Conservative influencer and US President Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk's death on Wednesday (local time) has sparked heated debates across the political spectrum.
Speaking at the Utah Valley University (UVU) as a part of his American Comeback Tour despite online opposition against him doing so, Kirk was killed by a single gunshot wound to the neck.
Kirk has made headlines for his charged statements, often facing backlash for them too. Here are 5 controversial statements the highly-polarising figure made over the years before his death:
That the right to carry guns was 'worth' the cost of gun deaths
Following a mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2023 that killed 3 children and 3 adults, he reasoned at a Turning Point USA event that just like driving cars continued to be a right despite car crashes, carrying guns should be a right, despite gun violence.
Charlie Kirk: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”https://t.co/uoM6TqnAgJ pic.twitter.com/mbJSa2Lzmi
— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 6, 2023
"Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty ... So we need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen ... I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational," he said, as per a Newsweek report.
That the 2020 elections were rigged
Following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, Donald Trump had furiously alleged that the elections were rigged against him by means of voter fraud.
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Kirk is known to have supported this statement, a Reuters report said.
That the Democrats were anti-God
During a 2024 appearance with Donald Trump in Georgia—at which time the latter was again a Republican candidate in the presidential elections, this time running opposite Democrat candidate Kamala Harris—Kirk claimed that Democrats "stand for everything God hates".
"This is a Christian state. I'd like to see it stay that way, he told the people, reframing the Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris contest as a "spiritual battle".
That Islam had 'conquest values'
In April this year, Kirk made headlines yet again for taking aim at Muslim politicians in America—such as Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh—and Islam as a whole.
"Islam has conquest values. They seek to take over land and territory, and Europe is now a conquered continent."
That a Democratic lawmaker supported ethnic cleansing efforts
In a podcast episode dated August 2025, Kirk accused Democratic lawmaker Jasmine Crockett—who is Black—of being part of "(an) attempt to eliminate the white population in this country", a Reuters report said.
The report added that in saying so, Kirk had echoed conspiracy theories popular among white nationalists.
