--- title: Trump Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Death description: Read Trump’s full speech after the shooting of the conservative activist. canonical: https://time.com/7316299/charlie-kirk-shot-death-donald-trump-speech-transcript-political-violence/ author: Chad de Guzman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-11T01:55:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:24.608Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Death og:description: Read Trump’s full speech after the shooting of the conservative activist. og:url: https://time.com/7316299/charlie-kirk-shot-death-donald-trump-speech-transcript-political-violence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b2bf22a09684ed8/6998c9abe1ba006fe598de4f/charlie-kirk-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Charlie Kirk og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Death twitter:description: Read Trump’s full speech after the shooting of the conservative activist. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b2bf22a09684ed8/6998c9abe1ba006fe598de4f/charlie-kirk-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘A Dark Moment for America’: Trump Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Death > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=cc9ea1f5-18a9-434e-abee-84c8bac0690a&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Charlie Kirk Dead After Being Shot at Utah Valley University Event [Watch (HLS stream): Charlie Kirk Dead After Being Shot at Utah Valley University Event](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KdG3rb4M.m3u8) (2:34)  _Published 2025-09-10. Charlie Kirk, an influential conservative commentator and founder of the youth activist group Turning Point USA, has died after being shot at an event he was hosting at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was 31. President Donald Trump, a political ally and friend of Kirk's, announced his death in a post on social media._  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Sep 11, 2025 1:55 AM UTC  President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 22, 2018. President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Manuel Balce Ceneta—AP  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Sep 11, 2025 1:55 AM UTC Donald Trump spoke to the nation Wednesday evening about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was [fatally shot](https://time.com/7316095/charlie-kirk-uvu-shooting-turning-point-usa/) at a campus event in Utah hours earlier. “Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” the President said in a video address. “This is a dark moment for America,” he added, apparently blaming the shooting as well as other “terrorism,” including [his own attempted assassination last year](https://time.com/6998302/trump-rally-shooting-2/) and “attacks on ICE agents,” on political rhetoric “demonizing those with whom you disagree.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1965947311718269341) On Truth Social, Trump initially after the shooting [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115181549363103818) on Truth Social, calling for prayers for Kirk, whom he called a “great guy from top to bottom.” He later [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115181934991844419): “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” Trump also [ordered](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115182019266546196) flags in the U.S. to fly at half-mast until Sunday evening. **Read More:** [_The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Political Violence Haunting America_](https://time.com/7316280/charlie-kirk-dead-political-violence/) ## Read Trump’s full speech on Charlie Kirk’s death _To my great fellow Americans, I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America. He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth._ _Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven._ _Our prayers are with his wife, Erika, their two young beloved children, and his entire family, who he loved more than anything in the world. We ask God to watch over them in this terrible hour of heartache and pain._ _This is a dark moment for America. Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good-faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever, to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense. On campuses nationwide, he championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace._ _I_ _t’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible._ _For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now._ _My Administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country. From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives. Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died: the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God._ _Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed, because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come._ _Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before—and it’s not even close._ _May God bless his memory. May God watch over his family. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you._ ## Transcript I was 15ft away. They talked about transgender gun violence and then, as the guy said, shooting or shooters or something like that, you just hear the gunshot and I'm sorry. You like, you just see his neck just, like, open up. And there's just, like, so much blood that just came out. It was horrible. And all I felt was like everybody bringing me down to the ground, and I was sorry. Take your time. Take your time. I just all I hear is screaming. And I see people running. And I'm like, it's not safe to run. It's not safe to get up. It's not. And all I'm saying is, please God, please God, please God. Because I don't want to die. I don't want anybody else to die. And I, I think I just saw a guy die, you know? It was horrifying. It was horrible. I looked to see if there was a shooter. I didn't see anything. All I could see was Charlie was taken right away. There was only, maybe I would say 60, 60 people on this balcony that couldn't even see Charlie. They were like, on a balcony above, like his tent. Now we're all saying, you know, chanting f Charlie Kirk things like that, and had signs saying some pretty upsetting things about him. That was it. Everybody else was drowning out the sound and saying how grateful we are that he took the time to see us and talk to us. We had questions. We wanted to talk to him. And yeah. Instead, somebody selfish didn't didn't care if I'm going to be honest, I had friends coming in asking if they needed tickets, and I said they didn't even check for my ticket, which I did get a ticket. They did not pat us down. Um, I feel like I maybe saw 3 or 4 police officers in this whole environment of hundreds of people, I would guess, um, which I thought was a little odd, but at the same time I thought, well, you know, it's Utah, which is probably an ignorant thought to think, but there was not much security precautions taken. There was none. So I was watching the event and, um, I saw Charlie Kirk start talking and stuff, and all of a sudden I saw he I all of a sudden in a second later, I heard a gunshot, and everybody started, like, running in, like a mob through the doors and like, it was scary. I got trampled in the crowd and, like, just, like, pushed through the doors. 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