Who was Charlie Kirk? Trump supporter and activist shot dead in Utah

Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed on Wednesday (September 10) at a Utah college event in what the governor called a "political assassination", was a conservative activist and close ally of US President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters.

Kirk was one of the highest-profile conservative activists and media personalities in the US.

Kirk’s background

Kirk was the son of an architect who grew up in a prosperous Chicago suburb. He attended a community college near Chicago before dropping out to spend more time in political activism.

He had applied unsuccessfully to West Point, the elite academy that trains officers for the US military.

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He was an evangelical Christian, married to a former Miss Arizona, with whom he had two children. His family was the centre of his life and politics.

Public speaker

Charlie was good at public speaking, and he had a daily conservative radio talk show that drew millions of followers on social media.

He would go around the country speaking at Republican party events that were popular with members of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement in the US.

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In 2020, he wrote a book The Maga Doctrine which became a best-seller, that dealt with Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign. Kirk also addressed the Oxford Union earlier this year.

Polarising figure

Kirk was a polarising figure with his anti-gun control, anti-transgender views, his skepticism over the COVID-19 pandemic, and his public assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Ironically, a few months ago, Kirk said, “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”

Kirk’s organisation Turning Point

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Charlie Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytise on college campuses for low taxes and limited government.

The non-profit was started after President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012. Turning Point has chapters at more than 850 colleges.

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The organisation’s mission is aimed at young people – “to organise students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government”.

It was not an immediate success. But Kirk's zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Turning Point’s support for Trump

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

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The death was announced on social media by President Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Kirk.

“Great, and even Legendary. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

Condemnation of shooting across political aisle

The shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.

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“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.

“This is a dark day for our state. It's a tragic day for our nation," said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. "I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”