On Sept. 10, American right-wing political activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University during an event where he would be debating college students. Following his death, many conservative right-wing Americans referred to the killing as an assassination and claimed a prominent leader in their community had been killed for his views. Others empathized with the brutality of the killing but wondered if Kirk was all they were claiming.
America has mixed opinions on whether Kirk was a good person or not. What most people agree with is that no matter what your opinions are, you should not be killed for them.
Kirk was born in 1993. His dad was an architect and his mom was a stock trader. When he was just 18, he proved to be very useful in President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. To some surprise after high school, Kirk did not seek any higher education. Instead, he chose to pursue his political career.
In high school, Kirk wrote an essay for right-wing Breitbart News, a news and opinion website. In his essay, he accused academic institutions of extending “propaganda” and “indoctrination”. His essay had brought attention to a retired businessman and Tea Party activist, Bill Montgomery.
Kirk was able to build his political career primarily through Turning Point USA, an organization he co-founded in 2012. Montgomery had guided Kirk and given him financial support. Kirk’s organization engaged in political arguments primarily towards young adults.
“He created a space that was meant for young conservatives, he built a movement that he saw was missing among young people,” said NPR political reporter, Elena Moore.
When Kirk was fresh out of high school, he said he had “no money, no connections, and no idea what I was doing” but he gained visibility through public speaking, writing, and media appearances.
Kirk had his debates on race, gender, feminism, reproductive rights, gun violence, Islam, religion, and immigration.
At one debate in particular in September 2024, Kirk responded to a question on whether he would let his 10-year-old daughter abort a pregnancy conceived due to rape. He answered: “The answer is yes. The baby would be delivered.”
In March of 2024 on The Charlie Kirk show, which began in October of 2020, Kirk had this to say in regards to immigration: “The American Democrat party hates this country. They want to see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.”
Effectively, Kirk approached college campuses with a strong will to engage with college students on political arguments. These interactions were publicly well-known since he took and posted videos. He challenged students to prove him wrong. Using social media, Kirk secured donations that transformed his organization into one of the country’s largest political establishments.
Kirk was a conservative activist with a goal to promote conservative values and principles in order to influence Americans. According to the results from AP VoteCast, “47 percent of voters aged 18-29 opted for Trump, while 51 percent went for Harris. But that was a much narrower gap than in 2020, when Joe Biden outpaced Trump 61 percent to 36 percent.”
He had successfully helped Trump by becoming one of the most prominent voices within the Republican Party.
After his murder, social media had come to many assumptions. People had thought he faked his death for a variety of reasons. People even thought his wife knew the whole time because she had taken over Kirk’s podcast not even a month after his death.
What was most interesting was how Democrats and Republicans responded to his death. Well-known Democrats gave their regards and left it at that, but most Republicans posted on X or agreed with considering this a declaration of war.
It should be noted that there has been violence within both political parties, including the assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman, her husband and their dog–a death that was never acknowledged by President Trump. None have been taken as seriously as Kirk’s death.
TikTok influencer Leonard, claims “he was never respected by politicians; he was always a political tool.” He adds “Now he’s just somebody they can put on T-shirts somebody that they can use as a justification to steal more rights away from us”
Trump used this tragedy as an open opportunity to ignore the First Amendment. He has hired investigators for those who spoke ill of Kirk’s death and ran them out of their jobs.
“Whenever we lose a public figure, there are folks that are going to be happy about it,” said Legal Director Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Will Creely. “And this outrage cycle begins, folks get fired, they get investigated, they get terminated.”
New York Times Opinion Columnist Jamelle Bouie adds “ We live in a country where people are used to speaking their minds. It does not make sense to hold up Kirk or anyone as a defender and advocate of free speech and then threaten people for not speaking the correct way about the person”
Both argue that there is no official view on how all of America sees Kirk. “The government is trying to suppress people’s speech because they have an opinion the people in power don’t like,” adds Bouie.
Though he has passed away, his impact has not gone unrecognized. Kirk received an honorary degree from Hillsdale College, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom given by Trump on October 14.
A man who witnessed Kirk getting shot said “He was actually talking about mass shootings until he got shot.”
Sources
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/charlie-kirk-conservative-activist-dead-rcna230451
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33r4kjez6no
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxqnkwerj7o
- https://share.google/91zU25GT0bF0UfWFO
- https://share.google/2r6BEXwP6xJD83XWt
- https://share.google/03t5o9xZUwU8gjSle
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-charlie-kirk-helped-shape-a-conservative-force-for-a-new-generation
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/charlie-kirk-quotes-beliefs
- https://share.google/KypLnEoCQvst0Mo0s
