Charlie Kirk’s funeral here Sunday will punctuate a watershed moment for the grassroots conservative movement he founded as a teenager and was working to advance earlier this month when a gunman shot and killed him.
For Kirk’s supporters, the days since the assassination have been defined both by intense grief and deep anger at the forces that they believe contributed to his killing. His death at age 31 has galvanized his followers behind his conservative views and Christian faith, and they’ve resolved to continue to strengthen Kirk’s movement.
But political leaders and some of Kirk’s most public facing allies have also converted their fury into clamping down on opponents they accuse of inciting political violence or disparaging a man they saw as a generational leader. That response in the aftermath of the killing has sparked fears of a government-led crackdown on dissent, all building into a febrile moment for the country.
Many thousands of mourners are expected gather to hear remembrances from President Donald Trump and a slew of conservative luminaries, including several top administration officials and Kirk’s wife, Erika, in her first remarks as the new CEO of the organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA.
Trump has been front and center since nearly the moment Kirk was shot on a college campus in Utah. It was Trump who announced Kirk had been shot during the event and later that he had died. It was Trump who announced, during an interview on Fox News, that a suspect in Kirk’s killing was in custody. And it is Trump who will be the final speaker at Sunday’s event.
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