Charlie Kirk was a racist. Charlie Kirk was a transphobe. Charlie Kirk was a Nazi in every sense of the word. And this cultivator of hate is now dead.
Since his death, U.S. presidents, news media, and even sports franchises have anointed Kirk as a martyr for the cause of free speech and open debate. All have strongly condemned Kirk’s assassination as an “act of political violence.”
A bipartisan salute to fascism
It was unsurprising when Trump’s fascist Republican Party lionized Kirk as a hero and demanded swift, brutal justice for his killing. However, Trump and his fascist base have not been alone in their worship of Kirk. The entire ruling class has been united in their defense of Kirk in the wake of his death.
Joe Biden, former war criminal in chief, released a statement stating that “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.”
President Biden notably lacked this empathy for the tens of thousands of Palestinians that his administration murdered via the apartheid state of Israel
Barack Obama referred to Kirk’s killing as “despicable violence that has no place in our democracy.” The irony is thick: a man responsible for drone strikes in Pakistan that killed thousands of people, including dozens of children, strongly condemns the assassination of a prominent Nazi.
Praise of Kirk was not limited to U.S. capitalist politicians and demagogues. Benjamin Netanyahu described Kirk as a “lion-hearted friend of Israel.” Fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni declared Kirk’s death a “deep wound for democracy.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party declared there is “no justification for political violence.” Yet, his government joined a U.S. military offensive against Yemen for its solidarity with Palestine. When an Israeli airstrike — using British and U.S. support — assassinated Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi in August, that act of “political violence” was apparently justified.
Along with the political sphere, the entire media and the entire ruling class establishment have crowned Kirk as a champion of open debate whose life was tragically cut short. Since Kirk’s death, the New York Yankees, several NFL teams, and even McDonald’s have held some sort of display in commemoration of the slain fascist organizer. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, the New York Yankees, and McDonald’s would have us believe that Kirk was an innocent victim and a martyr for the cause of free speech.
He was no such thing.
So, who was Charlie Kirk? Who was this hero for free expression being deified across mainstream society? Charlie Kirk was a hateful racist and fascist. Kirk’s actions and statements over the years have made this reality abundantly clear.
Kirk’s role in the fascist movement was prominent and expansive. Understanding the current media campaign around Kirk’s fatal shooting requires an examination of his life and fascist beliefs. In 2019, Kirk founded “Turning Point USA,” an organization that has become the vanguard for the growth of Trumpism among Gen Z. Since then, Kirk has personally run and grown the organization into a national fascist mobilization operation. Turning Point USA’s core mission is the conversion of college students to MAGA ideology and Christian nationalism.
In the buildup to the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” march on Capitol Hill, Kirk announced that Turning Point USA would send 80 buses of young conservatives to the attempted Trump coup. Reports surfaced later that Turning Point USA also funneled significant funds to the organizers of the insurrection.
A record of racism, transphobia, and hate
Kirk’s support of Jan. 6 is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the years, Kirk pushed vicious fascist views on a number of issues. Shortly before his death, Kirk openly denied that Israel was committing any violence against civilians or children in Gaza. At one point on his tour of college campuses, Kirk went as far as to assert that “Palestine doesn’t exist.”
Kirk seemingly has an endless repertoire of violent, offensive statements. The Guardian newspaper compiled a list of Kirk’s positions on issues ranging from race to gender to immigration. On April 1, 2024, Kirk compared all gender-affirming health care clinics to German Nazi doctors, demanding that all gender affirming care providers be tried “Nuremberg style.” Later that year, Kirk implied that he would force his 10-year-old daughter to deliver a child conceived from rape.
One of Kirk’s greatest concerns was the very existence of the Black community. He targeted Black people with vicious, racist lies again and again. In the world of Charlie Kirk, one of the biggest problems in the U.S. was “prowling Blacks [who] go around for fun to target white people.”
Kirk often honed his attacks against Black women, declaring that Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson “stole their slot” from a white person. All of these anti-Black statements are patently lies, but that never stopped Kirk.
Anti-immigration also played a central role in Kirk’s ideology, as he was an explicit believer in “great replacement theory” – the idea that a Jewish and / or socialist conspiracy is underway in the U.S. to replace white people with Latine migrants. In 2024, Kirk boldly declared, “The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day on our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.”
Open debate was supposedly Kirk’s calling card. He consistently advocated for his own right to speak freely, while always trying to intimidate and silence ideological opponents.
He viciously attacked all of those who spoke against MAGA fascism or U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza. When Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayoral primary with popular demands around health care, education and against the genocide in Palestine, Kirk immediately unleashed his rage. Kirk tweeted, “24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now, a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.” The comparison between Mamdani and the attack on the World Trade Center is as incorrect as it is racist.
One unassailable conclusion is easily drawn from Kirk’s words and fascist activism. Charlie Kirk was an absolute and complete monster. Kirk held fascist values deeply in his soul and was a white nationalist preaching that white Western society was inherently superior to the rest of the world. This conception is foundational to Nazi ideology, dating back to Adolf Hitler. In Kirk’s own words: “Western civilization is the best that humanity has produced. It’s an outgrowth of the Bible.”
Given the mountain of evidence that demonstrates Kirk’s political nature, a question must be posed. Why is this fascist maniac being lionized and commemorated?
When progressive activists or even Democratic Party politicians are attacked or assassinated, they do not receive nearly the mass exultation that Kirk has in the past week. Donald Trump insisted that there were “fine people” within the neo-Nazi crowd that marched on Charlottesville in 2017 and murdered DSA member and anti-fascist activist Heather Heyer.
On June 14, 2025, Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband were murdered in their home by a MAGA terrorist, who also shot and seriously wounded Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
The mainstream political world was relatively calm when compared to the circus around Kirk. There was no moment of silence at Yankee Stadium. JD Vance did not visit the Hortman or Hoffman families. McDonald’s kept its flags at full mast.
Yet, the current reaction to Kirk’s death is reaching a complete fever pitch, with the right wing demanding retribution against the broad progressive movement. JD Vance hosted Charlie Kirk’s Monday podcast from the White House, promising there will be no unity with the “radical left.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is firing any Department of War staffer who posts negative statements about Kirk on social media. The billionaire class and their political mouthpieces have made clear that Charlie Kirk is now a figure of national salvation, not to be questioned nor criticized.
Widespread praise and outrage over Kirk’s death seem particularly ridiculous when analyzed in the context of current U.S. imperialist violence across the globe. Political hacks like Trump and Biden pour out tears for a Nazi agitator when their own policies murdered thousands upon thousands of children in Gaza. As these tears flow, the U.S.-backed project of Israel unleashes its ground offensive into Gaza City and renews the bombing of Yemen’s crucial Hodeidah port. These actions will directly or indirectly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
Even so, the billionaires and the politicians they bankroll cry no tears for the people of Palestine or Yemen.
They cry no tears for Venezuela or Cuba, which they have starved through sanctions for decades. The billionaire oligarchs and their flunkies cry no tears for the thousands of dead soldiers scattered across Ukraine, who die only for the profits of defense conglomerates. When it comes to a hateful Nazi organizer, the billionaires and their minions suddenly have boundless empathy.
The capitalist embrace of fascism
This unity of wealthy interests and political figures around Kirk is entirely based on capitalism’s current tendency to rely on fascist rhetoric and tactics to maintain control domestically and internationally. The last decade has seen several challenges to U.S. imperialism’s iron fist both at home and abroad. Russia has defied NATO aggression on its Western border. Yemen, Iran, and Gaza have refused to bow to the Zionist offensive. Burkina Faso expelled French and U.S. corporate interests.
Domestically, the entire country rebelled against racist police terror after the murder of George Floyd. This was the peak of a Black Lives Matter social movement that began over a decade ago with the murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner.
The U.S.-escalated genocide in Palestine also triggered a massive protest movement in the U.S. against imperialist war and genocide. College students built encampments. Pro-Palestinian organizations marched on D.C. The Jewish community showed its first sign of substantial internal division around Zionist apartheid for the first time since Israel’s founding.
The first Amazon labor union was formed. “Striketober” rocked the halls of power with its displays of cross-industry worker unity in 2021. Starbucks workers united not just to form a union, but to fight for Palestine.
Facing economic and political instability that threatens their profits, the capitalist class is once again looking at fascism. This is a historical tactic: In the 1920s, German and Italian industrialists supported Hitler and Mussolini to crush widespread strikes and suppress growing socialist movements, thereby maintaining their power and control.
Trump and Vance are playing that same role. The Trump era has seen the growth of fascist rhetoric. And as shown by the outpouring of love for this Nazi maniac, Charlie Kirk, the entire ruling class is united behind Trump’s fascist vision. This acceptance of fascism can be seen not just in Kirk’s anointment as national hero, but also in the Democratic Party’s response, or lack thereof, to Trump’s invasions of major cities. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass used the brutal LAPD and other local agencies against the anti-Trump rebellion that broke out after mass ICE raids. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has completely surrendered to Trump regarding the National Guard occupation of the capital city.
The fight ahead
There is no doubt that Trump and Vance and others will use Kirk’s death as pretext for already planned repressions against left-wing organizing. Now, more than ever, the working class must reject the lionization of individuals like Kirk. To accept the view of Kirk as a national hero is to accept the normalization of fascism.
Now is the time to reject the pernicious lies of Republicans and Democrats alike. Now is the time to fight for a better world, to fight for socialism.
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