The US rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk, who has been murdered at the age of 31 by a sniper at a speaking event at Utah Valley University, enjoyed an influence far greater than his years or his lack of formal public service would suggest. A fluent debater and effective organiser, not least on college campuses, he stood for the darker themes of the newly resurgent US nativism that have accumulated around the US president Donald Trump, who called him a “martyr for truth”.
At recent Republican conventions Kirk was a conservative star, and he had a direct line to Trump through being a frequent visitor to both the White House and Mar-a-Lago, the president’s base in Florida. Though not a household name outside America, in the US he was well known enough to have been recently satirised by the animated TV show South Park, along with Trump, JD Vance and the secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem.
