'Martyr for truth.' Trump vows vengeance against 'radical Left' for Charlie Kirk killing

Calling assassinated conservative influencer Charlie Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom,” President Donald Trump on Sept. 10 attacked the “radical Left” and said its heated rhetoric was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today.”

In a four-minute live address posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump – sitting in the Oval Office – said he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination" of Kirk on a college campus in Utah earlier in the day.

For Trump, Kirk's slaying was personal. The young firebrand, 31, was a staunch political ally of Trump and helped fuel his political comeback and return to the White House in January. He had featured red "Make America Great Again" baseball caps on stage with him when he was shot once in the neck while talking to students as part of his "The American Comeback Tour."

He portrayed Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that pushes for conservative politics on high school and college campuses, as an inspiring leader who helped spur millions of young Americans to political activism.

Authorities are still searching for those responsible. FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that a person of interest was in FBI custody but later released.

“Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America,” Trump said. “He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people. He's a martyr for truth and freedom.”

'Demonizing those with whom you disagree'

Trump then turned his anger toward those he believes are responsible, repeating a familiar refrain of his in blaming liberals for violence against his MAGA supporters because of their public criticisms.

“It's long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said.

The president didn’t broach the subject of how conservatives, including Kirk, have often attacked liberals and opponents of Trump in a similar manner, in some cases leading to political violence against those on the Left.

But, he said, “For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

Trump cited as evidence of this the assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pa., in July 2024, recent attacks on ICE agents, the 2017 shooting of then-House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and “the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York,” in a reference to the fatal shooting last December of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Trump vowed that his administration “will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”

“Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Trump said. “An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together, we will ensure that his voice, his message and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”