WASHINGTON – Charlie Kirk, the conservative firebrand and founder of Turning Point USA, died after being shot while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, according to President Donald Trump.
Kirk, 31, was on campus for the first stop of his American Comeback Tour.
Graphic video posted to social media shows Kirk on stage, sitting in a chair, talking into a microphone. A single gunshot was heard and Kirk’s head thrust back as he fell. People started screaming and running away, the video shows.
RELATED: Charlie Kirk shot dead at Utah college event, Trump says
What they’re saying:
President Donald Trump confirmed Kirk’s death on Truth Social, calling him a “legendary” figure who was “loved and admired by ALL, especially me.”
Political figures from across the aisle have condemned the attack.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “disturbed” by it on social media. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the attack “disgusting, vile and reprehensible,” in his own post. House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson told reporters at the White House Wednesday that “political violence must be called out” and that “we need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner.”
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed later on Wednesday that a person of interest has been taken into custody.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called Kirk’s death a political assassination and asked for the public to find a way to “stop hating our fellow Americans,” at a press conference.
“We desperately need our country. We desperately need leaders in our country. But more than the leaders, we just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be,” he said. “To ask ourselves, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated what Charlie Kirk stood for, will put down their social media and their pens and pray for his family.”
A pattern of political violence
Dig deeper:
Charlie Kirk’s murder is just the latest assassination attempt in an increasingly intense American political environment—it comes amid a spike in political violence across all parts of the ideological spectrum.
President Donald Trump suffered two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign, one in July and then one that following September. In the first case, a bullet pierced the upper part of the president’s right ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter was killed by the Secret Service in that case.
Just a few months later, at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Secret Service identified and fired upon a man who they detected hiding nearby with a firearm. Jury selection began on Monday for the trial of Ryan Wesley Routh, the man charged in this case.
In June, a gunman disguised as a police officer shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed. Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, was wounded along with his wife. The suspect, Vance Boelter, was indicted on first-degree murder charges last month.
During Trump’s first term, a gunman walked onto a baseball field at Eugene Simpson Park in Alexandria, Virginia, and opened fire on several politicians who were practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for charity. Then-House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana was wounded, and four others were injured.
The gunman reportedly asked a passing legislator whether Republicans or Democrats were on the field. After confirming that they were Republicans, he fired off 60 rounds.
The shooter, James Hodgkinson, ultimately died following a ten-minute shootout with police who responded to the scene.
Beyond assassination attempts
Timeline:
This wave of political violence isn’t limited to assassination attempts, either.
2025
Earlier this year at a Colorado march organized by members of the Jewish community to bring attention to the hostages still in Gaza, a man used a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire. The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, has been charged with a federal hate crime.
Plus, a fire was set at the house of Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, in April. The suspect, Cody A. Balmer, identified himself on a 911 call and said that Shapiro “needs to know that he ‘will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,’” according to the search warrant. He’s been charged with attempted criminal homicide, arson, terrorism and more.
A month earlier, a fire was set at the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters. Incendiary materials were found at the scene and “ICE=KKK” was spray-painted on the side of the building. Jamison Wagner, 40, an Albuquerque resident, was charged with arson.
2024
Last year, Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, was detained on terrorism charges in connection with shootings that took place at the Democratic Party’s campaign office in Tempe, Arizona.
2022
In 2022, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was beaten with a hammer by a man who broke into the couple’s home. David DePape, the assailant, was sentenced to life without parole following his conviction in state court last year. He said while on trial that he had planned to hold the speaker hostage to end what he viewed as government corruption.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, was the victim of a shooting attempt at his campaign headquarters that year, as well. He wasn’t injured, but the gunman was later sentenced to over 17 years in prison.
2021 and 2020
In 2020, anti-government extremists were arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at her vacation home and start a civil war. Eight individuals were charged in that case.
But perhaps the most notorious incident of political violence in the modern era happened a year later, on Jan. 6, 2021, when extremists carried out an unprecedented assault on the nation’s capital. Thousands traveled to Washington, D.C. that day in order to protest the certification of the 2020 election results. In doing so, Congress was also certifying Trump’s loss.
Four people in the crowd died that day: Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, Kevin D. Greeson, who died of a heart attack, Rosanne Boyland, who appeared to be crushed in a stampede and Benjamin Phillips, a founder of a pro-Trump website. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was attacked by the mob, died the next day from injuries he sustained. In the days and weeks that followed, several other Capitol Police officers killed themselves.
Since returning to the White House, President Trump has granted clemency to over 1,500 people charged in the Capitol riot.
The Source: Information above was sourced from social media, the Justice Department, the FBI, Newsweek, The New York Times, CBS News, USA TODAY, WHYY, Reuters, New Mexico’s Republican Party, The Guardian, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, BBC, The Courier Journal, Michigan’s state government, Encyclopaedia Britannica and NPR.
