OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:44 PM – Sunday, September 21, 2025
Numerous Trump administration cabinet members spoke during Charlie Kirk’s memorial in Arizona, amplifying Kirk’s message while sharing personal stories.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard spoke about Kirk’s opposition, and how he was able to overcome the institutionalized biases that have infiltrated every college campus in the United States.
Gabbard began by discussing leftist ideology that stamps out dissenting voices using censorship and social pressure.
“And those who speak of God, those who speak the truth, simple objective truths, like there are only two genders in these schools, they are told, ‘You have no voice.’ Charlie chose this arena to take these people head-on. To challenge these institutions, these students and faculty — encouraging them to come, to speak honestly. Bring your ideas, debate loudly, and think critically,” Gabbard stated.
“And Charlie did this so well, he was winning. So much winning, so much so that the forces of darkness, hate, and evil, were threatened by him and tried to silence him. History shows this dark pattern that when ideas can not withstand scrutiny, whether it’s the ideology of so-called religious fanatics or political fanatics, their defenders — terrified that their weak ideas will be exposed for what they are — turn to intimidation, censorship, and violence,” she continued.
“They kill and terrorize their opponents, hoping to silence them. But in this evil that we have experienced, that Charlie faced, their flawed ideology is exposed. By trying to silence Charlie, his voice is now louder than ever. His message is more powerful and impactful than ever. The truth he spoke has spread a hundred-fold,” Gabbard added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed Gabbard, preaching about Kirk’s firm belief in Jesus Christ.
Rubio began by discussing Kirk’s “deep belief that we were all created — every single one of us before the beginning of time by the hands of the God of the universe. An all-powerful God, who loved us and created us for the purpose of living with him in eternity. But then sin entered the world and separated us from our creator.”
“And so God took on the form of a man, and came down and lived among us, and he suffered like men, and he died like a man. But on the third day he rose unlike any mortal man. And to prove any doubters wrong, he ate with his disciples so they could see, and they touched his wounds. He didn’t rise as a ghost or as a spirit but as flesh. And then he rose to the Heaven but he promised he would return, and he will.”
“And when he returns, because he took on that death, because he carried that cross, we were freed from the sin that separated us from him. And when he returns, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and we will all be together, and we are going to have a great reunion with Charlie, and all the people we love,” Rubio added.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth followed Rubio, calling on Americans to live as Kirk did, and “live worthy of Charlie Kirk’s sacrifice, and put Christ at the center of your life as he advocated for giving his.”
“Charlie Kirk, a patriot, conservative, a leader, a builder, an advocate, an author, a lover of freedom. A husband, a father, a Christian, and a warrior. You see, Charlie Kirk was a true believer, for the cause of freedom, for the power of young people, belief in our republic and our founding principles, in America first, and in make America great again.”
“But more importantly, he was a true believer, only Christ is king, our lord and savior,” Hegseth added. “Charlie has heard the words echoing now in Heaven. Well done, good and faithful servant. Charlie will take it from here.”
Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. closed out Trump’s cabinet, in which he recounted one of the first conversations he had with Kirk.
“One of my first conversations with Charlie in July of 2021, we were talking about the risks that all of us take when we challenge interests, the physical risk. And he asked me if I was scared of dying. And I said to him, ‘There’s a lot worse things than death, and one of those things is if we lost our constitutional rights in this country and that our children were raised as slaves,’” Kennedy stated.
Kennedy went on to state that Kirk believed “that we should strive to live our lives in perfect imitation of Christ. That we should turn every day and every moment and every interaction into a prayer.”
“Charlie understood the great paradox that is only by surrender to God, that God can flow into our lives and make us effective human beings. Christ died at 33 years old, but he changed the trajectory of history. Charlie died at 31 years old, but because he surrendered, he also changed the trajectory of history,” Kennedy continued.
“A few years ago, my brother David died, and I asked my mother, ‘Does the hole that they leave in you when they die, does it ever get any smaller?’ And she said to me it never gets any smaller, but our job is to grow ourselves bigger around the hole. And we do that by taking the best qualities the best most admirable character traits of the person that died, and integrate them with restraint, with discipline, with practice into our own character. In doing that, we make ourselves larger and the hole gets proportionately smaller. We also give a kind of immortality to the person who left us because their work continues through us,” Kennedy added.
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