Trump capitalizes on the murder of far-right influencer Charlie Kirk to fuel hatred against the left.

WashingtonPresident Donald Trump's first words after the murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk They spoke of "grief" and "anger." He unleashed them Wednesday night in a recorded Oval Office speech that, however, he never made. the assassination of a Democratic congresswoman in June. Just as he did after the attack in Butler, as he himself recounts, during the election campaign, the US president has used Kirk's death to capitalize on it against the left and fuel hate speech against progressive positions that try to curb his agenda. Trump uses it to justify cracking down on the opposition and puts progressive organizations in his sights, although the FBI has not yet identified the perpetrator of the crime or his motivations.

"For years, the radical left has equated wonderful Americans like Charlie with Nazis and the worst serial killers. This type of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism we have seen in our country today. My administration will find every one of these people who have contributed to this atrocity and other types of violence: our judges, law enforcement officers, and anyone who brings order to our country," said Trump, who cited as examples the attack on him in Butler and the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December. But he made no reference to the assassination of the Democratic state congresswoman or the death threats against fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

A legacy that will endure "for countless generations"

When Joe Biden spoke after the Butler attack, he didn't use the term "rage." Nor did he point to potential culprits. The then-Democratic president's speech, despite being longer and addressed to the nation, didn't use these terms. Trump did, and in a much shorter speech: four minutes.

"A murderer tried to silence you with a bullet, but he failed, because together we will ensure that your voice, your message, and your legacy live on for countless generations," Trump said. Kirk had earned a place in the Trumpist court thanks to his influence among the younger bases of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, which had also made him a voice heard within the White House. During the presidential elections, the work of his Turning Point Action platform, as well as his role as influencer, played a key role in gaining the youth vote in favor of the Republicans.

Thanks to her talks on the country's college campuses, with which she sought to spread conservative ideology among students, Kirk gained ground in the MAGA orbit. The far-right activist gained a degree of fame thanks to her provocative attitude, arguing that deaths from mass shootings were a lesser evil. "I think it's worth having a few gun deaths each year to continue to uphold the Second Amendment [which protects the right to bear arms]. It's a prudent compromise. It's rational," she said at a 2023 event. Kirk also took it upon herself to stir up the EO's electoral firepower. At an event in Tempe, Arizona, she gathered dozens of young people in their early twenties who applauded her words. "I am convinced there was fraud in 2020," one of the attendees told this reporter. Kirk was not alone on stage; she also chatted for a long time with the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.

Trump's speech deepens the fracture in American society, where political violence is increasingly the order of the day. The president uses inflammatory rhetoric and lets his followers point the finger at the Democratic Party. Stephen Miller, Trump's trusted advisor and ideologue of the deportation campaign, didn't even need to mention the left and simply spoke of an "evil ideology." "It is an ideology that has been steadily growing in this country and hates everything good, just, and beautiful, and celebrates everything deformed, twisted, and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless," Miller explained in a long post. And he concluded: "The fate of millions of people depends on the defeat of this evil ideology."

A Deeper Divide

The response of Trump and his supporters to the murder does not indicate a move toward a de-escalation of tensions, but rather portends a polarization led from the White House. Beyond the urgent speech, the president has also announced that he will posthumously award the activist the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the United States. To this end, Trump will organize a ceremony that will likely serve as a stage for Trump supporters to formalize Kirk's canonization as a political martyr.

In a context in which Trump has shamelessly militarized Los Angeles and Washington—contradicting the law in the first case and using the pretext of alleged insecurity in the second—the future scenario following Kirk's murder gives the president much more leeway to justify new authoritarian actions. Other prominent Trumpist figures are already calling for the persecution and closure of left-wing organizations.

"It's time for the Trump administration to shut down, cut funds, and persecute all left-wing organizations. The left is a threat to national security," posted Laura Loomer, another influencer An ultraconservative who, like Kirk, has direct connections to the White House. In April, he met with Trump to ask him to remove Michael Waltz over the Signalgate scandal. A month after the meeting, Trump dismissed Waltz as National Security Advisor.

Christopher F. Rufo, another of the most influential voices within the conservative movement, cited former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as an example to emulate. Hoover was known for his use of counterintelligence to persecute the US Communist Party during the 40 years he led the agency. "The last time the radical left orchestrated a wave of violence and terror, J. Edgar Hoover shut it down in just a few years. It is time, within the limits of the law, to infiltrate, break in, arrest, and imprison all those responsible for this chaos," Rufo wrote. Cointelpro's history includes the harassment and wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr.