Charlie Kirk, one of the most high-profile conservative media personalities, has been shot and killed at age 31.
Founder of Turning Point USA, the dad-of-two was a close ally of President Donald Trump and an infamous commenter on issues such as trans rights and gun control.
He was visiting Utah Valley University as part of his group’s ‘America Comeback Tour’ when he was shot in the neck in front of horrified students.
Announcing his death, Trump wrote on Truth Social: ‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.’
Charlie spoke passionately about conservative values on college campuses, writing five books and launching a podcast and YouTube channel with 3.8 million subscribers.
Earlier this year he was at the Oxford Union, debating students on women’s rights.
Just a few days before his death he was still in the midst of media discourse, insisting the stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina, was motivated by racial hatred, but was in turn accused of ‘hate-mongering’.
Charlie, in his final post on X, wrote: ‘If we want things to change, it’s 100% necessary to politicize the senseless murder of Iryna Zarutska because it was politics that allowed a savage monster with 14 priors to be free on the streets to kill her.’
College drop-out
At 18, he dropped out of community college in the Chicago suburbs and later founded Turning Point alongside conservative businessman Bill Montgomery.
Prior to this, he said he had dreamed of getting into West Point, the US military academy which trains officers.
But, according to Charlie, he was passed over for ‘a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion’.
Shortly after he wrote an opinion piece for Breitbart, accusing teenagers of being indoctrinated by liberal textbooks.
Work with Donald Trump
At the Republican National Convention in 2016, Charlie admitted he ‘was not the world’s biggest Donald Trump fan’.
But he did like his children – Don Jr, Eric and Lara – who brought him onside and to work with them during the Trump campaign.
Charlie said: ‘I traveled the country for about 70 days straight carrying Donald Trump Jr.’s bags and getting his Diet Cokes.
‘Helping book flights and taking pictures and coordinating media, essentially being the youth director of the campaign and also being Don Jr.’s body man.’
But he caught the eye of the president, who began to see him as a link to younger voters.
Charlie was even the first person to coin the term ‘China Virus’ to describe the Covid pandemic, which was co-opted and relished by Trump.
When a bullet clipped Trump’s ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, Charlie insisted divine intervention had saved the president.
‘God’s hand is on Donald Trump,’ he said.
Who was Charlie Kirk’s family?
Charlie married former Miss Arizona Erika Frantzve Kirk.
In August 2022 they announced the birth of their first child, a daughter who they refer to online as GG, with Charlie announcing on Instagram: ‘Welcome to the world baby girl.
‘We love you so much.’
Their son was born in May 2024, and on his first birthday this year, Charlie said: ‘He has brought an infinite amount of joy and laughter into our lives.
‘Being a parent is an incredible gift, made far better because I get to do it alongside @mrserikakirk.’
Visiting the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. with their daughter in January this year, the parents said: ‘Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.
‘The only person who loves you more than us sweet GG is Jesus.’
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