President Donald Trump paid emotional tribute to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Friday, calling him “sort of like a son” hours after announcing that authorities had captured a suspect in the shocking assassination.
“They said, ‘Charlie Kirk is dead.’ I didn’t know what they meant,” Trump recounted in a wide-ranging interview addressing the killing of the 32-year-old Turning Point USA co-founder. “I said, ‘What do you mean, dead?’ ‘Charlie Kirk was shot…’ I just told these people, ‘Get out. Just go.'”
The president confirmed during a Friday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the alleged shooter — identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah — is now in custody. “I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody,” Trump stated before officials formally announced the arrest at a press conference.
A Movement Cut Short
Trump’s relationship with Kirk, who was a close friend of Vice President JD Vance, clearly ran deep. “Don said to me, ‘He’s sort of like a son to you,'” Trump revealed, referring to a conversation with his son. “He started this really during what would normally be college… and it’s become a movement… I’ve never seen young people, or any group, go to one person like they did to Charlie.”
Authorities indicated that Robinson had political motivations and was captured following an investigation aided by family members. The killing marks another disturbing instance of political violence in an increasingly tense national climate.
How should Americans respond to such violence? “You have to go forward. You just have to go forward. You watch as closely as you can,” Trump advised, urging supporters to channel their feelings through democratic means. “You want revenge at the voter box.”
National Guard Headed to Memphis
During the same interview, Trump announced plans to deploy the National Guard to Memphis to combat rising crime rates. “We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,” he explained. “The mayor is happy and the governor of Tennessee, the governor is happy… We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”
The president touted his administration’s “Make D.C. Safe Again” initiative as a template for the Memphis intervention. “Look at what we did in D.C. We took D.C. — probably the single-worst place in the country in terms of the country — [and now] there’s no crime. It’s a crime-free area,” he claimed.
Trump didn’t mince words about what he sees as the source of urban crime problems. “Almost every city that’s in trouble is run by Democrats. Cashless bail is a disaster… has to be ended immediately,” he declared.
Unity Through Success
Despite the somber context, Trump struck an optimistic tone about the country’s direction, particularly regarding the economy. “The only thing that’s going to bring us together is tremendous success,” he asserted.
“I love doing it because we’re going to Make America Great Again — it’s happening. Look at the stock market. We’ve had the stock market hitting record highs… never been higher,” Trump boasted, though he took a swipe at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, dubbing him “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell” for what Trump considers delayed interest rate adjustments.
The administration’s America First trade agenda also received attention. “We’ve been successful because of the tariffs. It’s given us a great power to negotiate with other countries that took advantage of us — tremendous power,” he emphasized. “Also, it has brought billions of dollars into the country.”
Political Challenges
Trump expressed frustration with Senate Democrats for blocking his administration appointments. “We have 200 people that left their jobs in order to come into the Administration, and the Democrats are blocking every one,” he complained, adding with characteristic hyperbole: “If I had George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — they came back from the dead and they wanted to go into the Administration — Schumer would not approve them.”
In a more controversial moment, Trump suggested legal action against progressive donor George Soros. “We’re going to look into Soros because I think it’s a RICO case against him and other people because this is more than protests. This is real agitation; this is riots on the street — and we’re going to look into that,” he stated.
On foreign policy, Trump indicated growing impatience with the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His patience is “sort of running out and running out fast,” he admitted, though he acknowledged blame on both sides: “When Putin wants to do it, Zelensky didn’t. When Zelensky wanted to do it, Putin didn’t… We’re going to have to come down very, very strong.”
Despite the grim circumstances surrounding Kirk’s death, Trump found moments of normalcy to highlight, including attending a New York Yankees game on the anniversary of 9/11. “It was like the old days… We had a good time — and the fans were really nice… We got a tremendous applause because they love the country,” he recalled.
As the nation grapples with yet another political assassination, Trump’s message to Americans seemed to balance vigilance with resilience — acknowledging the pain of Kirk’s loss while urging the country to move forward through democratic channels rather than retaliatory violence.
