Charlie Kirk was more than just another MAGA ally to Donald Trump and his aides. The 31-year-old conservative was close to many in the White House.
Kash Patel closes remarks with ‘Valhalla’ tribute to Charlie Kirk
Kash Patel commented on the ongoing investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murder and closed with a farewell message to Kirk.
WASHINGTON ‒ Not long after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed by an assassin, President Donald Trump‘s chief of staff Susie Wiles convened the White House staff to address a team in agony.
She faced a room full of red eyes, as if each had just lost a family member.
Kirk was more than just another MAGA ally. The 31-year-old star conservative influencer was a close friend to many White House aides, someone they knew personally, talked to regularly, admired enormously and so central to Trump’s movement that he sometimes felt like a colleague or a brother.
“Go home. Hug your children. Hug your spouse. Be careful. Take precautions. And don’t let your voice get softer,” Wiles said she told the White House staff, recounting the meeting on The Scott Jennings Radio Show. “Charlie would want everybody to speak as they had been and more.”
On Sept. 10, news spread quickly in the White House that Kirk was shot. Some saw the alerts on televisions in the West Wing, others on social media, according to White House staffers who discussed the events on the condition of anonymity. Staffers frantically searched for updates on his condition. They hoped and prayed for the best. Nearly two hours later their worst fears were confirmed. Some cried when they learned Kirk had died.
It was Trump who broke the news to the public in a post on his Truth Social account.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”
The president recalled in a Sept. 12 appearance on “Fox & Friends” his shock and disbelief as aides interrupted a meeting he was having with architects overseeing the construction of the White House ballroom to tell him that Kirk had been shot and was presumed to be deceased.
“And they came in, and they said, ‘Charlie Kirk is dead.’ I didn’t know what they meant,” Trump said.
Trump said he’d be attending Kirk’s funeral services next week, which are expected to take place in Phoenix, where Turning Point USA, the youth activist organization Kirk co-founded, has its headquarters.
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, flew Kirk’s widow, Erika, and casket from Salt Lake City to Phoenix in Air Force Two on Sept. 11. The Kirks have two young children.
Some White House staffers came from Kirk’s youth pipeline
Wiles was tapped as the first female White House chief of staff because of her political acumen, having helped lead Trump to victory in the 2024 election as his co-campaign manager. But on this day ‒ the worst one of of Trump’s second term ‒ Wiles was there to console, not strategize.
“He was very close to many of us. And even those who were not his good friends, we knew him. He was so much help on the campaign,” Wiles said. “No question, there’s a sadness here.”
The White House has treated Kirk’s death as a death in the MAGA family. Not only did Trump announce his passing, two days later, on Sept. 12, Trump broke the news that the suspect was in custody.
Vance canceled a scheduled appearance at Ground Zero on 9/11 to fly to Utah to pay his respects to Kirk’s family. A close personal friend of Kirk’s, Vance said in a 963-word tribute on X that Kirk was a good man and true friend, who was there for him when he ran for the U.S. Senate and when he was tapped to be Trump’s running mate.
“Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers,” Vance said. “He wasn’t just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists.”
Kirk was the inspiration of some of the youngest White House aides to get involved in the MAGA movement. Multiple White House officials arrived in their current jobs after working at Turning Point USA, the conservative outreach group that Kirk led and co-founded to energize Republicans on college campuses.
The mood at the White House was sullen and somber in the days after Kirk’s death, with some aides wearing black as they mourned the youth leader. Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and said he’d posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Devastation and grief coursed through the building, where the president and his aides were in a state of shock.
Trump made a previously planned trip to New York City to attend a Yankees game on 9/11 — the team held a moment of silence for Kirk the evening before — and remained overnight at his private home. He said the next morning on Fox that couldn’t bring himself to watch the horrific video of Kirk’s slaying.
“I didn’t want to watch it,” Trump said. “I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”
Kirk was ‘like a little brother,’ says Trump son
For the past decade, Kirk had been a force recruiting young conservatives to run for office and and join the MAGA movement.
After his election victory over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024, Trump credited Kirk with helping him make major inroads among young voters, particularly young male voters, a demographic that has long been a strength for Democrats.
“Charlie had a magic over the kids, and large numbers of them, ” Trump said on Fox News. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Trump said his youngest son, Barron, 19, was a fan of Kirk’s. “He was very hurt when he saw this.”
The president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said in an emotional X post that Kirk wasn’t just a close friend — “he was like a little brother to me – and to millions of people around the world – he was a true inspiration.”
“This is an unimaginable loss. For me, for his family, for everyone who loved him, and for America. Rest in peace, brother. You will be missed more than words can ever say — but your legacy will never be forgotten and we will keep fighting the good fight,” Trump Jr. wrote.
FBI Director Kash Patel struggled to hold back tears Friday as he paid tribute to Kirk at a news conference in Utah on the arrest of the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
“To my friend Charlie Kirk, rest now, brother,” Patel said.