Leaders within the conservative and Republican community mourned Wednesday after influential political and cultural Christian activist Charlie Kirk was killed by what appears to be an assassin’s bullet at Utah Valley University.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me,” President Donald Trump posted on social media. 

PragerU’s Dennis Prager said the country lost one of its most articulate spokesmen.

“…Charlie was a uniquely gifted individual who, in his teens, created the largest movement of young Americans committed to preserving and growing America and its ideals,” Prager wrote on social media.

“America’s youth in particular have lost a moral and intellectual leader, one who would, perhaps, have one day become their president.”

Many supporters described Kirk as a warrior with boundless enthusiasm and positivity, and described his death as something akin to a martyrdom. 

“Effective, informed, relentless and fierce — he knew he was a target and kept going anyway,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham, a longtime friend of Kirk’s, posted on social media. “He knew it was dangerous and kept fighting. He thinks engaging one-on-one with students, esp. with liberals, was 100 percent necessary. A national treasure.”

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s by gunmen, expressed his sympathies Wednesday.

“Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era,” he posted on social media. “My dear friend Charlie Kirk was our country’s relentless and courageous crusader for free speech. We pray for Erika and the children. Charlie is already in paradise with the angels. We ask his prayers for our country.”

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who also visits campuses to discuss controversial issues with students, said Kirk created “the single most important conservative political organization in America.”

“But more importantly, Charlie was a good man, a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his Biblical values,” Shapiro posted on social media. “… And we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it, fighting for the things he believed in so passionately. And we must fight for a better America – an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I weep for Charlie’s family, and I weep for my country today.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Kirk a “warrior for liberty.” And Vice President JD Vance posted a lengthy tribute to Kirk on social media, describing their close friendship in recent years, and crediting him for huge help with Trump’s second term.

“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”