Trump ally Charlie Kirk's shooting death prompts all kinds of reactions

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University.

Reactions to the shooting poured in from leaders across the country, even before President Donald Trump confirmed the Turning Point USA co-founder’s death.

Trump announced that Kirk had died before any major media outlet confirmed the news.

“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 wrote on social media. “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!”

“They just shot Charlie Kirk,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. “I’m praying that he survives. And I’m praying that this country rises up and ends this.”

Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna blamed people who called MAGA politicians like herself “fascists” for the shooting.

“You were too busy doping up kids, cutting off their genitals, inciting racial violence by supporting orgs that exploit minorities, protecting criminals, and stirring hate,” she wrote on X. “Your words caused this. Your hate caused this.”

Billionaire Elon Musk also piled on.

“The Left is the party of murder,” he posted on X.

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer added to the inflamed rhetoric, saying that “every single Leftist organization” should be shut down and prosecuted.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote, “Political violence has no place in this country. We must condemn this horrifying attack. My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family.”

Vice President JD Vance posted a picture of himself along with Kirk and Donald Trump Jr., writing “Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters he felt that political violence “has ramped up,” along with charged rhetoric from Republican leaders like Trump.

“We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” wrote former Presidenr Barack Obama. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz wrote, “Praying for Charlie Kirk with all I have.“

“The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest incident of this chaos and it must stop. We cannot go down this road. There is no place for it in America and we wish for his recovery.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the attack on Kirk “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.”

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona lawmaker who survived a 2011 mass shooting while meeting with constituents, said she was “horrified” to hear about the shooting. 

”Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” Giffords wrote.

In 2023, Kirk said that gun deaths are a worthwhile price for gun ownership.

“You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense,” he told the crowd at another TPUSA event. “It's drivel. But I am -- I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”