Charlie Kirk: Who’s Trump’s “purveyor” on TikTok – The hard-core far-rightist who makes a career out of conspiracy theories

Charlie Kirk poses a question to the enthusiastic, young crowd he’s addressing: “Are you ready to send Donald Trump back to the White House?”

Somewhere between preacher, politician, and rock star – if rock stars were so well-coiffed – Kirk can be considered the most eloquent representative of a younger generation of hard-core right-wingers, the Republican MAGA.

Just 31 years old, Kirk came of age with the help of social media and has millions of followers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Hardcore right-winger Charlie Kirk

At a campaign rally on campus in the southwestern city of Reno this month – a stop on his “They’re Brainwashing You” tour – Kirk told the gathering that he wants to end “all abortion,” “the Holocaust of our time.”

Like Donald Trump, Kirk often uses glib language when referring to immigration. And he often invokes his religion, which he believes his audience shares, as justification for his political positions.

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“Civil disobedience or disobedience to tyranny can be taken out of the Bible,” he said, addressing the crowd in Reno.

For some in attendance, Kirk represents a breath of fresh air for universities, a place where the American right complains that it is dominated by liberal ideology.

“He brings different ideas to the table. Ideas that some of us believe in, but sometimes are afraid to express,” says 22-year-old Eric Hansen.

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“Extremist and Christian nationalist,” say his opponents

However, not everyone speaks so flatteringly of Kirk.

“Charlie Kirk is a charismatic Christian nationalist who essentially functions as a spokesman for Trumpism and extremist ideas,” comments Kyle Spencer, author of a book exploring the birth of Turning Point USA, a youth movement that Kirk helped found when he was just 18.

In a little over a decade, the movement has become the most numerous association of conservative youth in the United States.

It brings together an army of enthusiastic activists, some of whom were bussed to Washington on January 6, 2021, for the January 6, 2021, invasion of the Capitol.

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Kirk grew up in a Chicago suburb and didn’t graduate from college but dedicated himself to activism as a teenager.

He is passionate about reading and has lawyerly skills in synthesizing arguments: this is how Kirk cultivated his relationships with key figures within the Republican Party.

Until 2016, he was in the Trump family’s embrace after working as a personal assistant to Donald Trump Jr.

Fake news and methods of promoting Donald Trump

His argumentative rants are frequently hosted on Fox News spots and later on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” one of the most popular podcasts in the country.

In them, he addresses his listeners with conspiracy theories and fake news reinforcing Trump’s “stolen election” scenario, such as for Covid-19, which is very popular with the angry American right.

Sometimes Kirk’s theories are even adopted by Trump himself.

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In 2018 he claimed, for example, that some protesters in the Yellow Vests movement in France were chanting “We want Trump”, a claim that was happily echoed by the then US president himself.

In September he was among the first to repeat the theory that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Ohio.

A few days later, Trump made the same claim – for which he never presented evidence – during his teleconference with Kamala Harris.

Kirk rejects questions from Agence France-Presse regarding his controversial statements in an interview on the sidelines of a recent campaign rally.

“I maintain that we speak with truths,” he replies with a smile.

Influence on the right-wing ecosystem

In addition to Turning Point USA, Kirk also runs Turning Point Action, one of Trump’s key organizations, which has raised more than $100 million and envisions deploying thousands of people in key states to get conservatives to vote early.

While some in the Republican camp – especially the old guard – view Kirk with skepticism, Spencer argues that this guy is here to stay, even in the event of a Trump defeat.

“No matter what happens, Charlie Kirk is bound to continue to be influential in the right-wing ecosystem. He will survive in the post-Trump world,” the author says with certainty.

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