Charlie Kirk, who helped build support for Trump among young people, dies after campus shooting

Charlie Kirk who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to a top podcaster civilization warrior and ally of President Donald Trump was shot and killed Wednesday during one of his trademark populace appearances at a college in Utah He was Kirk died doing what made him a potent political force rallying the right on a college campus this time Utah Valley University The event was kicking off a planned series of Kirk college appearances from Colorado to Virginia dubbed The American Comeback Tour His shooting was one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures from the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota to last summer s shooting of Trump that have roiled the nation Trump released Kirk s death on his social media site Truth Social Kirk personified the pugnacious populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of Trump An unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about gender race and politics Kirk launched his organization Turning Point USA in targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where plenty of GOP activists were nervous to tread At the center of the right-of-center universe A backer of Trump during the president s initial run Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe Turning Point s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote efforts for Trump s campaign trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote Trump won Arizona Turning Point s home state by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in The group is known for its events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics It proposes more than attendee members Trump on Wednesday praised Kirk who started as an unofficial adviser during Trump s campaign and more lately became a confidant He was a very very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person Trump stated the New York Post Kirk displayed off an apocalyptic style in his popular podcast radio show and on the campaign trail During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall he explained Democrats stand for everything God hates Kirk called the Trump vs Kamala Harris choice a spiritual battle This is a Christian state I d like to see it stay that way Kirk informed the or so Georgians who at one point joined Kirk in a deafening chant of Christ is King Christ is King Influencing a new generation of conservatives Kirk was a regular presence on college campuses Last year for the social media campaign Surrounded he faced off against liberal college students to defend his viewpoints including that abortion is murder and should be illegal The author of several books including one on the Second Amendment Kirk was a staunch supporter of gun rights I think it s worth to have a cost of unfortunately particular gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights Kirk mentioned during a Turning Point event in Salt Lake City in adding that gun deaths can be reduced but will never go away Admirers stressed that for all of Kirk s confrontational rhetoric he relished debate and the free exchange of ideas His entire project was built on reaching across the divide and using speech not violence to address and resolve the issues William Wolfe executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership posted on X Kirk s style was influential for a new generation of conservatives Republican Rep Anna Paulina Luna of Florida spoke on the Capitol actions after the shooting Wednesday reflecting on Kirk s influence on her political journey I was supposed to go to health school Charlie Kirk called me the day before I was supposed to leave and recruited me to be the national Hispanic outreach director for the organization Luna commented I was with him at a multitude of of them debating those kids and that conversation requirements to happen You can t squelch that Kirk was married to podcaster Erika Frantzve They have two young children Zeal for challenging liberals Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in by a then -year-old Kirk and William Montgomery a tea party activist to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited authorities It was not an immediate success But Kirk s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers Despite early misgivings Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr during the general voting process campaign Soon Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV where he leaned into the civilization wars and heaped praise on the then-president Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences Kirk reported he was organizing buses to movement to Washington to back Trump on Jan and later invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answering questions from the Jan subcommittee Also in as he stepped up criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement on college campuses Kirk called George Floyd the Black man whose murder at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked protests that roiled Trump s last full year in office a scumbag Just don t totally mess up this state Kirk announced at the event in Mankato Minnesota It was built by wonderful Scandinavians and it seems as if it s being destroyed now rather intentionally As money poured in Kirk bought a million Spanish-style estate on a gated Arizona country club Turning Point steered millions of dollars to contractors owned by Kirk and his associates and selected Republicans were skeptical when it broadcasted it would spearhead an attempt to turn out infrequent voters during Trump s campaign But as younger voters shifted right in and Trump ran up a five-point margin of win in Arizona Kirk and his allies claimed vindication of his view of a sharp-elbowed culture-war-oriented conservatism Advocate of a new Christian conservatism Kirk s evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his political perspective and he argued that there was no true separation of church and state He also referenced the Seven Mountain Mandate that specifies seven areas where Christians are to lead politics religion media business family teaching and the arts and entertainment In the foreword to a book written by a pastor and Turning Point staffer to be published next week Kirk wrote In in the current era s America the Christian faithful are faced with a terrifying and broad array of dangers and threats We are menaced not by new false gods but by the return of demons from long ago Kirk argued for a new conservatism that advocated for freedom of speech challenging Big Tech and the media and centering working-class Americans beyond the nation s capital We have to ask ourselves a question as a conservative movement Are we going to revert back to the party of the status quo ruling class he mentioned in his speech opening the Conservative Political Action Conference in Or are we going to learn from what I call the MAGA doctrine The MAGA doctrine which is a doctrine of American renewal revival one that America is the greatest country in the history of the world Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines Iowa Joey Cappelletti Brian Slodysko and Matt Brown in Washington and Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this review Source