Charlie Kirk’s Death Was a Singular Tragedy, But It Represented a Much Deadlier Trend All Americans Should Fear

One year ago, on Sept. 10, 2025, the most horrific political assassination in the United States in the 21st century occurred: At Utah Valley University, a bullet cut down Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at the age of 31.

Kirk’s killing, allegedly at the hands of a leftist in a homosexual relationship with a transgender individual who hated Kirk for his views on LGBT issues, was a singular event in the U.S. body politic. But, unfortunately, it didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Since Donald Trump won his first term in 2016, threats of violence have become normalized on the left. This was true even among celebrities. Kathy Griffin infamously held up the effigial bloody head of Trump for a magazine photo shoot. Madonna, during a profanity-sodden tirade at the Women’s March in January of 2017, said that she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”

These celebs had no intention of following through, one assumes. The people that did were called antifa — a loose coalition of far-left thugs that intermittently terrorized conservatives during the first Trump administration.

They were lauded by the media and the rest of the left, however. We were often told that “antifa” meant “anti-fascist,” and if you were anti-anti-fascist, what did that make you, hmm?

Then came the annus horribilis of 2020. After the death of George Floyd, riots were allowed to break out in every major city. While people had been locked down and forbidden from even seeing friends or going to school, rioting in the name of “protest” was suddenly allowed because apparently, not rioting in the name of George Floyd was a public health crisis of its own.

Riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a black man named Jacob Blake was shot by police while he was reaching for a weapon were called “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” by CNN. It was only when a young man named Kyle Rittenhouse defended himself against the protesters by firing back at some attacking him did they start caring about the violence.

They then stopped again until Jan. 6, 2021 — at which point the Capitol incursion became the only kind of political violence they cared about. It was inflated and bloviated about, over and over. But America moved on, and leftist thugs did, too.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, anti-Semitic mobs took over college campuses, terrorizing Jewish students and shutting down classes. Leftist university officials were loath to intervene, and even seemed to take the side of the anti-Semitic rabblement at times.

Only after Khymani James, a leader of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, said that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” did the university do anything to intervene in his case, for instance. As for the rest of CUAD, they let them slide — even defending one of its most infamous members, Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian terror sympathizer who the second Trump administration is attempting to deport.

Meanwhile, while the pro-Hamas anti-Semitic mob was still burning strong, there was Trump’s second presidential campaign, in which he faced not one, but two assassination attempts. He survived, although there were plenty of prominent people who weren’t happy about it. This came after a 2022 attempt on the life of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as well.

Shortly after Trump’s election came the case of Luigi Mangione, the man who has now pleaded guilty to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December of 2024.

Mangione became the subject of hero worship for killing a husband and father, apparently because he was an executive with a big capitalistic company which also happened to be a health insurance company. Even Taylor Lorenz, the independent journalist formerly of The Washington Post, called him a “morally good person” in interviews.

“It’s hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching their pearls about someone stanning a murderer when this is the United States of America — as if we don’t lionize criminals,” she told CNN. “As if we don’t stan murderers of all sorts. We give them Netflix shows.”

“You’re gonna see women especially that feel like, ‘Oh my God, here’s this man who’s a revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart, he’s a person that seems like this morally good man,’ which is hard to find,” she added.

Independent journalist @TaylorLorenz on what media is getting wrong about Luigi Mangione fans.

Tonight on MisinfoNation: Extreme American 8p ET and PT on @CNN https://t.co/gMKMhdRmnr pic.twitter.com/JZJAJSMcnh

— Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) April 13, 2025

“I do believe in the sanctity of life, and I think that’s why I felt, along with so many other Americans, joy, unfortunately” when Thompson was killed, she told Piers Morgan.

Asked by Morgan whether she felt joy “at a man’s execution,” her response? “Maybe not joy, but certainly not empathy.”

JUST IN: Taylor Lorenz giggles and says she felt “joy” when Brian Thompson, a husband, father, and CEO of UHC was k*lled. pic.twitter.com/Y57NTWfM6C

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 9, 2024

Prosecutors alleged there was a copycat crime in the man who allegedly set the Palisades blaze in California that claimed 12 lives, although his case ended in a mistrial in June. He also, apparently, worshipped Mangione.

Then came Charlie Kirk’s murder and the people who celebrated it. When they faced consequences for celebrating, liberals were appalled:

Conservatives are building lists and trying to get people fired for their reactions to Charlie Kirk’s murder.

But that’s not surprising. Everyone with cultural power eventually uses it to try to cancel their opponents. In the end we’re all pro-cancellation. pic.twitter.com/aTUQ05hVl4

— Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns) September 17, 2025

Meanwhile, the number of liberals calling for murder certainly hasn’t receded since Trump got elected for a second term, either. It includes a former FBI director, for example:

Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered.

This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!! pic.twitter.com/4LUK6crHAT

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 15, 2025

It also includes the new face of the left, Hasan “America Deserves 9/11” Piker. He’s beloved by the media and even campaigns with major candidates. Yet, here’s how he rose to fame:

WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers will find offensive.

65 times Hasan Piker endorsed political violence and terrorism: pic.twitter.com/lkBEghr8at

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) April 26, 2026

And Piker isn’t just some random streamer. Without him, Abdul El-Sayed would probably not be the Senate nominee for the Democratic Party in Michigan.

Meanwhile, we have a new set of morally entitled rioters, this time “protesting” against Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcing immigration and customs law. Radical socialists no longer just terrorize conservative activists or Jewish students, and they’ll soon be walking the halls of Congress in greater numbers. We’ve had another attempt on the life of the president. And this shows no signs of letting up. If anything, it’s getting worse.

Kirk’s assassination was an outlier in the horrors it wrought and the consequences it has brought upon the American body politic. As many people have put it, it showed the left they could kill our future presidents long before they even ran for office.

But make no mistake: This was not isolated in any way. It was a long time in coming, and the signs were there for anybody who bothered looking. Instead, our national media covered it up for the Democrats, and we have reaped the whirlwind of that sin.

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