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Update 10:55 p.m.: The right-wing conservative US activist Charlie Kirk died after an assassination attempt. US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday. Kirk was shot and brought to a clinic during an event at a university in the US state of Utah. At around 12.10 p.m. (local time) a shot was fired on Kirk, the university said on platform X. Cherk would have taken security guards with them.
We reported beforehand:
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and influential conservative activist, was shot during an event at Utah Valley University in OREM.
Reactions from politics and public
“We confirm that he was shot and pray for Charlie,” said Aubrey Laitsch, PR manager of Turning Point USA, according to Associated Press. Nothing is currently known about Kirk’s condition. According to the university, the incident occurred around 12:10 p.m. He was immediately brought from the crime scene by his security guards, the campus police arrested a suspect and started the investigation.
Videos apparently show how Kirk was hit on the neck with the “ProVe Me Wrong” sign with a question. He spoke there as part of Turning Point USA’s “American Comback Tour”.
FBI director Kash Patel announced that federal officials support the investigation: “Our thoughts are with Charlie, his relatives and all those affected.”
Donald Trump wrote on “Truth Social”: “We all have to pray for Charlie Kirk, who was shot. A great man from head to toe. God bless Him!” Vice President JD Vance and the senators Mike Lee and John Curtis also commented and asked for prayers.
Kirks role in US rights
Charlie Kirk has developed into a fixture of US rights in the past ten years. In 2012 he founded with financial support for conservative supporters Turning Point USA, which initially appealed to young, economic liberal students.
The organization later shifted its focus on religious topics and “biblical values”. Kirk himself published the book The College Scam in 2022, in which he described universities as “bankrupt” and “brain -washing”.
Kirk played an important role in the 2024 presidential campaign: he performed at the GOP party conference in Milwaukee, mobilized Evangelical voters and supported Donald Trump’s campaign, who partially outsourced voter activation to Turning Point USA.
Political violence in focus
The attack on Kirk is part of a series of politically motivated acts of violence in the USA – including the attempt at the attack on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July and the murder of a progressive MP in Minnesota in June.
Gabby Giffords, who was seriously injured in 2011 even in an assassination attempt: “Democracies will always have political differences, but we must never allow America to become a country in which these differences are carried out by violence.”