On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, a well-known right-wing and Christian political activist, was shot and killed while speaking at the University of Utah. Kirk, one of the most notable faces of the MAGA movement, spread Christian nationalism, Trumpism, and conservatism through public speaking, social media, and his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show. Charlie Kirk also co-founded a non-profit youth conservative organization, Turning Point USA, which aims to “educate young people about the importance of limited government, free markets, and freedom.”
Before his assassination, Kirk had amassed a social media following of almost 30 million, with platforms like TikTok and Instagram playing a prominent role in bolstering his online presence. Kirk traveled to and debated at a variety of college campuses across the US, and even held a debate at the University of Cambridge (UK) against students and faculty. Kirk debated popular left-wing political activists, notably including Dean Withers, Hasan Piker, and many others.
Despite his many loyal supporters, many people disliked him as well. Online, many democrats disagreed with Kirk about Trump’s policies on immigration, abortion, and gun laws in the US. Kirk believed that abortion was murder, and it should be illegal “except for a couple of rare cases when the mother would otherwise die”.
Kirk viewed abortion as a “moral outrage” and, at a campus event, claimed that abortion is “worse than the holocaust” because the number of abortions exceeds the number of Jews killed by the Nazis. Kirk also vouched for a stricter immigration policy and supported the “great replacement theory,” which is a conspiracy theory that claims immigration is a “strategy to replace white rural America with something different.”