Shortly after President Trump was re-elected last November, Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, was busy helping the incoming president build a White House that prized loyalty above all else. This meant rooting out anyone who had turned away when Mr. Trump had been shunned by other conservatives.
“The question is, now, ‘Where were you?’” Mr. Kirk, who was helping vet prospective administration hires at the transition headquarters, said in an interview with The New York Times. “Did you believe that President Trump had a future? Or are you a summer soldier? Are you someone that is just around when the weather is good, or are you someone that’s willing to kind of endure when there might be a dark winter as well?”
Mr. Kirk, 31, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, the latest attack on a political figure in a horrific string of them this year.
His death is a major blow to Mr. Trump, whose close relationship with the young activist almost five decades his junior dates back to the president’s first term. The two spoke often, with Mr. Kirk relaying concerns from the greater conservative ecosystem and bonding with the president over shared grievances. (One early pet concern of Mr. Kirk’s, also shared by Mr. Trump, was the idea that conservative voices were being silenced or muted on social media.)
When Mr. Kirk was among the faithful who had helped Mr. Trump wage a comeback after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol had rendered him a political outcast, Mr. Trump never forgot it.
Mr. Trump occasionally appeared at events hosted by Mr. Kirk, and took to calling the conservative wunderkind a “genius.” With his Turning Point USA events and massive online following, Mr. Kirk provided Mr. Trump with a new generation of followers who cheered along as the president ripped into his political opponents, cast doubt on the reliability of American elections and accused the news media of unfair coverage. And Mr. Kirk, for his part, endeared himself to Mr. Trump by using his platform — which included a podcast, frequent television appearances and a large social media presence — to hit back at the president’s critics.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump posted a video from the Oval Office, praising Mr. Kirk as the “best of America” and angrily vowing to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence.”
Mr. Trump, who was assailed by protesters who called him “Hitler” in a Washington restaurant on Tuesday, likened some liberal criticism to acts of terrorism, linking the criticism to two assassination attempts on his life and other violent attacks against Republicans.
“It’s a long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” Mr. Trump said, before focusing solely on liberal criticism. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Mr. Trump also ordered that American flags be lowered until Sunday evening.
Mr. Kirk had grown up both inside and alongside Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, and few supporters of Mr. Trump were seen as more synonymous with it than him. Well before he had ever reached his 30s, Mr. Kirk had ascended to the inner realm of Mr. Trump’s political and family life: Mr. Kirk told a New York Times reporter who wrote a profile of his rise that he had visited the White House more than 100 times during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Mr. Kirk had deep relationships within Mr. Trump’s world. He had grown very close to Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as well as a number of the president’s current and former advisers. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, was an early ally.
“Charlie wasn’t just a friend — he was like a little brother to me — and to millions of people around the world — he was a true inspiration,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on social media on Wednesday evening. “There is no question that Charlie’s work and his voice helped my father win the presidency. He changed the direction of this nation.”
On social media, the bond between the president and Mr. Kirk had long been mutually beneficial: Mr. Trump elevated and amplified Mr. Kirk, who swiftly became a pundit on mainstream channels like Fox News. And Mr. Kirk helped shape and deliver Mr. Trump’s message to a new generation of Americans who not only shared his views on topics from immigration to Democratic politics but also encouraged the often incendiary way he communicated his ideas.
Mr. Kirk’s own rhetoric was long cast as racist, xenophobic and extreme by groups that study hate speech, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. For years, he used his various platforms to decry racial equity programs, float an array of conspiracy theories and test out divisive messaging that Mr. Trump has later adopted. (Mr. Trump did not start calling Covid “the China virus” until he retweeted Mr. Kirk, who had helped pilot the phrase.)
When Mr. Trump was initially charged with three conspiracy counts and the corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding relating to the Jan. 6 attack, Mr. Kirk was among those who stood by him. Mr. Trump later trusted Mr. Kirk to screen for loyalty among conservatives who were hoping to rejoin the president’s orbit.
At Mr. Trump’s swearing-in, Mr. Kirk had a prominent seat in the Capitol Rotunda.
But Mr. Kirk’s most significant relationship was with the president, who faced two assassination attempts in 2024 — one a near miss — and who was conscious of threats to his safety long before that.
Democrats and Republicans quickly denounced the shooting on social media and in Congress, although the rhetoric online devolved immediately, with liberals and conservatives accusing one another of creating the kind of corrosive conditions that could result in this kind of bloodshed.
Mr. Kirk, who was criticized and celebrated for his rhetoric online, disagreed with the idea that he had contributed to a toxic political environment. He said late last year that he saw his role as part of a functioning democracy, even though he was aware that a large swath of Americans were deeply opposed to Mr. Trump’s — and Mr. Kirk’s — brand of conservatism.
“We won the popular vote,” Mr. Kirk said last November. “There’s a process for this. And you try to compete, and you get in the public sphere. If you think your ideas are good, then I guess we’ll see in the midterms and in 2028.”
He added: “Disagreement is a healthy part of our systems.”
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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