The killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over the latest act of political violence in the United States, with Donald Trump lamenting the loss of a key ally.
“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 US president posted on his Truth Social platform.
The president ordered flags to be lowered to half mast to honour Kirk, who was prominent in Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.
Mr Trump, who survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in July 2024, also blamed the violence on the “radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis” in an evening video address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country,” he said.
Mr Kirk was shot while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, south of Salt Lake City, on Wednesday.
[ Who was Charlie Kirk, the right-wing provocateur shot in Utah?Opens in new window ]
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Mr Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong.
A single shot rings out and Mr Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck.
Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.
Mr Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organisation.
Immediately before the shooting, Mr Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked.
Mr Kirk responded: “Too many.”
The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Mr Kirk asked.
Then a single shot rang out.
The assailant wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away to the courtyard where the event took place.
The identity and motives of the shooter are not yet known.
US authorities still have no suspect in custody after hours of confused statements from officials about the killing.
“This shooting is still an active investigation,” the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement, adding it was working with the FBI, the Utah county attorney’s office, the Utah county sheriff’s office and local police departments. After two suspects were taken in and released, “there is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter”, the statement said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox described the death of Mr Kirk as an “assassination”.
“I’ve been in touch with President Trump, with FBI director Kash Patel. We are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as we work through this case,” Mr Cox said at a news conference. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
US vice-president JD Vance called Mr Kirk “a genuinely good guy and a young father” and tweeted prayers.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said he was “heartbroken and outrages [sic] by the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” calling the 31-year-old “an incredible husband and father and a great American”.
Former vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the shooting of Mr Kirk, who organised against her presidential campaign last year.
“Let me be clear: political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence,” she wrote.
The tent where Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Photograph: Kim Raff/The New York Times
Congress’s top Republicans and Democrats joined in the condemning the attack. “Political violence, which this attack seems to be, has no place in this country – none,” said John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader.
Gabby Giffords, whose time as a congresswoman was cut short when she was grievously injured in a 2011 mass shooting, said: “Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”
The House oversight committee took a break from considering more than a dozen bills to change laws in Washington DC as part of Mr Trump’s militarised crackdown on crime in the district to hold a moment of silence in Mr Kirk’s honour.
Charlie Kirk with Donald Trump at a rally in Tampa, Florida in 2022. Photograph: Todd Anderson/The New York Times
Former Democratic president Barack Obama condemned political violence as “despicable” and said it had “no place in our democracy”.
“We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” he wrote. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
Democrats seen as potential presidential contenders in 2028 also denounced the violence. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” said Gavin Newsom, the California governor.
Some conservatives echoed Mr Trump and were quick to blame liberals for the shooting.
“The Left is the party of murder,” said Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive who threw the federal government into turmoil earlier this year as chair of Mr Trump’s department of government efficiency initiative.
Mr Kirk emerged in recent years as one of the most influential young conservatives in the country and established himself as a close ally of Mr Trump. He cofounded Turning Point USA in 2012 and became a fixture on college campuses, where he hosted rallies like the one in Utah that often draw large crowds.
Even though he was not part of the administration, his influence in the White House was significant. Since the November election, he helped vet prospective appointees, testing their loyalty to Mr Trump. – AP/Guardian/Reuters