Co-founder and head of conservative youth group Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, was fatally shot dead in front of a horrified crowd at Utah Valley University – here’s five of the Trump ally’s most divisive claims
The right wing activist and Donald Trump ally, Charlie Kirk was gunned down while hosting a presentation at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Wednesday.
Videos circulating on social media show the 31-year-old sitting beneath a canopy addressing the crowd through a handheld microphone beneath slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong” when a single gunshot rang out. Terrified students on the campus were seen fleeing the scene in panic.
US President Donald Trump paid tribute to the married dad-of-two in a Truth Social post, writing: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
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The executive director’s media company is well known for visiting liberal-majority universities to debate contentious political issues. The discussions often become heated because of the topics raised but are generally peaceful.
Kirk was a prominent radio host and podcaster who often courted controversy with his provoking statements to anyone disagreeing with his views. In his Prove Me Wrong videos he was often seen going head to head with students. Here are five of his most divisive anti-Liberal views.
Gun control
There is widespread gun ownership in America and easier access to firearms than in most other countries. This is because of the Second Amendment, which is the right to keep and bear arms.
Kirk was a huge supporter of the Second Amendment and fought to preserve it, despite the regular occurrence of mass shootings in the US. In 2023 he said he believed the loss of human life was “worth it” to maintain citizen’s rights.
“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 other God-given rights… That is a prudent deal, it is rational,” he said during an appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church.
Just moments before he was assassinated, he was discussing shootings and was asked how many had been carried out by transgender people in the last 10 years. He replied, “too many”, before then being asked how many mass shooters there had been in the US in the last 10 years. Moments later a shot rang out and he was seen raising his hand to his neck before collapsing to the ground.
Transgender rhetoric
Kirk refused to accept transgender people, or that a person could identify as a different gender than the one they were born as. He said he believed people who were transgender had a “mental illness” and needed “brain treatment”.
He refused to use chosen pronouns saying, “I will not call a man a woman”. Known for quoting religious scripture which supported his views, he once read out a phrase from the Bible during a church speech that stated: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak.” Just beforehand he told the audience he believed “the transgender thing happening in America” was a “middle finger to God”.
Responding to yesterday’s shocking events, the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus released a statement condemning the killing but highlighted Kirk’s dangerous views: “We mourn any loss of life to political violence,” it read. “It is abhorrent and has no place in our country. At the same time, we must recognize that Charlie Kirk spent his career spreading anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that put many in our community at risk. His words fueled harassment, threats, and fear for queer and transgender people.”
Civil rights
At a conference in 2023 Kirk revealed that he didn’t support the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which prohibited discrimination on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, and prohibited segregation. The new laws significantly boosted Black voter registration.
“I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it,” he said. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.” He claimed that the law brought about a “permanent” bureaucracy which promoted diversity and inclusion. He also labelled civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr “awful” and said he was “not a good person”.
Conspiracy theorist
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kirk regularly shared conspiracy theories on social media. It led to him being banned for a time from Twitter for misinformation.
In March 2020, he used the phrase the “China virus” in an argument about border control with an accompanying clip of him giving a speech. It was adopted by Trump afterwards when referring to Covid.
“Now, more than ever, we need the wall,” he wrote. “With China Virus spreading across the globe, the US stands a chance if we can control of our borders. President Trump is making it happen.”
Despite citizens in Florida making plans for a quiet Christmas that year as Covid cases rose sharply, Turning Point’s end of year gala went ahead. With around 5,000 young people expected to attend the raucous four-day event, it was labelled a super-spreader. When it came to the vaccine, he spread misinformation and said requirements for it and wearing masks were comparable to “medical apartheid”.
In February 2024 he posted that ‘The Great Replacement’ was a “reality” and not a theory. It is based on the idea that undocumented immigrants are entering the US to replace white Americans. It has been widely debunked as a conspiracy theory but has been adopted by prominent far-right politicians and media.
Polarising quotes
Kirk loved to debate and discuss his controversial views with the young people who attended his events. He was often recorded as making highly provocative statements, such as “I’m sorry. If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified’,” which he said during a 2024 podcast.
In another podcast he suggested incarceration would solve the housing crisis in the US. “We do not have enough people in jail in this country,” he said. One of my hopes is to turn the Republican party into a resolutely stronger party on crime,” he continued. “We are not harsh enough on crime in this country… .and this is not just about stopping criminals. If you enforce the law, housing will be cheaper because more of the country will be livable.”
In February last year while discussing capital punishment he said children should watch people being killed using the death penalty and that executions should be public. “Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation…” he said before adding that the crime rate would go down if kids had witnessed an execution.