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Fatal shooting of Trump ally Charlie Kirk: symptom of deep divisions in US
The Straits Times
|September 12, 2025
Mr Charlie Kirk's name may not ring a bell in Singapore, but the shooting of the 31-year-old conservative activist, podcaster and gun rights evangelist with a following in the tens of millions, is more than just a headline.
Mr Charlie Kirk's name may not ring a bell in Singapore, but the shooting of the 31-year-old conservative activist, podcaster and gun rights evangelist with a following in the tens of millions, is more than just a headline.
It is an eruption of political rage, the catastrophic symptom of the deep divisions that today animate politics in the most powerful democracy in the world.
The killing — from a single gunshot wound to the neck — will also, once again, stir serious debate on the constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms in a country where more than a hundred people die from a firearm-related injury each day.
Mr Kirk, credited with pulling in the crucial youth vote for US President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, was shot dead on Sept 10 as he was speaking to students and visitors in a grassy university courtyard shortly after noon.
It was a testament to his stature that Mr Trump was the one to announce his death in a Truth Social post. He ordered flags to fly at half-mast, cancelled events scheduled for the rest of the day and mourned him.
"No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me," Mr Trump said.
In 2012, Mr Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a conservative platform, at the age of 18 after dropping out of college. The outfit is now a powerful means for recruiting and mobilising conservative youth.
His Charlie Kirk Show, a top 10 show on the Apple podcast charts, was downloaded more than 120 million times in the last 12 months.
Clips from his Prove Me Wrong debates went viral on TikTok in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, drawing tens of millions of views.
A regular commentator on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, he was a persistent critic of higher education, liberal policies and "woke culture".
This story is from the September 12, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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