(AFP) – US President Donald Trump will lead tributes to Charlie Kirk on Sunday at a huge stadium gathering to honor the young right-wing influencer slain in the country’s latest spasm of political violence. The service has drawn an extraordinary level of attention and security, with some US media likening it to a state funeral. The highest echelons of the Trump administration and orbit, topped by the president himself, waited their turn to address the crowd as the memorial ceremony got underway in the early afternoon.
As he left the White House to fly out west and pay his respects, Trump said the service aimed “to celebrate the life of a great man.” Thousands of people had lined up in the pre-dawn dark, hoping to get into the 63,000-seat American football stadium hosting the service and honor the young Republican star — a close ally of the president whose voter outreach is credited with helping Trump get reelected last year.
“I look at him as a Christ martyr, definitely,” Monica Mirelez, a 44-year-old Texan who drove 12 hours to get there, said of Kirk. Jeremy Schlotman, a 21-year-old biology student, said Kirk gave him the courage to express his beliefs on campus. “For example, I think that biological men shouldn’t be in women’s sports. But I was too afraid to talk about stuff like that out loud,” Schlotman said as Christian bands played on stage and the stadium steadily filled up.
Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking at a Utah university as part of his popular public debate series. Authorities arrested a suspect after a 33-hour manhunt, and prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. The killing of the founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing youth action campaign, has inflamed often acrimonious and sometimes violent political divisions in the United States. Authorities say the suspected 22-year-old gunman cited the “hatred” he believed was stoked by Kirk — who was a vitriolic critic of transgender people, Muslims, and others.
Kirk used his millions of social media followers, the massive audience of his podcast, and appearances at universities to bolster Trump with young voters and fight for a nationalist, Christian-centric political ideology. Even before the alleged killer was identified or arrested, Trump called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left.”
Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will all speak at the memorial. Also speaking will be Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and other prominent Trump administration officials. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who is taking over the reins of Turning Point USA, will also address the audience.
In response to the killing, the White House last week declared it would crack down on what it terms “domestic terrorism” by the political left. Trump said he would designate “Antifa” — a shorthand term for “anti-fascist” used to describe diffuse far-left groups — as “a major terrorist organization,” a move he threatened in his first term.
Prominent late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was yanked off the air Wednesday, hours after the government threatened to cancel broadcasting licenses because of comments he made about Kirk’s killing. The moves have sparked alarm among Trump’s critics who warn of possible steps to silence dissent of his divisive right-wing White House tenure, marked by a rolling back of social justice policies and an immigration crackdown that has seen widespread complaints of rights abuses.
– Romain Fonsegrives, with Asad Hashim in Washington
© 2024 AFP
