Who was Charlie Kirk? MAGA youth leader, Turning Point USA founder, shot dead at 31

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the age of Donald Trump, leveraging an audience of millions of fervent conservative fans and fierce liberal critics to create a youth-oriented movement on the right.

His specialty was debate sessions, especially at college campuses, in which he took on liberal opponents, often creating moments that went viral and captured audiences across the political spectrum.

It was during one such session on Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, where Mr Kirk, 31, was shot and killed, sending shockwaves through Mr Trump’s base of supporters and beyond.

Mr Trump confirmed Mr Kirk’s death in a statement on social media, a sign of his importance to the President’s political movement.

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

The shooting happened on the first stop of Mr Kirk’s latest series, the American Comeback Tour, during which Mr Kirk sat with a microphone under a tent labelled “Prove Me Wrong.”

That was a regular format for Mr Kirk, one in which groups of young people, thousands at times, would gather to listen to him debate students on issues ranging from affirmative action to transgender rights.

Turning Point quickly grew in recent years from a controversial student movement rebuking feminism and diversity initiatives to one of the most active groups in conservative politics. Its growth came as once-mighty conservative groups like CPAC and the NRA suffered leadership scandals and diminished followings, while attendance at Turning Point’s student summits skyrocketed.

Mr Kirk has for years had a warm relationship with Mr Trump, which deepened after the November election.

Mr Kirk was a regular presence at Mar-a-Lago last winter during Mr Trump’s transition - at times taking part in meetings about potential Cabinet picks, according to people who were present at the club at the time.

He spearheaded a pro-Trump get-out-the-vote operation in 2024 that mobilised thousands of field workers in swing states across the country. Turning Point Action’s field operation was one of several that Mr Trump’s team relied on as it slimmed down its own canvassing effort.

Through the first seven months of Mr Trump’s second term, Mr Kirk remained in touch with the President and top aides, particularly about issues that were dividing the MAGA base, such as efforts to avoid deporting undocumented immigrants in certain industries, including agriculture and hospitality.

That was among the topics Mr Kirk regularly fired up his audience to raise their voices about - warning that the Trump administration should not “grant amnesty” to any immigrants in the country unlawfully, while also keeping in touch with Mr Trump and his team and seeking to calm tempers among MAGA followers.

Mr Kirk was influential in drumming up support for the ouster of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, Mr Trump’s first handpicked chair of the party, who had remained in the position after Mr Trump left office.

Despite Ms McDaniel’s reelection in January 2023, Mr Kirk continued to apply pressure against her - recruiting new RNC members aligned with Turning Point and even holding a rival RNC winter meeting days before the party’s regularly scheduled meeting in January 2024.

There, Mr Kirk and Turning Point officials claimed that the RNC wasn’t adequately prepared to get out the vote in the November election.

Within a week, Mr Trump had called on Ms McDaniel to resign, a victory for Mr Kirk.

Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest - among a slate of other periodic conferences held at convention centres around the country - has drawn large crowds of college-age students as Mr Trump and top right-wing officials and influencers have taken the stage.

Pyrotechnics, loud dance music and an energetic crowd were the markers of the conferences, where Mr Kirk and others in the organisation urged students to embrace conservative politics.

Mr Kirk toured college campuses for combative public debates, in which he jousted on stage with his mostly liberal questioners.

In September, he starred in a viral debate video on the YouTube channel Jubilee, titled “Can 25 Liberal College Students Outsmart 1 Conservative?” that was been viewed more than 30 million times.

On TikTok, where he has more than 7 million followers, Mr Kirk’s account posted a video taken minutes before the shooting showing him commenting on the size of the crowd.

“That’s a lot of people, Utah, I tell you what,” he said.

“We’re gonna be here for a couple hours. Get comfortable. Bring the best libs Utah has to offer.”

Hasan Piker, a left-wing influencer scheduled to debate Mr Kirk in two weeks at Dartmouth College, processed the shooting in real time on Wednesday afternoon on his Twitch stream.

“This is the ultimate fear for a political commentator. This is it. This is the thing you don’t want happening. This is the thing you never want happening. This is what a lot of people fantasise happening to me all the ... time,” he said.

Mr Kirk reached millions of followers through his “Charlie Kirk Show” podcast on Instagram, Rumble and YouTube, on which he spoke often about gun violence and American crime.