Key Takeaways:
- Final Journey: Vice President JD Vance will accompany Charlie Kirk’s casket aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where Turning Point USA is headquartered and vigils are already being held.
- Personal Tribute: Vance called Kirk “a man of courage, faith and profound loyalty,” crediting him as a trusted confidant who helped shape his Senate run and the Trump-Vance 2024 ticket.
- National Mourning: President Trump praised Kirk as “The Great, and even Legendary,” highlighting his impact on America’s youth, his Christian faith, and his devotion to family and country.
The nation continues to mourn the shocking assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, 31, who was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
According to reports, Vice President JD Vance and the second family will fly to Salt Lake City Thursday, Sept. 11, to visit Kirk’s family and close friends. Kirk’s casket will then be flown aboard Air Force Two back to Phoenix, Arizona, where Turning Point USA is headquartered. A vigil already drew hundreds to TPUSA headquarters Wednesday night, a testament to Kirk’s outsized influence on a generation of conservatives.
Vice President Vance posted a deeply personal remembrance of Kirk on X, calling him “a man of courage, faith and profound loyalty.” Their friendship dated back to 2016, when both men were initially skeptical of Trump but came to see him as the only figure capable of breaking globalism’s grip on American politics. “Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for Senate in early 2021,” Vance wrote. “We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr.”
Investigators say the suspect who shot Kirk used a high-powered bolt-action rifle, then fled by jumping off a roof into a nearby neighborhood. Surveillance footage is being reviewed, and two images of the suspect were released Thursday.
President Trump honored Kirk on Truth Social: “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… Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
A Christian, husband, and father of two, Kirk’s legacy is one of faith, fearlessness, and unwavering devotion to America.