Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist in the US and a favorite of Mr. Trump, died at the age of 31 after being shot by an assassin.

Kirk, 31, was shot and died on September 10 while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. In announcing Kirk’s death on social media, President Donald Trump called the political activist “a legend”. “He was loved and admired by everyone, especially me,” he wrote.

The shooting of Kirk has raised deep concerns, exposing an alarming reality that political violence is no longer an isolated phenomenon but is becoming the “new normal” in American political life.

Kirk is one of America’s most prominent conservative activists and media figures. In 2012, at the age of 18, Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a student organization that promotes conservative ideas on liberal college campuses. The activist has since become known for organizing outdoor debates at colleges across the country. He has an estimated 5.3 million followers on X, is a host on his popular podcast The Charlie Kirk Show, and recently co-hosted Fox & Friends on Fox News.

Kirk’s daily social media posts and podcasts often feature clips of him debating with students on issues like transgenderism, climate change, faith, and family values.

The son of an architect and mental health counselor who grew up in the affluent Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, Kirk attended a community college near the city before dropping out to pursue political activism. He applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point but was rejected.

Kirk often pokes fun at his lack of a college degree as he debates with students and academics on relatively esoteric topics like postmodernism.

He began to grow his role at TPUSA after President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012. The nonprofit’s mission is to bring students together to “advance the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.” TPUSA now has chapters on more than 850 college campuses.

Kirk has traveled the country speaking at Republican-sponsored events, many of which are popular with members of the ultraconservative Tea Party movement. His daily talk radio show has millions of followers on social media, according to CBS News.

An avid public speaker, Kirk spoke at the Oxford Union, the oldest student group at the University of Oxford, earlier this year and wrote the 2020 bestseller The Maga Doctrine, which is about President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) campaign.

TPUSA played a key role in the effort to turn out voters for Trump and other Republican candidates last year. Kirk is widely credited with helping to turn out tens of thousands of new Republican voters and flip Arizona for Trump. Kirk attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington in January and is a frequent guest at the White House.

The president and his aides credit Kirk with his ability to communicate his political ideas to the MAGA base. He has spoken at numerous Republican conventions, and Trump reciprocated Kirk’s goodwill last year by speaking at a TPUSA convention in Arizona.

Earlier this year, he traveled to Greenland with Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son. At the time, Trump was pushing the idea of ​​the United States owning the world’s largest island.

Perhaps the biggest tribute to Kirk’s contributions to Republican politics came from President Trump himself, in a clip that played at the beginning of his podcast.

“I want to thank Charlie, he’s an incredible guy, with spirit, with love for his country. He’s done an incredible job building one of the strongest youth organizations ever,” the president said.

Kirk discusses a wide range of political and social issues at events and on his podcast, including gun control. He is a strong advocate for American gun rights, saying that the number of people who die from gun violence in the United States each year is a “necessary price” to protect that right. “It’s worth paying the price of a few people dying from gun violence each year to have the Second Amendment,” he said a few months ago, referring to the amendment that protects the right of people to own and bear arms.

Some of Kirk’s political views have been controversial. According to CBS, he has promoted anti-transgender views and has been skeptical of the Covid-19 pandemic. Kirk has publicly supported Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged. He has also promoted the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, a far-right belief that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants and minorities.

“It’s ironic that he was talking about gun control policy when he was shot,” said Raydon DeChene, who witnessed the moment Kirk was shot. The gunman is believed to have fired a single shot at Kirk from the roof of a neighboring building. Police are conducting a large-scale manhunt, but have not yet arrested a suspect.

In response to the assassination attempt that killed Kirk, many have emphasized that Kirk actually valued different ideas and encouraged people to debate them.

“His entire project was built on the desire to overcome divisions and use words, not violence, to solve problems!” William Wolfe, executive director of the Baptist Leadership Center, posted on X.