{"id":151823,"date":"2025-09-21T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151823\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:36:09","slug":"charlie-kirk-latest-trump-arrives-at-charlie-kirk-memorial-as-tens-of-thousands-attend-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151823\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk latest: Trump arrives at Charlie Kirk memorial as tens of thousands attend service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Maga hats and a sea of red, white and blue – this feels more like a political rally than a memorialpublished at 19:31 BST<\/p>\n

19:31 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Sarah Smith
North America editor, at the memorial<\/p>\n

\"ThreeImage source, Reuters<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people have been queuing for hours outside State Farm Stadium in Phoenix where the atmosphere is much more akin to a political rally than a memorial service – with many red white and blue outfits accessorised with Make America Great Again hats. <\/p>\n

It is a mark of Kirk\u2019s impact and influence that his supporters have travelled from right across America, as well as internationally, to honour the conservative activist and influencer.<\/p>\n

President Trump will be the headline speaker, along with Kirk\u2019s widow Erika, Vice-President JD Vance and several other cabinet members. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on his way to Arizona, Trump said it was going to be a tough day celebrating someone he called a great man.<\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s murder has set off a furious debate about free speech in America. He was a passionate advocate of freedom of expression, yet there has been a backlash against those speaking out against Kirk and his views.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is seeking a crackdown on what it calls the “radical left”, which in turn has prompted accusations of government overreach and claims Kirk’s death is being used as a pretext to intrude on civil liberties.<\/p>\n

Teachers and civil servants have been sacked for things they have said. And one famous TV talk show host – Jimmy Kimmel – was taken off air by his network over his comments about Kirk’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maga hats and a sea of red, white and blue – this feels more like a political rally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-151823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}