Ok–who is he?
He has something vaguely to do with MAGA-youth?
Who is this guy?
He was an influential MAGA guy. He founded TurningPointUSA, a group that specialized in trying to win over high-school and college-aged folks to the conservative cause.
Imagine if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were a prominent liberal Democratic speaker who started her own liberal-youth organization but had never actually run for Congress. That’s kind of who Kirk was to MAGA.
He is now getting martyr-treatment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/us/charlie-kirk-martyr-conservative-christians.html
He was the future of MAGA and their number one recruiter of young voters. Along with Elon Musk, he is one of the two people most responsible for the success of Trump’s 2024 campaign. His assassination is the closest thing to a direct attack on Trump outside of his immediate family.
He’s “That Fuckin’ Guy”.
There really isn’t a “liberal equivalent”. Despite his rhetoric, Kirk doesn’t actually have anything of real substance to say. He’s not advocating for any real policy or in support of any kind of affirmative development. He basically just exists to pander to bigotry, pander hatred and conspiranoia, and tell Christians that they should be anything but meek. He gets celebrated a lot for his skill at argumentation but his most common tactic is just to speak loud and fast, pettifogging opponents to tangle them in rhetorical nots rather than present and defend an actual thesis. He was so fucking hollow it’s surprising that he doesn’t sound like a percussion block when he walks.
Stranger
He founded Turning Point USA:
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.[3][4] It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery.[5][6] TPUSA’s affiliate groups include Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point Action and TPUSA Faith.[7][8][9] TPUSA has been described as the fastest growing organization of campus chapters in America, and according to The Chronicle of Higher Education it is the dominant force in campus conservatism.[10][11] - SOURCE
Kirk was very active on social media and in interviews and staged events at universities (like the one where he was shot) where he would let people ask him questions and he would respond with a conservative answer that would seem almost reasonable unless you thought about it a bit more and understood the rhetorical tactics he used (mostly fallacies of one sort or another…usually a strawman argument or moving the goalposts).
This notes some of his views:
Charlie Kirk believed that gay people should be stoned to death, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake,” that we should legally be allowed to whip foreigners in the U.S., that Muslims only move here to destroy the country, that American Jews encourage anti-whiteness, that men should physically attack transgender people, that all women should submit to their husbands, and that Black professionals “steal” their jobs from more qualified white people. - SOURCE
Nitpick: didn’t
MHO: He’s (in)famous for being (in)famous.
(In)famous enough, in fact, to have his body returned home on Air Force Two.
And who is paying for that? (really asking)
I personally hope his estate will be billed, but don’t bet on it.
MAGA really screwed up here, not getting an American Blutfahne out of this is embarrassing.
He was sort of a political shock jock to me, however little he was on my radar. He said things that were inflammatory on purpose to get attention, but that really resonated with right wing folks, especially MAGA types. Much of his rhetoric came across very similar to how a troll (and particularly a sea lion) might communicate online. A great deal of it was especially callous, even for a right wing figure.
He was like Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson, and Joe Rogan rolled into one with the debate tactics of Duane Gish and the smarmy personality of Seth McFarlane.
Stranger
Since you mentioned Glenn Beck, his 19-year-old daughter was “there.” Literally, just feet from the tent, and she saw the whole thing.
People are getting fired for saying negative things about him:
Most of it has been said -
- he was very influential in getting younger voters, particularly men, to vote for DJT in 2024
- he has a HUGE following among Evangelical Christians
- he had close relationships with many prominent GOP officials
- he was well known to and admired by the MAGA faithful at large
- he was very close to DJT, et al
One thing not mentioned here that I think is worthy of note - he would have turned 35 in October of 2028 meaning he would have been able to run for and follow Trump as POTUS. I think if he had wanted that he would have been able to take the nomination in a walk. He had more charisma in his pinkie toe than JD Vance will ever have.
He was definitely very important to the viability of the future of MAGA.
These statements are far less harsh than many things said (some of them by Kirk himself) about the attack on Paul Pelosi.
What a bunch of fucking hypocrites who can sling shit but can’t take it coming back at them.
Stranger
I’d heard of him. I’d seen the memes, ‘Conservative Guy With The Weird Gums’, but I didn’t know that was he.
That South Park episode where Cartman becomes a master debater suddenly makes a lot more sense to this middle aged Brit.
Let us not forget that he did not want to fly on an airliner with a Black pilot.