Trump adopts messenger-in-chief role after influencer's death

Since the US conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot in a brazen display of violence, President Donald Trump has embraced the role of spokesman in an extraordinary way.

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Trump was first to confirm the news to a country in shock that Kirk was dead and first to announce that the latest suspect was in custody. He shared when Kirk’s funeral would take place and said he would attend. Before a suspect was detained, Trump blamed without presenting evidence the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder, with many of his followers repeating the accusation and calling for vengeance amid a wave of right-wing anger.

Kirk, a popular but divisive podcast host and author of a half-dozen books, left behind a wife, prominent friends and legions of followers after being gunned down on a Utah college campus on Wednesday where he was giving a speech.

Yet it is Trump who has taken on a central role in messaging after his political ally’s grisly public death, delivering information that typically would come from law enforcement or local officials rather than the nation's top leader. His actions contrast with the more cautious approach of past presidents. But they are very much in line with his penchant for direct communication, defying convention and putting himself in the middle of domestic and international issues.

“The one thing about Donald Trump is he is a very detailed individual,” said Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to Trump in his first term. “Whether he is building the Rose Garden Club or we have this awful tragedy, he wants to be the one to break the news.”