Charlie Kirk memorial service marks ‘turning point’ for U.S. political-cultural-media establishment

Special to CosmicTribune.com, September 22, 2025

Over 100,000 people packed State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday for the memorial service honoring conservative youth organizer Charlie Kirk, and many millions more were in overflow areas and watching online worldwide.

But the scale of the occasion went far beyond an “old time revival” cited by President Trump in his remarks. All major leaders from his cabinet including the secretaries of the State Dept., the War Dept., the Education Dept., Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice were front and center, many as speakers.

President Donald Trump consoles Erika Kirk at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk on Sept. 21, 2025 / Video Image

In his remarks, Tump noted that massive demonstrations and vigils following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Kirk had taken place worldwide including Seoul, London and Berlin.

In short, the shooting death of a major influencer of American youth dismissed and often disparaged by the nation’s elites was far more significant than initially thought.

At his memorial service, Charlie Kirk’s death was hailed as indeed a “Turning Point” for the USA and its post-World War II globalist political-cultural-media establishment.

Veteran journalist and Free Press Foundation Advisory Board member Christine Dolan said of Sunday’s event: “Impressive turnout and production. Can you imagine the conversations in legacy suites?”

The event was “expected to be a reaffirmation of the Make America Great Again movement started by President Donald Trump and not a national unity event to reach out to critics, according to some close to Kirk’s group,” Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted earlier.

Indeed, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several members of their administration delivered impassioned remarks on behalf of Kirk and his part in the MAGA movement.

Steve Bannon said on Friday that the event is being considered a “MAGA state funeral,” focused entirely on what Kirk’s groups did to build the base of conservative youth voters and challenge Leftist indoctrination on college campuses.

[View Sunday’s memorial on Rumble here.]

But a national unity event it isn’t, Bannon added.

“The reason is simple,” Bedard noted. “It is impossible to join with left-wing politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have attacked Kirk’s legacy and activists who cheered Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.”

On the other hand, the most riveting moment of the memorial came when Kirk’s widow Erika noted that her husband “wanted to save young men just like the ones who took his life.”

“That young man I forgive him,” she said through her tears.

Meanwhile, longtime Democrat and retired West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin issued a reality check for Democrats: “I’m really hoping. I believe in him,” Manchin said of Trump. “I believe he can do that, and with that being said, he’s able to calm down all this rhetoric right now. And for those who want to still spew it? That’s fine, it’s gonna show you being on the extreme.”

When she saw him in the hospital following the shooting, Kirk looked “like he’d died happy,” Erika Kirk was quoted as saying in an interview with the New York Times on Sunday.

“His eyes were semi-open,” Erika Kirk told the newspaper. “And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven.”

Erika Kirk said Trump called her twice since her husband’s assassination and said, “just let us know how we can support you.”

“I told him, ‘My husband just loved conversing with you and using you as a sounding board for all sorts of things. Could we continue that?’ And he said, ‘Of course,’ ” Erika Kirk recalled.

In her remarks on Sept. 21, she concluded that “the answer to hate is not hate. It is always love.” Campus debates will continue, she vowed.

Discussing Sunday’s funeral on The Sean Spicer Show, Bannon said: “This is not a moment of national unity. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Andrew Breitbart and Charlie Kirk, and both of those are generational talents. They cannot be replaced. And people run around trying to replace them, you’re just wasting your time. These guys come along once a generation.”

The night before Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University, he and Erika had dinner with a friend in the Phoenix area who was a faith leader, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper reported that the purpose of the meal was to pray for Charlie’s upcoming “The American Comeback Tour” of college campuses.

During the dinner, Erika Kirk suggested to her husband that he start wearing a bulletproof vest, while the friend mentioned he could start speaking behind bulletproof glass, according to The New York Times.

“Not yet,” the newspaper quoted Kirk as saying, adding that – despite receiving numerous death threats over the past year – he felt confident in his security team and that there would be additional security measures in place at the Utah Valley University event.

  

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