Trump Jr. invokes Charlie Kirk assassination in last-minute plea to voters

Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son, invoked the 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in a Tuesday post urging voters to hit the polls before they close.

Trump Jr. posted an image on social platform X of Kirk speaking to a crowd, appearing to be from the same Utah Valley University event during which the commentator was fatally shot. Text above the photo read, “Vote Like the Other Side Will Kill You for Talking.”

“Vote like your lives, and the lives of your children depend, on it. BECAUSE THEY DO!!!” Trump Jr. captioned the post.

Kirk, the Trump ally who co-founded conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in September 2025 as he was speaking to a crowd of thousands in Orem, Utah. The assassination galvanized Republicans around the topic of political violence, with many — including the president — attributing violent rhetoric at the time to the “radical left.”

Republican candidates and lawmakers continued to use Kirk’s death throughout the year as an example of what they argued was the left’s propensity for violence.

During the second day of Trump’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas, which overlapped with the first anniversary of the fatal shooting, the Republican National Committee included a memorial for the slain political activist. Speakers throughout the day slammed Democrats for their reactions to Kirk’s passing, echoing Trump’s remarks from the first day, in which he said, “The mask came off the radical left.”

“They mocked the attempted assassination of my father in Butler, Pa.,” Trump Jr. said during his remarks at the convention. “And we all saw the demented reaction from them to the sick coward who slithered onto a roof to assassinate our great friend Charlie [Kirk].”

Kirk was also a key player in Trump’s return to the White House last year, with the president saying, “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” after the conservative activist died.

Trump Jr.’s post also comes as Republicans face a rocky path to holding on to power this midterm cycle, with the Iran war’s growing unpopularity, his father’s slumping approval ratings and concerns about the cost of living weighing the GOP down.

According to a polling average from Decision Desk HQ, the president’s approval was sitting at 38.4 percent Tuesday afternoon .

Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, posted a video of her late husband Tuesday highlighting what she described as his “timeless wisdom” before polls close. In the clip, which she said was filmed before the 2024 elections, the conservative activist said, “I have no idea what will happen, but whatever happens, we’ll keep fighting.”