Charlie Kirk: influential rightwing activist and trusted ally of Trump | Charlie Kirk shooting
Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Donald Trump among young voters must understand Charlie Kirk, nicknamed a “young whisper” on the right, which was shot down on Wednesday at a Utah Valley University and died later.
Kirk was only 31 years old and had never held elected functions but, as a natural showman with a flair for patriotism, populism and Christian nationalism, was rich in political currency of the time.
In 2012, he co-founded Turning Point USA to conduct conservative and anti-revenue views among young people, transforming into reference spokespersons on television networks and during conferences for right-handed young people.
The activist, author and radio had used his enormous audience on Instagram and Youtube to strengthen anti-immigration policies, conflictual Christianity and viral withdrawal of heckling during his many events on the campus.
An important gravitational tug on the modern republican party, his career had also been marked by the promotion of disinformation, division rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including claims and lies of fraud in the elections in 2020 around the cobed pandemic and the vaccine.
Kirk expressed openly sectarian views and was a shameless homophobic and an Islamophobic. Not more recently than Tuesday of this week, he tweeted: “Islam is the sword that the left uses to split the throat of America.”
His evangelical Christian beliefs were linked to his policy. He argued that there is no real separation of the Church and the State and warned that a “spiritual battle” opposing the West and alarm clock, Marxism and Islam.
During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he said that the Democrats “represent everything that God hates”, adding: “It is a Christian state. I would like to see him stay like this. “
He also referred to the mandate of the Seven Mountain, which specifies seven areas where Christians must lead: politics, religion, the media, business, family, education and arts and entertainment.
On Wednesday, Kevin Cramer, a republican senator for the Dakota of the North, posted on the social media platform X: “Charlie Kirk made cool to be young and faithful.”
Kirk was raised in a politically moderate cleaning in the rich suburbs of Chicago of Prospect Heights, Illinois. His father was an architect and his mother worked as a mental health advisor.
Kirk went to a school where, during his childhood, white students went from the majority to the minority. His conservative awakening occurred during the presidency of Barack Obama, in the mid -financial crisis and financial policies of 2008 such as banking balers, which he later cited as fueling his resentment towards the liberal economy.
He was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, winning the rank of Eagle Scout, and in high school, he became a vocal curator. He volunteered for the campaign of the successful Senate of Mark Kirk in 2010 and led a protest for students against a price increase proposed for cookies of the school cafeteria, framing it as the exaggerated government.
According to classmates as “rude” and “arrogant”, Kirk clashed with teachers whom he accused of “neo-Marxist” bias, based on influences which understood the economy of Ronald Reagan, the free market ideas of Milton Friedman and the rights of the second amendment.
He wrote an editorial for Breitbart News alleging liberal endoctrination in American textbooks, which led to his first appearance with the media on Fox Business Channel at the age of 17.
Kirk briefly attended the Harper College, a community college in Palatine, Illinois, but abandoned after a semester in 2012 to continue full -time political activism. His rejection of the American military academy in West Point, New York, would have deepened his turn to the causes on the right.
At the age of 18, Kirk co -founded Turning Point USA with Bill Montgomery, a 71 -year -old Tea Party activist he met during a local event. The organization was aimed at countering liberal higher education campus groups such as Moveon.org by empowering conservative students through debates, events and activism.
According to his own account, Kirk had “no money, no links and no idea of what I was doing”, but Tpusa developed quickly, establishing chapters on more than 3,000 campuses and increasing millions per year. Kirk has expanded his empire by launching Turning Point Action, a non -profit organization for political advocacy, and a turning point to mobilize evangelical Christian voters by mixing worship with conservative politics.
At 23, he was the youngest lecturer of the National Republican Convention in 2016. He helped Donald Trump JR’s trips and media during the campaign. In 2019, he became president of Trump students, launching an effort to mobilize young people for the Trump’s presidential re -election attempt in 2020.
Kirk organized himself but did not attend the so-called protests of “Stop the Vol” after Trump lost the 2020 elections and helped to coordinate the buses for the January 6, 2021 rally led by Trump near the White House, where the outgoing republican president urged the crowd to “fight, fight, fight” to overthrow his defeat by Joe Biden.
This event quickly progressed in a violent insurrection by thousands of Trump supporters at the American Capitol. Kirk invoked the fifth amendment during the testimony of a congress committee on January 6.
For Trump’s campaign in 2024, Kirk’s You Being Be Baswhed Tour visited 25 university campus to stimulate the participation rate of the Z generation, while Turning Point’s Courage Tour has teamed up with evangelical leaders to supervise elections as a spiritual battle.
After the elections, Kirk carried out loyalty tests for hirings of Trump administration and advised the choices of cabinets. In March, Trump named it to the US Air Force Academy Board of Visitors, a role supervising the program and instruction. He was also an early investor of 1789 capital, a venture capital company supported by allies of the president, like his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Kirk has welcomed the Charlie Kirk Show, a three -hour syndicated three -hour radio program since October 2020; Ran Turning Point Live, a streaming show for young audiences; And joined Tiktok in April 2024, amassing millions of views on the campus confrontation videos. He wrote several books promoting the extreme right ideology.
His views had always bait and caused the left. During the pandemic, he criticized the mandates of the mask and called the requirements of the “medical apartheid” vaccine. “Professor Watchlist” by Tpusa, targeting liberal academics, was denounced as a form of harassment comparable to a witchye hunt in McCarthyite.
Kirk denied the climate crisis, supported fossil fuels and ORD (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs. He had also described White’s privilege a “myth”, described the 1964 civil rights law as a “big error” and criticized Martin Luther King as a surfa.
In 2021, Kirk married Erika Frantzve, a podcaster, businesswoman and former Miss Arizona USA. The couple’s daughter was born in August 2022 and their son in May 2024.
