Trump Ally and Political Strategist Charlie Kirk Killed at 31

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1:29Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. The conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday in the middle of a speaking event at a college campus in Utah. Kirk was 31. Oh my God. Go, run, run. As of Thursday afternoon, a search is still underway for the shooter. The FBI has released photos of a person of interest, but does not have a suspect in custody. If you're listening to this and you know who Charlie Kirk is, I don't need to explain it to you. Josh Wingrove is Bloomberg's senior White House correspondent. If you are listening to this and don't know who he is, that probably says something about your algorithms, your social streams, where you're living, because Kirk was a tremendously influential figure in the conservative movement, in the MAGA movement.

2:24Kirk galvanized a generation of conservative youth through Turning Point USA, the political group he founded when he was just 18. He'd become a prominent right-wing media personality as the host of The Charlie Kirk Show and was a close ally of President Donald Trump, who credited him with helping him win the 2024 election. Kirk's appearance at Utah Valley University on Wednesday was the first stop on a planned Turning Point USA tour of college campuses, where he was hosting debates. Videos of the shooting spread quickly on social media. That is the sort of like paradox of this world we're living in, where this happened essentially live, captured by goodness knows how many cameras.

3:05But the authorities are trying to put one foot in front of the other and go through their investigation.

3:14I'm Sarah Holder, and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, how Charlie Kirk shaped the conservative movement and how the political world is reacting to his death.

3:32Charlie Kirk was a rising political star in Republican circles, synonymous with a brand of young conservatism that helped to re-elect Donald Trump in 2024. four. He's a true to the bone Trump conservative. He's been a Trump conservative since the beginning of Trump. And that's why the president has such faith in him. We wrote in one story that back in December, so after Trump had won the election, he was kind of not doing a lot, like he was not doing rallies. But he was, you know, picking his moments. He went to Notre Dame when it reopened. He hung out of Mar-a-Lago and held court and named cabinet appointees.

4:09He met the Prince of Wales, and then he traveled to Arizona to appear on stage with Charlie Kirk. And that just indicates to you how important a figure he was in the movement that Trump, of course, is at the top of right now. And I think just stepping back, like Kirk's day job was leading Turning Point USA, which he built from a relatively small sort of campus conservative organization to a very influential one. But his impact was broader than that. And he was, you know, a big voice on social media, a very popular podcast, and really did have the ear of some of the most powerful political conservatives in this country.

4:45And he was a controversial figure, right, Josh? He was known for promoting the anti-immigrant Great Replacement Theory, for example. Yeah, this is where it gets tricky, right? Because we got someone that, you know, has only passed away very recently. And multiple things can be true at the same time. He's being eulogized by conservatives for, well, by many people, including conservatives for the role he played in their movement. And at the same time, he was, you know, not popular among progressives who he was not ideologically aligned with, obviously. It is true that he is criticized heavily among Democrats who see him as fomenting some of the harsh partisan environment we live in.

5:22In 2012, Kirk founded Turning Point USA, which soon grew into one of the most influential political nonprofits in the country. Turning Point USA is a conservative youth group. And if, you know, in that Walmart is like a former mom and pop store, I mean, it is very difficult to overstate the influence of Turning Point. And they did it by doing these campus style events, attracting donations. He co-founded Turning Point when he was just 18 years old. And some of the numbers I found really jaw dropping. It grossed 78 grand in its first year,$78 ,000. And Turning Point had 85 million in revenue in 2024.

5:59So that just gives you a sense of the sprawl of it. And I mentioned earlier that President Trump went to Arizona to do this event with Kirk. He credited him both in get out the vote efforts in Arizona, getting people to go to the polls. Remember, Trump lost Arizona in 2021 and back in 2024, gave some of that credit to Kirk. But also Trump made gains among young people in 2024 as compared to 2020. He also credited Kirk for that. Charlie Kirk credited TikTok for the games with young people, but Trump credited Kirk. So it grew out of these campus events, of course. Campus culture and sort of progressives on campus has long been a sort of rhetorical concern or target of the American right who think that conservative views are not welcome on campuses.

6:44And Charlie Kirk really seized on that to be able to build a movement, essentially, you know, migrate some of that conservative, liberal, proverbial culture war stuff right to the campus level. But I really cannot overstate how wide his clout was sort of built on Turning Point, but not confined just to the work of it. Kirk's message especially resonated with the kinds of young men who voted overwhelmingly to reelect Trump. Kirk really plugged into that. And it's very popular in the podcast sort of, you know, online manosphere. We should note also that he's was very public about his faith. And so many people of faith, including men of faith, of Christian faith specifically, admired him and followed him in part about that and liked that he was very vocal about his faith.

7:32So there are a lot of sort of tenets to what made Kirk such an influential conservative figure. After the break, more from my conversation with Josh Wingrove about the killing of Charlie Kirk and its impact in this divisive political moment. Whether you're planning a big tech event, launching a new campaign, or just stocking up on team gear, finding the right promotional products makes all the difference. 4imprint offers thousands of options, from on-trend apparel and premium drinkware to tech, totes, and giveaways, so you can find the right fit for any audience, purpose, or budget. You can customize it all, your logo, your message, your look, and many items come with no setup charge to help you save.

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10:11Charlie Kirk's shooting on Wednesday was the latest shocking attack on political figures in the U.S. Trump himself was the target of two assassination attempts during his campaign. And in June, two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot at their homes. State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed. And State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were injured. Bloomberg senior White House correspondent Josh Wingrove says this pattern of political violence is a distinctly American problem. We don't see it to this extent in a lot of other Western democracies, right?

10:48So I think we should be clear-eyed about the problem America has on its hands. And this was a through line of a lot of commentary from Democrats and Republicans about wanting to take down the temperature because we also had, of course, the arson attempt that may have been an attempted killing of Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania recently. There was a 2022 violent attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband. We had, of course, the 2021 January 6th event at the Capitol. President Trump, of course, pardoned everyone or nearly everyone involved in that. Foiled plot to capture Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, 2017 shooting of Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise, 2011 shooting of Arizona Democrat Gabby Giffords.

11:28This is happening too much. I mean, this is heartbreaking. And I think the question is, how can the temperature be brought down? I'll note that in his video Wednesday night, President Trump did cite some of those, but only the ones with Republican victims or Republican targets. And so he is emphasizing for his audience that Republicans are being targeted from the left. He is not framing it as there have been this string of political violence that has targeted Democrats and Republicans alike. Of course, including this horrible shooting of Charlie Kirk, but also other examples. That's difficult to separate here.

12:05And that could potentially create, of course, the space and political will in the conservative movement to use this moment to go on a broader push of some kind. Josh, you said there's this desire on both sides of the political aisle to bring down the temperature of political discourse. After Kirk's killing, Elon Musk posted on X that the, quote, left is the party of murder, while Trump called Kirk a martyr for truth and freedom in a video statement. And he blamed the radical left for the attack. Of course, no suspect or motive has been identified as of now. But what kind of impact do you see Kirk's death and his killing having on political division in this country?

12:49I worry that it will only exacerbate it. And let me read to you one of the comments from President Trump that I think is going to be notable. And that is, quote, 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, end quote. And so that really signals what I'm talking about earlier in that Trump is framing this or saying immediately that this is part of a larger campaign or effort. And the law enforcement authorities, including, I should note, a Republican governor of Utah, are not going that far yet.

13:30And so the assassination of Charlie Kirk is one thing, but I think the concern is that it could be used for something broader. And it's just not clear yet, you know, where that will land. Conservatives listening to this will have seen or may point to examples of liberals somewhere on some feed that they're watching saying something ungracious about this and about Mr. Kirk after his passing. Of course, there are examples of everything you can find out there. But right now, I think most top Democrats, including the DNC chair and senators and governors, are calling for, begging for people to take down the temperature on this.

14:12Some Republicans are as well. President Trump, not so much, really. And so we just don't know where it's going to go. Whether people feel less comfortable engaging publicly is another question. And that, of course, is a core element of some of the eulogy of Kirk in that he is praised by conservatives for, you know, going out there, free exchange of ideas, debates on campuses. They love that about him. And so if people are less willing or comfortable to go out in public and debate ideas, that is exactly what Charlie Kirk wanted to have happen. Even if the ideas he was debating were unpalatable to half or less than half of his audience, he believed and sort of advocated for and built his brand on the sort of free exchange of ideas.

15:02And now if people are uncomfortable doing that because of a security risk, that is a layer here of something else that might have been lost. But you're seeing conservatives say like, you know, they've created a thousand Charlie Kirks. In other words, people will try to carry on his legacy. But again, it just feels like things are very fraught right now. Not only because of the death of a young man who leaves behind a spouse and two lovely little kids, but just because of the potential for escalation and continuance one way or another. Josh, I want to end on that legacy question. You cover the White House.

15:40Kirk was a real ally and close friend of many there. And we've heard about the shock and the sadness there yesterday. And what do you see as the legacy of the shooting and the legacy of Kirk himself? Well, Kirk will go down as one of the most influential conservatives of his generation. I think there's just simply no arguing that. In terms of the legacy of his passing, I think it's just too soon to say, you know, will Turning Point be as effective? How will people take up the baton of the work Kirk was doing? It's just too soon to say. But of course, the Republican Party is at a crossroads. Trump is at least on paper not running again or trying to run again.

16:21all those that will sort of decide where the Republican Party goes from here, they were virtually all friends with Charlie Kirk, right? And so his legacy lives on. It's amazing watching how many of them are tweeting their most recent texts from him. I mean, senators, governors, whatever. So his legacy sort of will sort of live on through them. But again, I don't want to gloss over the risk that it is the basis upon which something else, not necessarily violence, but, you know, an investigation or something, some kind of probe could build upon that could end up exacerbating the political tensions of the moment.

16:59But the conservatives might argue is necessary to do justice to the death of Charlie Kirk. And that is the real sort of fork in the road that we're at right now.

17:33Thank you. We'll be back tomorrow.

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