uniqlo from casual wear brands like Gap.

Uniqlo plans to have 200 stores in North America by 2027, nearly double the number of current locations. But Trump’s protectionist policies could throw a wrench into those plans. Read more.

AROUND THE WORLD

What they’re remembering in … France

Executions by guillotine were a gruesome public spectacle during the French Revolution. Around 17,000 people, including Louis XVI, lost their heads from 1793 to 1794.

The guillotine may feel like the part of a bygone era, but it was used in France until 1977. Now, two events are commemorating the abolition of the death penalty in the country.

This month, a guillotine went on display in the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, in Marseille. And Robert Badinter, a lawyer and former justice minister who pushed for the end of the death penalty in France, was inducted into the Panthéon, the burial place in Paris for distinguished people. Read more.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Untuck: What’s the best way to wear a button-up shirt? Our chief fashion critic has ideas.

Eat healthy: Lentils deserve a place in your pantry. Here’s why.

Read: “A Guardian and a Thief” follows two entangled lives in a famine-ridden future.

RECIPE

Congee, a rice porridge, goes by many different names across Asia. But this recipe brings a twist: Butternut squash provides a naturally sweet and earthy glow, while chile oil delivers heat and savoriness. Start with leftover rice and be sure to give it a good stir at the end.