President Donald Trump with Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk. Photo / Kenny Holston, The New York Times
President Trump oscillated between honouring Charlie Kirk’s life and promoting his own political agenda in his remarks at the conservative activist’s memorial in Arizona.
US President Donald Trump remembered conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a “martyr” on Monday in remarks at his memorial in Arizona, but he pivoted swiftly to blunt politics by saying that he hated his political opponents and that they “cheated like dogs”.
Striking a far different tone from that of Kirk’s widow, Erika, who spoke immediately before him, Trump said he disagreed with Charlie Kirk’s view of wanting the best for one’s opponent.
“I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” he said.
He added: “I am sorry, Erika.”
Just minutes before, Erika Kirk publicly forgave the man who killed her husband. “I forgive him because it is what Christ did,” she said. “The answer to hate is not hate.”
Trump’s speech, which stretched on for roughly 45 minutes, capped a more than five-hour memorial service for the conservative activist, who was assassinated less than two weeks ago while speaking on a college campus in Utah.
Many members of Trump’s Cabinet and senior White House staff, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, also spoke at the event, which drew tens of thousands of people to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The president, in his remarks, oscillated between honouring Charlie Kirk’s life and promoting his own political agenda. Trump teased an announcement on Monday about autism, discussed sending in federal agents to Chicago to reduce crime and boasted about the tariffs he has slapped on foreign countries.
But Trump also shared memories of his interactions with Kirk, telling the story of Kirk’s rise from a high school graduate with US$1800 in his pocket to building a multimillion-dollar political juggernaut with chapters around the country. That work, Trump said, was critical to Republicans making inroads with younger voters in the last presidential election.
The president also credited Kirk for being among the first to tell him about Vance, when he was running for Senate in Ohio, and for uniting Trump and Robert F. Kennedy jun., now the health secretary, at an event in Arizona last year.
Trump also recognised Kirk’s role as a father, son and friend – and his dedication to his faith and his work.
“He’d make me feel very guilty,” he said. “As President, many people ask me for things, but Charlie was one of the few who always gave more than he took.”
The President, who had already announced that he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, promised to Erika Kirk that he would do “everything we can to ensure that your children grow up in a land where their father is honoured and revered as a great American hero”.
And, although Erika Kirk said she forgave her husband’s killer, Trump called him “a radicalised, cold-blooded monster”.
The President also took aim at Charlie Kirk’s critics and once again blamed liberal politics for his death. Kirk spent much of his time engaging with those who disagreed with him, as he sought to win them over. But Trump assailed those critics, saying that most of them were “paid agitators”, and he vowed that the Department of Justice was “investigating networks of radical-left maniacs who fund, organise, fuel and perpetrate political violence”.
“But law enforcement can only be the beginning of our response to Charlie’s murder,” he said.
Since Kirk’s death, Trump and top administration officials have promised a broad crackdown on their political opponents, levelling a baseless argument that there is a broad ecosystem of Democratic individuals and groups violently opposing the Republican Party and its values.
As Trump’s speech veered increasingly into politics on Monday, hundreds of people started leaving the arena. Many of the attendees woke up at 3am and stood in line for hours to make it into the venue, with organisers setting up multiple overflow areas.
Most of the speakers before the President talked extensively of Kirk’s faith, and they vowed to carry on his mission to implement a conservative Christian vision of the United States.
“We always did need less government,” Hegseth said. “But what Charlie understood and infused into his movement is, we also needed a lot more God.”
Top administration officials also credited Kirk and his organisation, Turning Point USA, for helping Republicans win elections, saying their work was invaluable to their success.
“Our whole administration is here, but not just because we love Charlie as a friend, even though we did, but because we know we wouldn’t be here without him,” Vance said. “Charlie built an organisation that reshaped the balance of our politics.”
At the end of his remarks, Trump welcomed Erika Kirk back to the stage. The two hugged and stood together as America the Beautiful played. They then clasped hands and walked off together.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
Written by: Tyler Pager
Photographs by: The New York Times
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