GLENDALE: President Donald Trump hailed slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a “martyr for American freedom” on Sunday and vowed at his memorial service to carry on his work, while again accusing what he called the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder.

“The violence comes largely from the left,” Trump said without citing any evidence, in remarks that downplayed political violence from the right and often turned starkly partisan in contrast to the more solemn tone that most other speakers adopted.

Trump has been blaming the left for the deadly shooting before a suspect was even detained. His messaging reflected the dual nature of Kirk’s memorial, which had the feel of a religious revival mixed with a “Make America Great Again” rally.

The memorial, organised by Kirk’s conservative youth advocacy organisation Turning Point USA, drew tens of thousands of mourners dressed in red, white and blue who filled State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Kirk’s friends and fellow conservatives praised him as an inspirational Christian who founded a political movement they promised to nurture. Some political figures cast Kirk’s death as a pivotal moment in the conservative movement, exhorting followers to finish the work he began in sometimes aggressive language.

US president and Musk sit together, months after messy split

“We will carry Charlie and Erika in our heart every single day, and fight that much harder because of what you did to us,” Stephen Miller, the powerful White House adviser, said in a fiery speech. “You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilisation, to save the West, to save the republic.”

Trump and Musk sit side-by-side

Donald Trump sat side-by-side with billionaire Elon Musk, a once trusted advisor with whom the US president had a spectacular public falling out, at a memorial event for right-wing leader Charlie Kirk on Sunday.

Trump chatted in a manner that appeared friendly with Musk, who once led the Republican’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which took a hatchet to the US federal workforce and agencies when the Republican took office for his second term.

The pair sat in the stands of a stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where tens of thousands had gathered to pay tribute to Kirk, who was shot dead on Sept 10 at a Utah university campus.

Video of the two sharing a handshake was shared by the official White House account on social media platform X, which Musk owns. Musk donated more than $270 million to Trump’s presidential campaign, barnstorming key battleground states for the Republican.

After the election, he oversaw the launch of the DOGE, a controversial initiative that eliminated thousands of government jobs deemed by the agency to be part of a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse. But Musk broke with Trump over the White House’s flagship tax and spending bill, which Musk called “utterly insane and destructive.”

After the falling out, Musk went as far as to announce he was launching his own “America First” party, but little has materialized so far. Musk on his X account posted an image of him and Trump sitting together at the memorial, captioning it: “For Charlie.”

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2025