OTwo Editor Alice Keegan investigates the impact of Charlie Kirk’s death, from vilification of the left to the behaviour of his widow.
He was “the voice of MAGA youth”, an equally derided and lauded figure in American modern culture. In an ever-fractioned state, the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death, particularly the public’s reactions are further proof that America is the most divided it has been since the Civil War.
Charlie Kirk was the founder of the far-right youth activist organisation ‘Turning Point USA’, and his main source of revenue and acclaim came from debating college students and appearing on podcasts. He was a vocal opponent to abortion, gun control, LGBTQ rights and a plethora of issues relating to human rights.
Kirk was fatally shot at an event in Utah Valley University on 10 September. When the identity of the alleged assailant was still unknown, public figures and ordinary individuals alike wished for it to be of the typical anti-Kirk demographic. The Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, publicly stated that he had been “praying this person was from another country. That he was not one of us because we are not like that”.
After an intense manhunt, Kirk’s suspected killer, Utah-born Tyler Robinson was arrested. His motivations unclear; it emerged that he came from a family of Republicans though it has been reported that he was unaffiliated. The conversation then shifted, with allegations that college had “brainwashed” him. However, as the story unfolded, blame has consistently been deflected to the democratic liberals.
When US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Kirk was dead, he wrote “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie”. His funeral was an all-American spectacle. Kirk’s widow, Erika delivered a rousing, emotional speech before being embraced by Trump.
The spotlight placed on Erika Kirk has been stirring. AI-generated images have likened her to the Virgin Mary, while Kirk’s opponents have criticised her behaviour in the wake of her husband’s death, calling it “bizarre” and comparing her to other notable widows such as Jackie Kennedy, Sharon Osbourne and even Queen Elizabeth. Nonetheless, Erika Kirk seems determined to carry on her husband’s legacy.
His supporters have decried the apparent glee on the side of the left at his death, pointing to the fact that he had a wife and two young children. Apparently, this logic does not apply to the more than 25,000 children who have died by gun violence in America since Sandy Hook in 2012.
Attention has even turned to the absurd, with reports of a viral “Etsy witch” who put a curse on Kirk in the days prior to his murder- another engine in the so-called “woke agenda”. A flashpoint moment occurred when American late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air when he poked fun at Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s death, with claims from Kimmel’s supporters that this proves that censorship in US media has never been more explicit.
The primary repercussion of Kirk’s death appears to be the rejection of “leftist indoctrination”, in whatever way that may materialise. Hopes that his supporters would re-evaluate his now infamous quote; “I think it's worth it to have a cost of unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our God-given rights” appear to be futile. Instead, a new generation of conservatives are more energetic, and crucially, they are even angrier. Kirk has become enshrined as a martyr - and the impact that this may have for both American society and the rest of the world remains to be seen.