Melania Trump pays tribute to Charlie Kirk and the family he leaves behind

First lady Melania Trump offered her condolences to the Kirk family as Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika, a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son. 

“Charlie’s children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter, and silence where their father’s voice should have echoed,” Melania Trump wrote on X. 

“Charlie Kirk’s life should serve as a symbolic reminder that compassionate awareness elevates family, love, and country,” she added. 

Kirk was shot around 12:20 p.m. local time Wednesday while speaking at an event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem. The Utah Department of Public Safety said that Kirk, after being shot, was rushed to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

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A manhunt remains ongoing Thursday for the suspect behind the assassination. 

The first lady’s comments came shortly after President Donald Trump released an Oval Office message on the assassination. 

“He’s a martyr for truth and freedom,” Trump said. 

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In a social media post, Trump said that in honor of Kirk, “a truly Great American Patriot, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Sunday evening at 6 P.M.” 

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” the president wrote in another post. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” 

In August, Kirk posted a photo of the first lady wearing a crown on a fake Vanity Fair cover on X, writing, “We need to meme the cover into existence.”