National leaders gathered for Charlie Kirk’s memorial, where President Trump, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and others praised his life and message, declaring his mission has grown stronger since his assassination.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, tens of thousands filled an arena Sunday to honor Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated on September 10 during a student Q&A at Utah Valley University.
The memorial featured worship, remembrance, and a message of forgiveness.
Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, cited Christ’s words from Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Speaking of the alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler James Robinson, she added, “That young man. I forgive him.”
Trump described Kirk’s death as an assault on the entire nation.
“Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation,” Trump said.
“The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us,” Trump said, according to CBS News.
Trump added that the assassin’s mission had failed. “The assassin failed because Charlie’s message has not been silenced, but it now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”
Miller echoed Trump’s remarks, saying the forces behind Kirk’s death underestimated the movement they galvanized.
“They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble,” Miller said.
Other leaders also highlighted Kirk’s influence.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary Marco Rubio noted his ability to connect with students on college campuses and encourage civil dialogue, according to WGAL.
“There’s a ladder that reaches up towards God. At the bottom of it are the ordinary good things that are around us everywhere. If we can call them by their names they have being. The beings of the good things are figments of God… A good thing is a thing that has being. An assassin is not a thing that has being. The assassin must give up his humanity to destroy something that has being. Charlie lives on. The assassin will die,” Dr. Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College said.