(Reuters) – The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk ignited a wave of fury on the far right, where some Trump supporters cast the murder as a political flashpoint and threat to conservative power amid a broader reckoning over rising violence.
Some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the political left, casting Kirk’s murder as the culmination of years of hostility toward Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. On social media, they pointed to posts that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death as evidence of conservatives increasingly being targeted.
The killing of Kirk has become a potent symbol for a segment of the American right that increasingly views the political left not merely as ideological opponents but as existential threats to conservative identity and power. Fueled by years of rhetoric, amplified by social media echo chambers, this anger reflects a broader narrative in which Trump’s allies often portray themselves as besieged patriots facing a lawless and hostile opposition.
“They couldn’t beat him in a debate, so they assassinated him,” Isabella Maria DeLuca, a pardoned January 6 rioter and conservative activist, wrote on X.
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, was in custody on Friday for the shooting after a 33-hour manhunt.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said Robinson had recently become more political and had expressed disdain for Kirk, one of the right’s most influential figures whose social media posts often included inflammatory comments about Jewish, gay and Black people. Cox said an unfired cartridge recovered with the shooter’s gun was engraved with, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”
Jen Golbeck, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland who studies right-wing online activity, analyzed more than 3,000 posts on two websites – X and the pro-Trump forum Patriots.Win – in the 24 hours following the shooting. She found a volatile mix of grief, rage, and signs of growing radicalization. With the shooter’s identity and motive still unknown, Golbeck said Trump supporters were “grabbing on to a narrative that fits what they want.”
On Patriots.Win, calls for vengeance surged. “The entire Democrat party needs to fucking hang now!” one anonymous poster wrote. “This is the Reichstag Fire,” another said, referencing a 1933 arson attack that helped usher in Nazi rule in Germany. “It’s time to end democracy.” Reuters was unable to reach a representative of Patriots.
One anonymous user on X called Kirk’s death a breaking point, warning that the nation was “teetering between a political rupture and civil war.” “We’re past words,” the post read.
Amid the fury, some voices urged restraint. “Stop trying to stoke violence,” one Patriots.Win commenter wrote.
Mike Davis, a Republican lawyer and prominent Trump supporter, said in an interview Kirk’s ability to galvanize a new generation of conservatives posed “an existential threat to the future of leftist ideology and power.”
Kirk, 31, founder of Turning Point USA, was a prominent figure in the MAGA movement, known for his ability to mobilize young conservatives.
Before a suspect was taken into custody, Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder and told reporters on Thursday that “we just have to beat the hell out of them.” Trump also said that Kirk “was an advocate of nonviolence — that’s the way I’d like to see people respond.” U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters after the shooting on Wednesday that “Democrats own what happened today.”
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who decried the shooting as “horrific,” pushed back on criticism that Democrats needed to tone down their political rhetoric. “Oh, please. Why don’t you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he’s posted and every ugly word,” she told reporters.
Numerous Democratic leaders urged for calm and condemned Kirk’s murder. “Political violence is NEVER acceptable,” U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the attack on Kirk “disgusting, vile and reprehensible,” and urged Americans to “reject political violence in EVERY form.”
“WE CANNOT BACK OFF”
On his War Room podcast, far-right commentator Steve Bannon called Kirk “the America First martyr,” claiming Kirk had been under constant threat from “evil people” on the left. “We cannot back off. We cannot flinch,” Bannon said.
Some chapters of the Proud Boys, the far-right organization that played a leading role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, refrained from calls to arms but posted accusations on the Telegram messaging app that left-wing activists were mocking Kirk’s death. The Tennessee chapter of the Proud Boys shared a video montage of people laughing at Kirk’s death compiled from social media sites.
Stewart Rhodes, the pardoned founder of the Oath Keepers militia who was sentenced to 18 years for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, urged Trump to declare martial law and mobilize veterans as militia leaders during an appearance on far-right host Alex Jones’ show.
Citing the killing of Kirk, rising crime, immigration issues and left-wing resistance to Trump’s agenda, Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and label the political left as being in “open rebellion.” He claimed veterans such as himself are drafting a proposal to submit to Trump, outlining how they could organize and train civilians to defend their communities under emergency conditions. The 1807 law empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to enforce the law and suppress events like civil disorder.
Chaya Raichik, a right-wing influencer known for her Libs of TikTok account, posted screenshots of social media users who allegedly celebrated Kirk’s death. Ryan Nichols, a January 6 rioter pardoned by Trump, urged followers to identify and harass those individuals. “Tag them, their employers, and make it so uncomfortable for them to even leave their house,” he wrote on X. “This is the way!”
Nealin Parker, executive director of Common Ground USA, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce political violence and polarization, said she worried that radical voices on the fringes were stoking hate and fear, with potentially violent consequences.
“Right now people are willing to believe terrible things about the other side,” she said. “What’s happening online really matters.”
