Trump honors Charlie Kirk as a martyr for the nation, pledges crackdown

GLENDALE, Ariz. — President Donald Trump flew to Arizona on Sunday with a cohort of his administration’s most senior officials, the speaker of the House and a slew of Republican lawmakers to eulogize and memorialize his ally Charlie Kirk in a front of tens of thousands packed into an NFL stadium less than two weeks after the 31-year-old right-wing activist was assassinated in Utah.

Capping off the five-hour service, Trump reiterated what he said the night the founder of the influential conservative youth organization Turning Point USA was killed: Kirk was a “a martyr now for American freedom” and, in his name, the federal government will crackdown on political foes and lead “not just a political realignment, but also a spiritual reawakening.” The remarks came a day after the president publicly demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi expedite the prosecution of his enemies.

Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow and successor as Turning Point USA’s leader, spoke right before Trump and eulogized her husband by speaking of their shared Christian faith and saying that she forgives the shooting suspect who prosecutors say told friends and family he killed Kirk “because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.”

“The answer to hate is not hate,” Erika Kirk said. “The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love, love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

A half an hour later, halfway through his remarks, Trump said he hates his opponents and apologized to the grieving widow before touting that the Justice Department is “investigating networks of radical left maniacs who fund organized fuel and perpetrate political violence.”

“He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry Erica.”

“I can’t stand my opponent,” Trump added.

On Saturday, in a message addressed to “Pam” on his Truth Social platform, Trump demanded Bondi accelerate investigations and prosecutions into his enemies, including former FBI director James Comey, California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Lettia James. He cited the criminal prosecutions of him in between his terms in office and the impeachments from his first time as reasons why “​​we can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”

“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump wrote on Saturday evening after forcing out a U.S. attorney in Virginia over his frustration with a lack of criminal charges brought against James, who has led many legal fights against Trump’s administration and businesses. 

On Sunday in Arizona, Trump said the Justice Department was attempting to investigate the “very bad people” that he claimed funded “paid agitators” to protest Kirk and him, dubiously claiming “the violence comes largely from the left.” Neither Trump nor the Justice Department has produced evidence that crimes committed by left-wing actors are being funded by wealthy benefactors or connected to advocacy organizations that oppose the administration.

‘A martyr for the Christian faith’

The framing of Kirk as a martyr for the president’s movement who played a key role in the campaign to get him back into the White House, as well as the intertwining of Christianity and right-wing politics in the U.S. were common themes echoed by the speakers throughout the day, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Kennedy, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Kirk’s friends and colleagues, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr.

Kirk “became convinced that we needed not just a political realignment, but also a spiritual reawakening,” Trump said. “We have to bring back religion to America, because without borders, law and order and religion, you really don’t have a country anymore. We want religion brought back to America. We want to bring God back into our beautiful USA like never before. We want God back.”

Hegseth declared Kirk “a warrior for country, a warrior for Christ” and said the activist not only “started a political movement, but unleashed a spiritual revival.” Trump also referred to the memorial as “an old time revival.”

Vance said he’s “talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life” because of Kirk. In response to critics of Kirk’s politics, the vice president said that if he were still alive, he believed that Kirk “would encourage me to be honest that evil still walks among us, not to ignore it for the sake of a fake kumbaya moment, but to address it head on and honestly as the sickness that it is.”

“My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America, and he is a martyr for the Christian faith,” Vance said.

Comments about Kirk have become a Trump administration target

The right-wing activist had a long, well-documented history of statements and policy positions about race, Islam, Judaism, women and LGBTQ people that Democratic politicians and other critics have described as racist, bigoted and antisemitic, Since his death, the administration and their allies have promised retaliation and applied pressure on organizations to fire or punish workers who voice criticisms of Kirk’s work, including getting Disney to pull late night show host Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

In response to Kirk’s killing — by a 22-year-old Utah man who officials have said disagreed with Kirk’s politics from a left-wing perspective but have not alleged he he was aligned with any groups, other individuals or even a specific ideology — Trump also said last week he was going to designate “antifa” as a “major terrorist organization” to expedite prosecutions of left-wing activists and organizations.

It’s unclear how Trump will do so in practice because antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is an umbrella term for a variety of groups and ideological movements who use a wide-range of tactics, both legal and illegal. Additionally, there is no current federal law or legal framework for designating domestic groups as terrorists due to the broad First Amendment protections for political activity.

“But law enforcement can only be the beginning of our response to Charlie’s murder,” Trump said, laying blame for “atrocities of this kind that we saw in Utah of all places” at the feet of liberals and leftists. 

Trump’s deputy chief of staff and longtime speechwriter Stephen Miller put it in much starker terms during his speech at the service earlier in the day.

“The day that Charlie died, the angels wept, but those tears had been turned into fire in our hearts, and that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand,” Miller said. “You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic. Because our children are strong and our grandchildren will be strong, and our children’s children’s children will be strong.”