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The conservative American activist Charlie Kirk (31) died after being shot in the US state of Utah during a meeting at Utah Valley University. That reports US President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Wednesday. The FBI is investigating the shooting.
Images on social media show that Kirk, who speaks to his audience in an open tent on campus, is hit in his neck, after which blood flows out.
A university spokesperson told American media that the shot was fired from a campus building about two hundred meters from where Kirk spoke. First the university communicated that a suspect had been arrested, later this turned out not to be too shooter.
Kirk was co -founder of the conservative student grouping Turning Point USA, who has been arguing since 2012 for conservative ideas at universities. Among other things, he was a fierce opponent of abortion. The Maga influencer has more than five million followers on X.
Kirk was one of the most pronounced sympathizers of Donald Trump. “The big and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead,” writes the American president on Truth Social. “Nobody understood the heart of American youth better than Charlie.”
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Correction: In the video above it is mistaken that Kirk was 38 years old. This is not correct. He was 31.
The visit to the campus of Utah Valley University was part of a tour of universities. When he was shot, Kirk sat on what he was the ‘Prove Me Wrong Table ‘ calls where he answers questions from visitors and debates with them. The videos that Kirk of this On YouTube Placed, sometimes millions of times have been viewed.
Conservative influencer
Although Kirk never fulfilled a political function, he was very close to Trump, writes The New York Times In a profile about the conservative influencer. A few days after Trumps victory in November last year, according to the newspaper, he belonged to a select group of advisers for potential cabinet members. During his first term as president, Kirk would have been “more than a hundred times” in the White House.
The day before his inauguration in January, Trump spoke during a meeting in Washington: “Charlie Kirk is here too. And I want to thank Charlie. Charlie is fantastic.”
Kirk is also a good friend of Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the president. Even before Trumps inauguration, they traveled together to Greenland in January, to strengthen the intention of the president to incorporate the area.