Speaking from the Oval Office Wednesday night, President Donald Trump vowed that his administration will “catch each and every one of those who contributed” to the assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, as well as any left-wing organizations that have funded and supported political violence.
“This is a dark moment for America,” the president said. “Charlie Kirk traveled the nation joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever, to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense. On campuses nationwide, he championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor and grace.”
It’s long past time for all Americans in the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree. Day after day, year after year in the most hateful and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.
And it must stop right now.
My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.
From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year—which killed a husband and father—to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.
The president beckoned all Americans to “commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie lived and died: the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God.”
“Charlie was the best of America and the monster who attacked him was attacking out whole country,” Trump added.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump ordered flags on public buildings to be flown at half staff Sunday evening, in honor of Kirk.
As a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, September 14, 2025.
I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.