United States President Donald Trump will on Sunday lead tributes for slain conservative leader, Charlie Kirk, at a memorial service expected to draw tens of thousands to the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
LEADERSHIP reports that Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was gunned down last week in a killing that has sent shockwaves through the conservative movement.
Kirk was a prominent voice in U.S. politics, leveraging millions of social media followers, a widely listened-to podcast, and regular campus appearances to rally young voters behind Trump and promote a nationalist, Christian-centric ideology.
Even before the alleged killer was identified or arrested, Trump hailed Kirk as “a martyr for truth and freedom,” blaming what he described as the rhetoric of the “radical left.”
Hundreds of mourners marched outside Turning Point USA’s headquarters in Phoenix, on Saturday, laying flowers, U.S. flags, and red, white, and blue balloons. Many carried photographs of Kirk emblazoned with the slogan “Faith, Family, Freedom.”
“He was an amazing young man, who was taken away from us much too soon,” said Patti Peteque, 53, one of the mourners.
Sunday’s memorial will feature speeches from Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson were also scheduled to address the crowd, along with other top administration officials.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who has assumed leadership of Turning Point USA, will deliver a personal tribute to her late husband before expected audience of 63,000 people.
The killing has already had major political implications. The White House last week announced a sweeping crackdown on what it described as “domestic terrorism” by left-wing groups. Trump said he would formally designate “Antifa” as “a major terrorist organisation,” reviving a threat he had made during his first term.
The move stirred controversy, especially after late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was abruptly yanked off the air Wednesday, just hours after the government threatened to revoke broadcast licenses over comments he made about Kirk’s death.
Rights groups said the developments point to a troubling erosion of free speech. “All over the world, Amnesty International has worked for decades to expose and document the silencing of dissent through a range of tactics, and we are deeply concerned such efforts are becoming normalised here,” said Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, on Friday.
Critics of Trump’s administration have raised alarm over what they considered as authoritarian overreach, pointing to his record of rolling back social justice policies and cracking down on immigration, often drawing accusations of rights abuses.
However, many on the right have celebrated the government’s hard line policies. “The left is just getting a taste of their own medicine. Who stood up when we felt censored, when we felt canceled?” Peteque, the mourner in Phoenix, said.
