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From ‘hellhole’ UK to anti-Muslim rhetoric in Japan, Charlie Kirk took his message abroad
Charlie Kirk directed most of his rhetoric at the US political scene, but he also strayed into foreign affairs, drawing both favourable and critical comparisons between life in the US and in other countries on his shows and doing the occasional speaking tour.In May, Kirk visited the UK, debating against students at Oxford and Cambridge universities and appearing on the conservative GB News channel. Days before he was fatally shot in Utah he took his message to relatively new audiences on a tour to South Korea and Japan.Last weekend he addressed like-minded politicians and activists at a symposium in Tokyo organised by Sanseito, a rightwing populist party that shook up the political establishment in upper house elections this summer.In Tokyo, Kirk described Sanseito, which ran in July’s elections on a “Japanese first” platform, as “all about kicking foreigners out of Japan”, where the foreign population has risen to about 3.8 million out of a total of 124 million.Foreign residents and supporters of mass migration were, he claimed, “very quietly and secretly funnelling themselves into Japanese life. They want to erase, replace and eradicate Japan by bringing in Indonesians, by bringing in Arabs, by bringing in Muslims”.He spoke at length about his trip in a podcast released the day before his death, returning to a familiar theme – criticising women who choose not to have children – that echoed the views of his host in Japan, the Sanseito leader, Sohei Kamiya.In Seoul, he addressed more than 2,000 supporters at the Build Up Korea 2025 event, which drew predominantly young Christians and students from evangelical schools, representing a self-styled Korean Maga movement that has rallied in support of the impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol.The event invited a host of far-right American personalities, who openly promoted conspiracy theories including claims that China orchestrated “stolen elections” in both America and South Korea, and that Lee Jae Myung’s recent presidential victory was fraudulent.Kirk criticised special prosecutor investigations into Yoon and his martial law, describing “several disturbing things happening right now in South Korea” where “pastors are being arrested” and “homes are being raided”, adding: “If South Korea keeps on acting like this, it is the American way to step up and fight for what is right.”Kirk said he had “learned a lot” from his time in South Korea and Japan, recalling how safe he had felt on the clean and orderly streets of Seoul, where there were “no bums, no one asking you for money”.In his three-day visit to the UK in May, he clashed with students at the Cambridge Union debating society, arguing that “lockdowns were unnecessary”, “life begins at conception”, and the US Civil Rights Act was a “mistake”.Kirk made the same points in Oxford, also alleging immigrants were “importing insidious values into the west” and that police violence against Black people was a result of a “disproportionate crime problem” in the Black community.He told the rightwing GB News that the UK was a “husk” of its former self and needed to “get its mojo back”. The perception among US conservatives, he said, was that “this is increasingly a conquered country … We love this country from afar, and we’re really sad about what’s happening to it, and what has happened to it”.On his first show after returning to the US, Kirk described the UK as a “totalitarian third world hellhole”, adding: “It’s tragic. I don’t say that with glib, I don’t say that with delight. It is sad. It’s chilling and it’s depressing.”He claimed he had seen a cafe in which “every single table was taken by a Mohammedan and a fully burqa-wearing woman – not a single native Brit” and that people were being arrested for online posts that displayed no apparent harmful intent.“They invented free speech,” he said. “Now there’s so much wrong with that country and it is not worthy of making fun of. I mean, you can have some laughs and some comedy, but it is depressing. It is dark.”View image in fullscreenWhile he was fond of referencing Europe in his shows, Kirk’s only other recent public visit there appears to have been a trip to Greenland in January in the company of Donald Trump Jr.He said afterwards that Greenlanders should be allowed to “use personal autonomy and agency to disconnect from their Danish masters”, then have “the opportunity to be part of the US, no different than either Puerto Rico or Guam” (two self-governing “unincorporated territories” of the US) in order to be “wealthier, richer … and protected”.Kirk was also sharply critical of many countries in his videos and podcasts. “France has basically become a joke, for a lot of reasons,” he said last year, amid widespread French protests over pension changes. “What’s happening in France should serve as a warning to America.”After JD Vance attacked Europe for alleged free speech shortcomings this year, Kirk hit out at Germany. “Germans are a bunch of troublemakers,” he said. “German prosecutors say someone can be locked up if they insult someone online. Free speech is not a German value. Totalitarianism is a German value.”He was a vocal supporter of Trump’s China-focused policies, backing the president’s attacks on Harvard University in April, and the punishing trade war with Beijing.In April, he claimed Harvard had “raked in” more than $100m from China. “We need to ask serious questions in this country about whether we can trust our elite universities to put America first when so much money is flowing to them from America’s number one rival.”The same month, he told Fox News the US had become “a glorified vassal state” subservient to the Chinese Communist party, by relying on China for rare earth minerals. He said the CCP wanted to create “lots of little colonies all around the world through the belt and road initiative”.He also waded into the complicated waters of cross-strait relations. In April, Kirk told his podcast he had “a soft spot for the people of Taiwan”, but also showed a limited understanding of its history and the complexities of the dispute.“I would say, sadly if we took Taiwan, it would probably start a nuclear war. Our leaders have largely mishandled China. We probably should have taken it in 1950 right after world war two,” he said.There has never been any discussion of the US “taking” Taiwan. The US is Taiwan’s most important backer, providing billions of dollars in weapons and some military training, and has not ruled out coming to its defence in the event of a Chinese attack or invasion.In a video in May, Kirk used the escalating hostilities between India and Pakistan to push his argument against US military intervention abroad. Describing Pakistan as a “very, very sneaky actor”, Kirk was emphatic that “very simply, this is not our war … This is a great test of whether every great conflict is America’s problem”.Kirk was equally dogmatic on the issue of Indians being granted more visas as part of a US-India trade deal, accusing Indians of taking American jobs.“America does not need more visas for people from India,” he said. “Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first.” More
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Charlie Kirk’s death is a tragic marker of the indiscriminate nature of political violence | Margaret Sullivan
Once unleashed, political violence comes for everyone.It doesn’t know what side of the aisle you’re on or what your ideology might be, who your allies are or what your vision for the future includes. It doesn’t know what brand of media you consume or how many ardent followers you have.Political violence doesn’t know and doesn’t care about such things.Like an infectious disease, it simply – and efficiently – finds more and more victims. It isn’t picky about who they are.Whatever his beliefs, the killing of Charlie Kirk at a campus event in Utah on Wednesday is tragic. Also tragic is how partisan, violent and ugly much of the immediate reaction was, mostly on the right. Nancy Mace, a Republican congressperson from South Carolina, told a gathering of reporters that “Democrats own what happened today.” She offered no evidence, only partisan vitriol.On Fox News, one of the most prominent rightwing media figures, Jesse Watters, sought reprisal.“We’re gonna avenge Charlie’s death,” Watters told the on-air audience. “Everybody’s accountable. And we’re watching … the politicians, the media and all these rats out there.”Granted that, on the left, some were too quick to say, in essence, “you reap what you sow,” but most prominent progressives – from Barack Obama to Mehdi Hasan – expressed sympathy and sadness. Some did so while acknowledging political differences, but emphasizing that those didn’t matter in this moment.There was plenty of blame and talk about accountability. But we already know that, when it comes to gun violence, there will be no real change, no real accountability. Because that’s hard, bipartisan work, and too much of America – deeply entrenched in tribal politics and egged on by a president who glories in violent rhetoric – is not interested.Gun “rights” – and gun-industry money – rule the day.Adding to the ugliness was the way social media revved its engines and did what it always does – made it worse.“The degree to which the algorithm on this platform is pushing video of the shooting is incredibly disturbing,” wrote CNN’s Abby Phillip on X. “There has to be some human that can turn the dial down in a situation like this.”That gun violence truly is an epidemic in America couldn’t have been clearer than when media coverage of Kirk’s assassination was interrupted by yet another school shooting, this one in Evergreen, Colorado.The Denver TV station KDVR offered a heartbreaking interview with a student who said he was new to the region.“I only moved here a few months ago, and I didn’t think this would happen so soon.”Those two words – so soon – speak volumes. School kids fully expect the life-changing trauma; they’re only hoping it might take a while to come to them.Because, as noted, it comes to everyone.Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic congressperson from Arizona, was shot and suffered a severe brain injury in 2012 and is now a passionate advocate for preventing gun violence. Admirable and dedicated as she is, her posted reaction seemed curious, although it surely was meant to offer some hope in a dark moment.“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements,” she wrote, “but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”But, as Giffords knows all too well, we already have allowed it. And America already is that country.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture More
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Charlie Kirk shooting latest: search for killer under way as Trump vows crackdown on ‘political violence’
Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:
Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.
Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.
Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has described the death of Charlie Kirk as “the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left”.In a post on X, Orbán wrote:
Charlie Kirk’s death is the result of the international hate campaign waged by the progressive-liberal left.
This is what led to the attacks on [Slovak prime minister] Robert Fico, on [Czech former premier] Andrej Babiš, and now on Charlie Kirk. We must stop the hatred! We must stop the hate-mongering left!
A UK offshoot of a US conservative group set up by Charlie Kirk is to hold a vigil in London after he was shot dead, reports the PA news agency.Turning Point UK has said its activists will gather on Friday evening by the Montgomery statue in Whitehall and called on others to “join us in remembering Charlie”.The group’s chief executive Jack Ross told Sky News on Wednesday:
It’s absolutely shocking, we’re heartbroken over here in the UK.
Political figures in the UK spoke out against political violence after Kirk’s death. UK prime minister Keir Starmer expressed his condolences online, adding:
My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.
It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who said she is “deeply shocked” by the killing, added:
Political violence has no place in our societies.
Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has called the shooting of Charlie Kirk “a deep wound for democracy”. In a message posted on X, Meloni wrote:
An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom.
My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community.
Police and federal agents mounted an intense manhunt on Thursday for the sniper believed to have fired the single gunshot that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was fielding questions about gun violence during a university appearance.Kirk, 31, a podcast-radio commentator and an influential ally of Donald Trump, is credited with helping build the Republican president’s base among younger voters. He was shot on Wednesday in what Utah governor Spencer Cox called a political assassination.The shooting, captured in graphic detail in video clips that rapidly spread around the internet, occurred during a midday event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, about 40 miles (65km) south of Salt Lake City.The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that struck Kirk in the neck, apparently from a rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.Security camera footage showed a person believed to be the assailant dressed in all-dark clothing, Mason told reporters. But eight hours after the killing, authorities said they still had no suspect in custody, reports Reuters.State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained, and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were released. “There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the statement said. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”Charlie Kirk, the founder of rightwing youth activist group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and a close ally of Donald Trump, was fatally shot while speaking at a university campus event in Utah.Beau Mason, the head of the Utah department of public safety, said the suspect was still at large. “While the suspect is at large, we believe this was a targeted attack,” he said.Here is a graphic showing the site of the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University campus and also the reported location of the shooter:Here is a summary of what we know and the developments so far:Kirk, a 31-year-old influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah, triggering a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a “political assassination”.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, about eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem during an event attended by 3,000 people.
On Wednesday night, the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance. At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people held a vigil – one of several that took place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk remained “at large”, said the Utah Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, Beau Mason. The shot apparently came from a distant rooftop on campus.
Two men were detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement but both were subsequently released, state police said on Wednesday night.
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Cellphone video clips of Kirk’s killing posted online showed him addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Salt Lake City, about 12.20pm local time when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand towards his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said: “This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the shooting, he said.
Trump ordered all government US flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honour.
In Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting between Democrats and Republicans.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country, where he would typically invite attendees to debate him live.
Nancy Pelosi, Gabrielle Giffords, Steve Scalise, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Robert F Kennedy Jr – all US public figures who have experienced political violence themselves – paid their respects and condemned the shooting. Globally, leaders including the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer shared messages of condmenation at political violence.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani paid his respects to Charlie Kirk and condemned gun violence in the United States. In a video shared on X of Mamdani speaking at the annual Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) fundraiser, he took a moment to first address the news of the shooting and to speak more widely about the “plague” of gun violence in the country.
Utah Valley University has informed students, faculty and staff that its campuses will be closed for the rest of the week, and all classes and campus events will be suspended until next Monday. The school’s leaders said they are “shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk, a guest to our campus” and “grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy”.
The shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah marks another example of ongoing political violence in the US, now a feature of American life.Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that Kirk had died, saying: “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”Kirk, on campus at Utah Valley University as part of a speaking tour called “American Comeback”, was asked a question by an audience member about mass shootings, including how many involved trans shooters, when he was shot in the neck.The political leanings and goals of the shooter, who is not in custody, are not yet known. Kirk is one of the highest-profile allies of the US president, and his organization, Turning Point USA, has helped turn out voters for Trump and other Republicans. He is also known for his inflammatory, often racist and xenophobic commentary, particularly on college campuses.The shooting comes as a series of incidents over the past year show an increased level of violence related to political disagreements or intended to achieve political goals.Trump faced two assassination attempts in 2024. Last December, a shooter targeted and killed the head of United Healthcare. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home was burned in an arson attack in April. Judges and elected officials report increased threats and harassment. Several instances of violence have stemmed from opposition to the Gaza war. In June, a man dressed as a police officer shot and killed a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and wounded another state lawmaker and his wife. A gunman attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in August, killing a police officer.Surveys have shown increased acceptance of using violence for political aims across party spectrums. Robert Pape, who directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, wrote in the New York Times that a survey his team conducted in May was its “most worrisome yet”. “About 40 percent of Democrats supported the use of force to remove Mr. Trump from the presidency, and about 25 percent of Republicans supported the use of the military to stop protests against Mr. Trump’s agenda. These numbers more than doubled since last fall, when we asked similar questions,” he wrote.“We’re becoming more and more of a powder keg,” Pape told the Guardian on Wednesday. Pape calls the current moment an “era of violent populism”.Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Donald Trump among young voters has to understand Charlie Kirk, dubbed a “youth whisperer” of the right, who was shot on Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University and died afterwards.Kirk was only 31 and had never held elected office but, as a natural showman with a flair for patriotism, populism and Christian nationalism, was rich in the political currency of the era.In 2012 he co-founded Turning Point USA to drive conservative, anti-woke viewpoints among young people, turning himself into the go-to spokesperson on TV networks and at conferences for young rightwingers.The activist, author and radio host had used his huge audiences on Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, confrontational Christianity and viral takedowns of hecklers at his many campus events.An important gravitational tug on the modern Republican party, his career had also been marked by the promotion of misinformation, divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including 2020 election-fraud claims and falsehoods around the Covid pandemic and the vaccine.Kirk expressed openly bigoted views and was an unabashed homophobe and Islamophobe. As recently as Tuesday of this week he tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”His evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his politics. He argued that there is no true separation of church and state and warned of a “spiritual battle” pitting the west against wokeism, Marxism and Islam.During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”Charlie Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.Then a single shot rang out. The shooter, who Utah governor Spencer Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.Authorities in the US are still searching for a suspect in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hours after the close ally of Donald Trump was killed at a Utah university, sparking condemnation from both sides of politics and grave threats from the president.“This shooting is still an active investigation,” the Utah department of public safety said in a statement, adding it was working with the FBI and local police departments.Two suspects were taken into custody, but subsequently released. The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called it a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and possibly fired “a longer distance shot” from a roof.In a video message from the Oval Office, Trump vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.Trump said:
My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it.
Kirk was shot while addressing a crowd of an estimated 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, near Salt Lake City. Video footage posted online showed Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence in the moments before he was shot.Video footage shows students scrambling to run from the sound of gunfire. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, authorities said. Local officials said the shooting was “believed to be a targeted attack” by a shooter from the roof of a building.We will bring you all the latest developments on this throughout the day. More - in US Politics
‘What have we become?’: shock across US political parties after Charlie Kirk shooting
Charlie Kirk’s death by an assassin’s bullet on a university campus in Utah on Wednesday has left the United States, a country already grappling with mounting political anger and polarization, in a state of profound shock bordering on despair.Kirk, a rising star of Donald Trump’s make America great again (Maga) movement, was struck in the neck by a single shot as he addressed a large student crowd at Utah Valley University. The event had been billed as the grand opening of his 15-stop “America Comeback Tour”, but instead will be marked as the place where he uttered his last words.The 31-year-old leader of the rightwing student group Turning Point USA was about 20 minutes into a Q&A, ironically engaging with a question on mass shootings in America, when the shot rang out. Within seconds, hundreds of students had scattered screaming from the campus lawn.Within minutes of that, gruesome videos began to proliferate through social media, apparently undeterred by any algorithm. They showed Kirk being hit, slumping to his left side and profusely bleeding.Long before Kirk was pronounced dead at 4.40pm – poignantly in a post from his champion, the US president, on Truth Social – the wave of profound shock was breaking over both sides of the US’s political divide.“This is horrific. I am stunned,” said the Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz, who described Kirk on Twitter/X as a “good friend” since the young activist’s teenage years.Kirk was unashamedly far to the right of the US political spectrum and had expressed openly bigoted views and engaged in homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. He recently tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”He mixed evangelical Christian beliefs with rightwing politics into a combustible brew. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”But mourning for Kirk crossed the political aisle.Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe who has been unrestrained at times in his criticism of Kirk’s political posturing, called the shooting “tragic and sickening”. He added: “Violence targeting political public figures is violence against American democracy itself and the freedom of every American to express their views.”Tommy Vietor, a former staffer in Barack Obama’s White House, issued an even darker warning. Political violence, he said, was a “cancer that will feed off itself and spread … it will rip this country apart”.The political violence that Vietor identified is etched into the US’s psyche. The country has had to absorb the assassinations of four sitting presidents including Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, as well as the tragic trilogy of 1960s shootings of Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.Those grim historic landmarks were brought slamming back into public consciousness by the assassination attempt on Trump at a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Trump survived that incident by a hair’s breadth, which he has since claimed to be an act of God’s will. A second would-be assassin later waited for Trump on a Florida golf course before being discovered in the nick of time by his security detail.At the same time America has been rocked by the killing on the streets of Manhattan of a top healthcare executive, and in June an attack in Minnesota saw a gunman brutally shoot a local lawmaker dead in her own home.Kirk’s death – though the precise motive behind his killing remains so far unknown – leaves the US standing on the edge of a new abyss, over which a black cloud now looms over the safety of its public figures and the sanctity of its public debate.“What the actual hell have we become?” asked the Catholic writer Emily Zanotti, speaking for many. In a comment under her X feed, another poster said: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”Dylan Housman, editor-in-chief of the rightwing news outlet the Daily Caller, also expressed foreboding. “We can’t live in a country where things like this happen,” he said.For months now the temperature of the US’s political discourse has been rising. As JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, put it following the Kirk shooting: “Political violence unfortunately has been ratcheting up in this country.”In June a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota, Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark, were killed in a shooting. Federal and state judges have reported a plethora of threats, including deliveries of unsolicited pizzas to their homes in grotesque reference to the 2020 killing of Daniel Anderl, the son of a New Jersey district judge Esther Salas.Kirk’s killing takes this booming scourge of discourse-by-bullet to another level. The location of the shooting in itself indicates that there might be trouble ahead, as the TV political journalist Chuck Todd noted. “On a college campus, no less, a place where we should be celebrating speech, not trying to silence it.”The identity of the victim, too, raises the stakes dramatically. Kirk was the golden boy of the Maga movement, a Trump favorite.The president called Kirk “legendary” in his post announcing the death. The Turning Point leader was boosted to nationwide prominence when he was taken on as personal aide to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, during the 2016 presidential campaign.Kirk’s ascent within the Maga firmament was as fiery as the trademark pyrotechnical displays that opened his Turning Point “people’s conventions”. The speakers he attracted on stage were like a roll-call of Maga royalty – JD Vance, former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, entrepreneur and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and many more.By Wednesday night consternation had already begun to be aired about how the Trump administration, and the wider Maga movement, would respond to the loss of one of their dearly beloved own. “There are people who are fomenting [political violence] in this country,” Pritzker said. “The president’s rhetoric often foments it.”Later this month, Kirk had a stop on his Comeback Tour scheduled at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. On 25 September he was scheduled to debate the progressive influencer, Hasan Piker.After Kirk’s shooting, Piker spoke out about his fears on his live stream. “This is a terrifying incident,” he said. “The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome.” More
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Charlie Kirk shooting: police search for suspect amid condemnation of ‘targeted’ killing
Authorities in the US were still searching on Thursday for a suspect in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hours after the close ally of Donald Trump was killed at a Utah university, sparking condemnation from both sides of politics and grave threats from the president.“This shooting is still an active investigation,” the Utah department of public safety said in a statement, adding it was working with the FBI and local police departments.Two suspects were taken into custody, but subsequently released. The governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, called it a “political assassination”, despite the motive and identity of the shooter remaining unclear.Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and possibly fired “a longer distance shot” from a roof.In a video message from the Oval Office, Trump vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.Kirk was shot while addressing a crowd of an estimated 3,000 people at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, near Salt Lake City. Video footage posted online showed Kirk being questioned by an audience member about gun violence in the moments before he was shot.Video footage shows students scrambling to run from the sound of gunfire. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, authorities said. Local officials said the shooting was “believed to be a targeted attack” by a shooter from the roof of a building.On Wednesday night, the campus of UVU in Orem remained on lockdown, with traffic cones and flashing police cars blocking every entrance.At the nearby Timpanogos regional hospital, where Kirk was taken after the shooting and pronounced dead, roughly a dozen people were holding a vigil – one of several taking place that evening across the region – at the hospital’s entrance.The mourners draped the hospital sign in American flags and surrounded its base with a thicket of candles and homemade signs, including “Peacemakers wanted” and “we love you Charlie Kirk”. When the hospital’s lawn sprinklers abruptly turned on, gatherers smothered them with grocery bags and cut-off plastic bottles to keep the memorial dry.CJ Sowers, 33, and Ammon Paxton, 19, were in the crowd for Kirk’s speech, and said they watched the shooting unfold.Paxton said he was right in front of Kirk, and watched his body go limp. “Charlie Kirk was a major role model and hero for me,” said Paxton, who spoke with a red Make America Great Again cap folded in his hand. “One of our greatest heroes is dead.” Greg Cronin, a faculty member at UVU, said he had stood on the street corner, with a flag in hand, for the past seven hours. He said he was working in the building next to where Kirk was speaking and watched students flood through its halls after the shooting. Cronin said he hoped the shooting could bring people together in dialogue instead of further political division.“We won’t minimize actions like this around the world, ever,” Cronin said. “But we can minimize the impact that they are allowed to have.”Kirk’s death prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans, while the president ordered flags to be lowered to half mast to honour him.“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” Cox, a Republican, said at a press conference, appealing for an end to the political violence.Kirk was the co-founder of Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organisation in the country, which played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in November.His appearances on podcasts and across social media brought him fame and notoriety, as he helped to amplify the president’s agenda. Kirk frequently attacked the mainstream media and engaged with culture-war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.The event in Utah on Wednesday was the first in his “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.Experts have warned his death marks a watershed moment, with fears it could inflame an already fractured country and inspire more unrest.Trump, who routinely describes political rivals and others who stand in his way as “radical left lunatics” who pose an existential threat to the nation, decried violent political rhetoric in his statement on Wednesday night.“Violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonising those you disagree with … For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” he said.Promising to crackdown on “political violence”, the president cited recent incidents including the attempts on his life last year, the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the 2017 shooting of Republican congressman Steve Scalise.The president’s list notably did not include violence against Democrats, such as the murder of Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota state lawmaker, and her husband, or the attack on former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.Former president Barack Obama condemned political violence as “despicable,” while sending his prayers to Kirk’s wife and two young children. Joe Biden said there was “no place in our country for this kind of violence.”Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, expressed a similar sentiment: “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.”On Capitol Hill, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the House of Representatives degenerated into shouting and finger-pointing. Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna, who worked as Kirk’s director of Hispanic engagement at Turning Point USA yelled at Democrats, telling them “You caused this!”That prompted Democratic representative Jahana Hayes, a leader on the gun violence prevention taskforce, to shout: “Pass some gun laws!”The US is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s, according to data compiled by the Reuters news agency, which has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since supporters of Trump attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 6 2021.In the first six months of the year, the US experienced about 150 politically motivated attacks, nearly twice as many as over the same period last year, Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, told Reuters.“I think we are in a very, very dangerous spot right now that could quite easily escalate into more widespread civil unrest if we don’t get a hold of it,” Jensen said. “This could absolutely serve as a kind of flashpoint that inspires more of it.”Reuters contributed to this report More
