When President Trump spoke of his “grief and anger” from the Oval Office only hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, it was a striking moment that showed how important the 31-year-old conservative activist had been to the president personally, and how seamlessly he had woven himself into the Trump family fabric.
“I love you brother,” the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote on Wednesday on X.
It was the president himself — not local law enforcement, Mr. Kirk’s spokesman or his family — who announced Mr. Kirk’s death on Wednesday in what him was, for him, a rare show of lament. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. Kirk was particularly tight with Donald Trump Jr., a close friend drawn in by Mr. Kirk’s charisma but also his business and fund-raising skills.
“I couldn’t have thought more highly of him,” Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview earlier this year. “He wasn’t just some young guy who knew how to be brash online. Charlie got things done, from organizing on campuses to building relationships with donors.”
It was the eldest Trump son who ushered the Turning Point USA founder into the family orbit in the summer of 2016. After Mr. Kirk, then 22, managed to score a meeting with the son at Trump Tower and offer advice about how his father the candidate could attract young voters, Donald Trump Jr. hired Mr. Kirk on the spot as his personal campaign assistant.
A year later, Mr. Kirk was attending Donald Trump Jr.’s birthday party at Mar-a-Lago when the president motioned for him to have a seat nearby. The two spoke privately for 40 minutes.
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The post For Trump, Charlie Kirk Is a Deeply Personal Loss appeared first on New York Times.
