JD Vance cancelled his 9/11 memorial plans to support Charlie Kirk's family after Kirk's death. Photo / Getty Images
When United States Vice-President JD Vance decided to drop his 9/11 memorial plans and fly to Utah today to be with Charlie Kirk’s family and closest friends, he wasn’t just operating as a political leader responding to the killing of a leading conservative figure.
Vance, 41, had lost a close friend in Kirk, the 31-year-old activist and Maga power broker who helped propel US President Donald Trump back to the White House and was a key ally in Vance’s own political rise over the past several years.
“Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him,” Vance wrote in a lengthy online tribute to Kirk.
Kirk, who had been friends with Vance for eight years, served not only as a loud champion of Vance in his 2022 bid for the Senate but also helped connect Vance to Republican donors, helpful allies, and to the Trump family itself.
Vance immediately changed plans after Kirk was gunned down yesterday during an event at Utah Valley University, heading to Salt Lake City with second lady Usha Vance to see Kirk’s family instead of travelling to New York City, according to two people with knowledge of his plans.
From Utah, Vance was then set to fly Kirk’s remains, with his family and friends, back to Kirk’s home state of Arizona on board Air Force Two, the people said.
Vance said in his post that the pair struck up a friendship when Kirk sent him an encouraging direct message in 2017 after watching Vance appear on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
The Vice-President recalled that he “barely knew” Kirk’s name at the time the conservative commentator sent the direct message telling Vance he had done a good job, but “that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted” until Kirk was killed .
Kirk championed Vance as a potential running mate for Trump at a time when Republicans across the conservative spectrum were making their case for Trump’s pick – an endorsement that made an impact.
The Turning Point USA founder’s audience by then had reached the millions through his daily shows and social media content.
Weeks before the Republican convention last summer, Kirk remarked that he saw “arguments for all of them” and didn’t have any personal grudge against Marco Rubio or Doug Burgum, Trump’s two other top contenders for the job. But Vance was his guy.
“I think JD is the best,” Kirk said in an interview in Detroit, on the sidelines of a Turning Point USA conference where Trump was the keynote speaker.
It was an argument he made “both in public and private”, Vance noted in his statement yesterday.
Vance, who launched a US Senate bid in Ohio in 2021, said Kirk was one of the first people he called when he decided to run for office.
Vance had built his profile as a conservative commentator after the publication of his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and a stint in Silicon Valley as a venture capitalist.
Vance had been deeply critical of Trump as he first ran for and won the presidency, but his public comments evolved in the years that followed. Vance said he had misunderstood Trump.
He and Kirk had both been “sceptical of Donald Trump in 2016”, Vance said, describing his friend as someone who “was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind”.
Even as Vance’s path to office still looked to be a long shot, Kirk introduced Vance to key figures to run his political operation and help the former Trump critic earn Trump’s forgiveness and endorsement.
That included connecting Vance to Trump’s son Donald Trump jnr, who also heavily advocated for Vance to be vice-president.
Trump jnr took the call from Vance “because Charlie asked him to”, Vance wrote in his tribute.
Andrew Surabian, a top political adviser to Vance, said he was sceptical of working for Vance when Kirk first suggested they speak ahead of his Senate run, but agreed to the introduction at Kirk’s urging.
Surabian said he first met Kirk in 2018, having assumed “he was just another blowhard talking head, trying to make a name for himself”.
“It only took one conversation with him to completely disabuse me of that notion,” Surabian wrote of Kirk in a tribute today. “I was blown away by his depth and sophistication.”
Once Trump chose Vance as his running mate in July 2024 – days after Trump survived an attempted assassination at a campaign rally – the sudden life change and constant security presence proved to be a difficult adjustment for Vance’s young family, the Vice-President said.
Kirk “was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers”.
Yesterday, Vance’s prayers were directed toward Kirk, his wife, and their two young children.
When news broke that Kirk had been shot, Vance was in a West Wing meeting and began receiving texts on their mutual group chats with friends telling Kirk they were praying for him. Vance “prayed a lot over the next hour”, he said, until learning that Kirk had died.
Later, in the Oval Office, Trump remarked to Vance, “I know he was a very good friend of yours”. Vance nodded, he said, and the President added that he could tell “Charlie really loved his family”.
Vance said he was on group text threads with Kirk and “people at the very highest level of our government”, including people whom Kirk introduced Vance to over the years. The powerful friends had talked about policy, sports and life in general, Vance said.
“They trusted him, loved him, and knew he’d always have their backs,” Vance said. “And because he was a true friend, you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to.”
“So much of the success we’ve had in this Administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organise and convene,” the Vice-President continued. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire Government.”
Vance described Kirk’s “profound faith” and said that the two would debate “minor doctrinal questions” and “argue about Catholicism and Protestantism”. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, and Kirk was an evangelical Christian who frequently talked about his faith.
“He wasn’t just a thinker, he was a doer,” Vance said. He recalled how Kirk created some of Vance’s largest campaign rallies last year by “turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists”.
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