On Thursday, UC Berkeley students turned out both to celebrate and to mourn the one-year anniversary of conservative political activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s activities, which began mournfully but ended with a separate celebration of Kirk\u2019s death by students who opposed his politics, also drew attention from the federal government.<\/p>\n
Saturday evening, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau replied to a post on X calling for the deportation of some campus students who attended a \u201cKirkversary\u201d event with: \u201cThanks. On it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The State Department controls visas and does not carry out deportations. Further, it is unclear if any of the students identified are international students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“People in the United States on visas are guests in this country, and we will not tolerate people here on visas who break our laws, support terrorism, or unlawfully incite violence, which ultimately led to the horrific assassination of an American,” said Department of State Spokesperson Tommy Pigott. “That is not only common sense, it\u2019s an essential component of our national security.”<\/p>\n
Starting at noon, members of TPUSA at UC Berkeley gave speeches and tabled on Sproul Plaza in commemoration of Kirk\u2019s legacy. The chapter placed a large portrait of Kirk front and center on its table, surrounded by posters with various themes of freedom and American patriotism.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago from today, we saw the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a heinous action when a bullet flew through the air and assassinated a man who lived with courage and with his faith,\u201d said John Paul Leon, president of TPUSA at UC Berkeley, at the event. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to agree with everything he said, but when you support the literal political violence and action against this man, that is an act of moral depravity.\u201d<\/p>\n
For most of the event\u2019s duration, the speeches, highlighting the importance of free speech and the danger of political censorship, were attended by one person, and were otherwise marked by boos from passersby on Sproul.<\/p>\n
TPUSA at UC Berkeley declined to comment to The Daily Californian, citing the need for approval from TPUSA upper management.<\/p>\n
A few hours later, at 6 p.m., a bustling crowd of students gathered on the glade for the \u201cKirkversary.\u201d The event, advertised by the Instagram account @berkeleyrankings, brought students together to sing, cheer and boo at Kirk\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n
The crowd kicked off the Kirkversary by singing a rendition of the viral AI-generated anthem, \u201cWe Are Charlie Kirk.\u201d Students, some of whom came dressed in Kirk-related costumes, also chanted slogans such as \u201cJerk for Kirk,\u201d while one student brought a \u201cKirk-ified\u201d drawing of the \u201cMona Lisa,\u201d in which the painting\u2019s original face had been replaced with Kirk\u2019s own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the whole event is just super funny because it\u2019s celebrating the anniversary of a bad person\u2019s death,\u201d said junior Sihan Cheng, who attended the Kirkversary. \u201cIt\u2019s just so funny because Charlie Kirk has kind of transcended this idea of him being a real person and it\u2019s become more of a meme on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cmemeification\u201d of Kirk has become a viral cultural phenomenon since his death, with Kirk appearing in various, often AI-generated, memes online. Cheng said the memeification of Kirk serves as a way to prevent him from becoming a \u201cmartyr\u201d for the right-wing causes he supported.<\/p>\n
Many students, such as Cheng, senior Nadia Pai and freshman Emily Salib, though outspoken about their disagreement with Kirk\u2019s politics, also described great concern with the idea that someone could be killed for exercising their right to free speech.<\/p>\n
Salib said political violence \u201cshouldn\u2019t be normalized\u201d and that it pushes the country onto a dangerous path in its current polarized state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s interesting how much he\u2019s mocked by the same people who, for anyone else, would say this is terrible,\u201d Pai said at the event. \u201cI think (the memeification of Kirk) is slop, and I think it is all about the subjugation of the American people and pulling them into it, just scrolling all day and not taking these things seriously. They did the same thing with (Jeffrey) Epstein, so I think that\u2019s kind of what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the Kirkversary was marked by satirical humor, junior Joanna Chu said she felt that it represented something much deeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are seeking connection,\u201d Chu said. \u201cThey feel cynical. That\u2019s why they\u2019re taking such a morbid event to celebrate, and they want to connect with other people who they may feel similarly disillusioned with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Update 09\/14\/2026: This article was updated to include comments from the U.S. State Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, UC Berkeley students turned out both to celebrate and to mourn the one-year anniversary of conservative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[764,182480,20391,182486,182484,182485,30105,182481,182483,143,145,144,182482,26656,30724,11931],"class_list":["post-463920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley","tag-berkeleyrankings","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-christopher-landau","tag-emily-salib","tag-joanna-chu","tag-john-paul-leon","tag-kirkversary","tag-nadia-pai","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sihan-cheng","tag-sproul-plaza","tag-turning-point-usa","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}