Trump and Charlie Kirkl – Josh Edelson

Dear Commons Community,

Charlie Kirk became one of Donald Trump’s closest allies by taking the Maga movement to university campuses and delighting in facing down liberal activists while picking apart their world views.

More than that, the Turning Point USA founder is a key Trump world insider, close to anyone important within the inner circle and with the US president himself.  

After Mr Trump won the 2024 election, he huddled at Mar-a-Lago for weeks helping build the new administration and vetting potential appointees.

It did not matter that he was only 31 and had never held elected office, Mr Kirk was there.

It makes Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday at a university campus event in Utah a deeply personal affair for the president and his team.  As reported by The Telegraph.

“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,” the president posted on Truth Social

“He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

By his own count, Mr Kirk visited the White House more than 100 times during the first term and developed a close relationship with Donald Trump Jr.

At an inaugural ball in January, the president’s son described Mr Kirk as a “true rock star” of the movement that propelled his father to power.

And he has been a frequent visitor again this year, according to a former White House official.

“Charlie is incredibly close with the president and really the entire administration” he said. “He was a trailblazer for movement and his leadership was resounding.”

Insiders say Mr Trump’s bluff public persona hides a sentimental side. He frequently asks staff to see pictures of their children and checks up on their relatives when they are sick.

A former Trump official said Mr Kirk’s killing would hit the president particularly hard, coming so soon after the attempt on his own life at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.

Mr Kirk was addressing a crowd beneath an awning when he was shot. Mr Trump was minutes into his rally speech when the sound of gunfire erupted, and a bullet flicked through his ear.

“Every public event always carries a risk,” said the former official. “It won’t be lost on the president that this happened in such similar circumstances.”

As well as the personal, the day brings political consequences.

The shooting will reignite fears that America’s febrile political environment, coupled with liberal gun laws, put the nation on the brink of a new wave of violence.

It puts Mr Trump’s law and order agenda front and centre as he mulls sending in troops to a string of Democrat-led cities.

Mr Kirk himself was a strong supporter of the push, using his podcast – with an audience of almost six million people each month – to back the use of the National Guard to deliver law and order.

“I guarantee the crime’s gonna go… Way down,” he proclaimed. “And then the media will say, oh, it’s only going down because he brought in the military. Exactly.

“We need full military occupation of these cities until the crime desists. Period.”

Mr Trump first deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June in response to protests against immigration raids.

Next came Washington, DC, where the president railed frequently against homeless encampments, drug abuse and crime.

At each step he has faced legal challenges and opposition from Democratic state or city administrations.

But that is not the point. Once again Mr Trump has demonstrated that his political antennae are attuned to his public, identifying an issue where he can make headlines and keep Democrats on the back foot.

This week, his White House focused on the horrific stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee. The case of Iryna Zarutska initially received little national coverage, before right wing influencers asked whether it simply did not fit a media narrative that played up black deaths but not white ones.

Mr Kirk was one of the first influencers to highlight her death. “America will never be the same,” he posted.

The focus on crime has helped nudge the president’s approval rating upwards in a string of polls, as he sets the terms of the debate for next year’s midterm elections and Democrats struggle to counter the messaging.

Now, the assassination of Mr Kirk gives the president a political and deeply personal justification to push ahead with his crime crackdown.

Tony