Trump needs to tamp down Charlie Kirk fire, not pour gasoline on it | Opinion
It’s no secret that I have often been disappointed by the words and deeds of President Donald Trump.
But on this, the day after the killing of Charlie Kirk, I am more disappointed than ever before. Wednesday’s shooting was a test of leadership, and the president missed the moment.
The shooting is obviously tragic, leaving behind a widow and two orphaned children. A manhunt is underway to try to find the killer.
My fervent hope is that the person of interest — described as a college-age male who was able to blend in with students on the Orem, Utah, college campus where the shooting occurred — is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.
That, and that the two people who were arrested Wednesday shortly after the shooting (later cleared of any responsibility) will be able to go back their normal lives, despite their names and pictures being splashed across social media — and in one case, being prematurely accused as a murderer by FBI Director Kash Patel. Patel errantly and irresponsibly tweeted “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” before having to walk it back two hours later.
Patel was right that the attack was horrific. And it played in full-color video on social media, where anyone who wanted could watch Kirk’s life spill out onto his T-shirt after the bullet struck him in the neck (I don’t recommend it).
Which brings me to my disappointment with Trump. In the wake of the murder, Democrats and Republicans alike expressed shock and sadness.
The president’s national address Wednesday night could have been a unifying moment, to pull us back from the dark precipice of political violence, to remind us that we are all Americans and we are all in this together.
Unfortunately, Trump chose to push us into the abyss, a continuation of the dark right-versus-left, us-versus-them tribalist mentality that has marked so much of his time in public life:
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Bear in mind, he leapt to this conclusion and apportioned blame across about half of all Americans without knowing the identity of the gunman or the motive for the shooting.
AI-generated ‘Chipocalypse Now’
But Trump didn’t stop at laying blame without facts to back it up:
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
Wow.
If I had him here, I’d ask who he meant by “the organizations that fund it and support” political violence. Where does the president draw that line? Does it extend to all Democrats? Republicans like myself, who find his MAGA movement to hold repulsive, often totalitarian, attitudes toward racial and sexual minorities? Does it extend to media supporters of his own movement, who as you read this are calling for “war” against the “commies” and “libtards.”
The president made no mention of violence against Democrats, such as the killing three months ago of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the wounding of a state senator and his wife; or the Passover night arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence as he and his family slept inside.
Frankly, the single largest incident of political violence I can remember in this century was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, carried out by Trump’s own supporters, at his instigation, and for which he pardoned the perpetrators the first chance he got.
Also, let’s not forget that the shooting comes five days after Trump shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself on his Truth Social network, where he’s portrayed as the patently insane Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (played by Robert Duvall) in the Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now.” Labeled “Chipocalypse Now,” the image depicts military helicopters napalming Chicago, and is accompanied by this note from the president: “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” with three helicopter emojis.
In the absence of responsible national leadership, it is up to us, each as individuals, to bring down the temperature block by block, city by city.
Lessons of reaction to 9/11
If Trump wants to know how he should act in this kind of crisis situation, he could take a cue from Wichita mayors, past and present.
It’s ironic that I’m writing this on Sept. 11. On this day in 2001, I was at what was then Mid-Continent Airport, where 22 planes were ordered to land and 1,300 passengers stranded after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The passengers were confused, apprehensive and angry. Many were looking for someone to blame, someone to lash out at in their fear and frustration.
The terminal was in chaos when Mayor Bob Knight came on the PA system with the reassuring message that the city’s entire bus fleet had been diverted to the airport, and that the local hotels had been alerted and were preparing to meet everyone’s needs for food and lodging during the emergency. I remember watching the calm descend as people looked up at the ceiling, whispering “Thank you” to the loudspeakers.
On Wednesday, our current mayor, Lily Wu, addressed the Kirk shooting by posting this on Facebook:
“It’s a dark day for American democracy. Charlie Kirk‘s assassination is a tragic reminder of our increasingly polarized political environment. Free speech is under attack. Common sense is under attack. No matter how passionately we disagree, political violence has no place in our society. Respect for one another must be a universal value. Pray for Charlie and his family. Pray for America.”
Many commenters agreed with her, but too many others used the post as a springboard for the same old infighting and dehumanizing insults we’ve all heard before.
Our work is cut out for us.
The political organization Charlie Kirk founded is called Turning Point USA. And make no mistake about it, we are at a turning point.
In one direction lies a return to relative normalcy where we disagree, often vehemently, over politics — but we settle our differences through persuasion and compromise, not violent rhetoric or bullets.
In the other direction lies madness.
Choose wisely.
This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM.
