MAGA figureheads used the funeral of Charlie Kirk on Sunday to mark his assassination as a sign of his martyrdom and the start of a holy war.
President Donald Trump, along with several administration officials and conservative commentators, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, hailed Kirk as a hero in dark eulogies delivered at a massive memorial in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday.
“Our greatest evangelist for American Liberty became immortal,” Trump said of Kirk in a wide-ranging speech. “He’s a model now for American freedom.”
“He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry,” he went on, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Vance called Kirk a “martyr for the Christian faith” and a “hero” to America.
Charlie Kirk was a hero to this country and a faithful servant of God.Every day that we continue his mission is an honor to his memory.We’ve got it from here, my friend. pic.twitter.com/Bh7NnEwsX4
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 22, 2025
“For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness,” he told the crowd. “For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter, even when staring down the barrel of a gun.”
Hegseth, meanwhile, said the 31-year-old MAGA firebrand understood that he was fighting not a political or cultural war, but “a spiritual war.”
“Charlie started a political movement, but unleashed a spiritual revival,” Hegseth said. “He died the way he lived: speaking the truth. Charlie waged war not with a weapon, but with a tent, a microphone, his mind, and the truth and the gates of hell could not prevail against him.”
Miller issued an ominous warning to “those trying to incite violence against us” and “those trying to foment hatred against us” as he vowed to carry out the mission Kirk started with his conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.
“You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred,” he told detractors, eliciting applause from the crowd.
Miller, widely credited as the architect of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration crackdown, warned that “you cannot defeat us, you cannot slow us, you cannot stop us” in their vague quest “to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic.”
“You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk. You have made him immortal. You have immortalized Charlie Kirk,” he said. “You have no idea the dragon you have awakened.”
Conservative pundit Benny Johnson waxed poetic about Kirk’s legacy as he invoked Christian tradition in touting the influence of his late friend.
“That is the power of martyrdom. Because Charlie Kirk is a martyr in the true Christian tradition,” he said. “If you take out a tyrant, his power goes away. You cut down a martyr, his power grows. And that’s what we see time and time again. We’re seeing it across this country.”
Johnson, who, like Kirk, advances right-wing ideology on his eponymous podcast, called on young conservatives to “fall in love, get married, have a million kids, and live out your American dream.”
“And by doing that, we can create millions and millions and millions of Charlie Kirks, and we can save our land that will be our turning point,” he said.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson highlighted Kirk’s magnanimity over hatred in a speech that followed the menacing eulogies.
“I’ve got a little hate compartment in my heart, and I would often express that to Charlie about various people, and he would always say, ‘That’s a sad person, that’s a broken person, that’s a person who needs help, that’s a person who needs Jesus,” he recalled.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, similarly struck a softer tone as she recounted her last interaction with her late husband, who was shot dead on Sept. 10 while speaking to students at Utah Valley University.
Erika recalled arriving at a Utah hospital and seeing “the wound that ended his life,” as well as “the faintest smile” on his lips.
“That told me something important,” she said. “It revealed to me a great mercy from God in this tragedy: When I saw that, it told me Charlie didn’t suffer. Even the doctor told me.”
The suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is in custody. His alleged texts included in a criminal indictment filed last week suggested that he “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred.”
“That young man. I forgive him,” Erika said in her teary tribute.
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