President Donald Trump quickly veered off-course as he took the stage to memorialize his close ally Charlie Kirk on Sunday.
Trump’s lengthy speech at the massive Arizona memorial for the slain conservative firebrand started with hailing Kirk as “our greatest evangelist for American liberty,” but soon turned into a sprawling soliloquy on tariffs, “radical left maniacs,” and the Make America Healthy Again movement, among a host of other topics.
Trump remembered Kirk as a conservative who sought to bridge gaps with those on the opposite side of the political spectrum, but admitted that he did not share that trait with his late friend.
“He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry,” Trump said as the crowd broke out into laughter.
Kirk’s conservative youth organization Turning Point USA was pivotal to Trump’s rise to power. His eponymous podcast, where he regularly pushed right-wing ideology, saw him rise to the top of MAGAworld and earned him exclusive access to the president’s inner circle.
In his speech, Trump began to veer when claiming that his on-again, off-again tariffs were “making us rich again, richer than anybody ever thought was possible” and patted himself on the back for sending the National Guard to Washington, D.C.
“What a difference good management makes. I’m so proud of that,” he said, adding that he was eyeing Chicago next to get the Democratic stronghold “straightened out.”
The president also launched into a diatribe against his predecessor Joe Biden as he touted the success of his MAGA agenda.
“When Joe Biden used to get up, remember the speeches? ‘We will stop MAGA.’ You know, he could barely get the words out,” Trump said of Biden. “Can somebody inform him that MAGA means Make America Great Again? How do you say you’re going to stop him? And Charlie understood that.”
The packed memorial in Glendale featured a star-studded guest list, including conservative commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Benny Johnson, as well as administration officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump nodded to Kennedy as he teased a big announcement, vaguely referencing “an answer to autism” that he said would be made public at the Oval Office on Monday.
The president also slammed Kirk’s suspected killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a “radicalized, cold-blooded monster” shortly after the activist’s widow, Erika, left the stage.
Trump took another veiled swipe at his political opponents on “the left,” which he has repeatedly blamed for Kirk’s killing despite Justice Department investigators’ admission to NBC News that it has so far failed to find evidence connecting Robinson to left-wing groups.
“No side in American politics has a monopoly on disturbed or misguided people, but there’s one part of our political community which believes they have a monopoly on truth, goodness and virtue,” he said, adding that Kirk’s death was “the eventual consequence of that kind of thinking.”
According to a criminal indictment filed last week, Robinson texted his roommate and romantic partner—a man transitioning to a woman—that he had “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred.” DOJ sources told NBC that there was “every indication... that this was one guy who did one really bad thing because he found Kirk’s ideology personally offensive.”
Trump concluded his speech by bringing Erika back up to the stage, where they shared an embrace as the crowd cheered them on.
Erika, 36, was elevated to the helm of Turning Point USA last week upon her late husband’s wishes. In contrast to Trump, she struck a softer tone with Robinson.
“That young man. I forgive him,” she said in a teary tribute. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
