Charles James Kirk (born October 14, 1993) is an American
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
political activist, author and
right-wing populist
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right populism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishm ...
media personality. With
Bill Montgomery, he co-founded
Turning Point USA
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for Conservatism in the United States, conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgo ...
(TPUSA) in 2012, for which Kirk serves as executive director. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of
Turning Point Action
Turning Point Action (TPAction) is an American 501(c)(4) organization that exists to embolden the conservative base through grassroots activism and provide voters with the necessary resources to elect true conservative leaders. It was founded ...
, Turning Point Academy, and Turning Point Faith; president of Turning Point Endowment; and a member of the
Council for National Policy
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group that advocates for conservative and Republican Party initiatives in the United States. It was launched in 1981 during the Reagan administration by Tim LaHay ...
.
Kirk was born and raised in the
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
suburbs of
Arlington Heights and
Prospect Heights, Illinois
Prospect Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 16,058.
Geography
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Prospect Heights has a total area of , of whi ...
. In high school, Kirk actively engaged in politics, supporting
Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is an American retired politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district f ...
's
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
campaign and campaigning against a price increase in his school's cafeteria. He briefly attended
Harper College
William Rainey Harper College is a Public college, public community college in Palatine, Illinois. It was established by referendum in 1965 and opened in September 1967. It is named for William Rainey Harper, a pioneer in the junior college m ...
before dropping out to pursue political activism full-time, influenced by
Tea Party
A tea party is a social gathering event, typically held in the afternoon, featuring the consumption of tea and light refreshments. Social tea drinking rituals are observed in many cultures worldwide, both historically and in the present day.
A ...
member Bill Montgomery. In 2012, Kirk founded TPUSA, a conservative student organization that quickly grew with backing from donors like
Foster Friess
Foster Stephen Friess (April 2, 1940 – May 27, 2021) was an American investment manager and prominent donor to the Republican Party and to Christian right causes. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Wyoming in t ...
.
As TPUSA's CEO, Kirk has expanded the organization's influence through initiatives like the Professor Watchlist and School Board Watchlist, while raising millions in donations. In 2019, Kirk founded Turning Point Action, a political advocacy arm, and later formed Turning Point Faith, aimed at mobilizing religious communities on conservative issues. Kirk hosts "The Charlie Kirk Show," a conservative talk radio program.
Kirk has publicly promoted conservative and
Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
-aligned causes, and criticized the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
response,
critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...
, and the scientific consensus on
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
.
Early life and education
Charles James Kirk was born on October 14, 1993 in the
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
suburb of
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Arlington Heights is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County Illinois, United States. A northwestern Chicago metropolitan area, suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of the city's downtown. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...
, and raised in nearby
Prospect Heights, Illinois
Prospect Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 16,058.
Geography
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Prospect Heights has a total area of , of whi ...
. His mother is a mental health counselor and his father is an architect.
Kirk was a member of the
Boy Scouts of America
Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
and earned the rank of
Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...
.
In his junior year at
Wheeling High School
Wheeling High School (WHS) is a public four-year high school located in Wheeling, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 214, which also includes Buffalo Grove Hi ...
in 2010, he volunteered for the successful U.S. Senate campaign of Illinois Republican
Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is an American retired politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district f ...
(no relation).
In his senior year, Kirk created a campaign to revert a price increase for cookies at his school.
He also wrote an essay for ''
Breitbart News
''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...
'' alleging liberal bias in high school textbooks, which led to an appearance on
Fox Business
Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American conservative business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios ...
.
At a subsequent speaking engagement at
Benedictine University
Benedictine University is a Private university, private Catholic Colleges in the United States, Catholic university with campuses in Lisle, Illinois, and Mesa, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1887 by the Benedictine monks of St. Proco ...
's "Youth Empowerment Day," Kirk met
Bill Montgomery, a retiree more than 50 years his senior, who was then a
Tea Party
A tea party is a social gathering event, typically held in the afternoon, featuring the consumption of tea and light refreshments. Social tea drinking rituals are observed in many cultures worldwide, both historically and in the present day.
A ...
-backed legislative candidate.
Montgomery encouraged Kirk to engage in political activism full-time.
He subsequently founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a "grass-roots organization to rival liberal groups such as
MoveOn.org
MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest and most i ...
." At the
2012 Republican National Convention
The 2012 Republican National Convention was a gathering held by the Republican Party (United States), U.S. Republican Party during which Delegate (American politics), delegates officially nominated former Governor of Massachusetts, Massachuset ...
, Kirk met
Foster Friess
Foster Stephen Friess (April 2, 1940 – May 27, 2021) was an American investment manager and prominent donor to the Republican Party and to Christian right causes. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Wyoming in t ...
, a prominent Republican donor, and persuaded him to finance the organization.
Kirk briefly attended
Harper College
William Rainey Harper College is a Public college, public community college in Palatine, Illinois. It was established by referendum in 1965 and opened in September 1967. It is named for William Rainey Harper, a pioneer in the junior college m ...
, a
community college
A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...
near Chicago, but dropped out without having completed any degree or attaining a certificate.
[
]
Leadership of Turning Point organizations
Turning Point USA
Kirk has been CEO, chief fundraiser, and the public face of Turning Point since its founding. He co-founded the organization in 2012 at 18 years of age. According to ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', he has turned the organization into a "well-funded media operation, backed by conservative megadonors like the Wyoming businessman Foster Friess
Foster Stephen Friess (April 2, 1940 – May 27, 2021) was an American investment manager and prominent donor to the Republican Party and to Christian right causes. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Wyoming in t ...
." TPUSA's activities include publication of the Professor Watchlist and the School Board Watchlist.
In 2020, ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...
investigated the finances of TPUSA and claimed in their report that the organization made "misleading financial claims," that the audits were not done by an independent auditor, and that the leaders had enriched themselves while advocating for Trump. ProPublica also reported that Kirk's salary from TPUSA had increased from $27,000 to nearly $300,000 and that he had bought an $855,000 condo in Longboat Key, Florida
Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Ba ...
. In 2020, Turning Point USA had $39.2 million in revenues. Kirk earned a salary of more than $325,000 from TPUSA and related organizations.
In 2021, TPUSA announced an online academy targeted towards students in schools "poisoning our youth with anti-American ideas." Turning Point Academy was intended to cater to families seeking an "America-first education." Arizona education firm StrongMind initially partnered with TPUSA with plans to open the academy by the fall of 2022 and assessed its "potential to generate over $40 million in gross revenue at full capacity (10,000 students)." The partnership ended after StrongMind received backlash from its own employees and key subcontractor Freedom Learning Group, who prepared course content for the academy, also backed out of the academy after learning that it would be run by TPUSA.
Turning Point Action
In May 2019, it was reported that Kirk was preparing to launch Turning Point Action
Turning Point Action (TPAction) is an American 501(c)(4) organization that exists to embolden the conservative base through grassroots activism and provide voters with the necessary resources to elect true conservative leaders. It was founded ...
, a 501(c)(4) entity designed to target Democrats.
In July 2019, Kirk announced that Turning Point Action had acquired Students for Trump along with "all associated media assets". He became chairman and launched a campaign to recruit one million students for the 2020 Trump re-election campaign. The unsuccessful effort led to TPUSA and the Trump campaign blaming each other for an overall decline in youth support for Trump.
Turning Point Endowment
Turning Point Endowment Inc., formed in 2017, is a self-described "supporting organization" whose "mission is to support and benefit Turning Point USA's charitable purposes and long-term vitality."
Turning Point Faith
After Liberty University
Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...
did not renew Kirk's contract with the Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty in 2021, Kirk founded Turning Point Faith, an organization dedicated to "recruit pastors and other church leaders to be active in local and national political issues." Its activities include faith-based voter drives "and educating members on TPUSA's core values." According to TPUSA's 2021 Investor Prospectus, the program—with a budget of $6.4 million—"will 'address America's crumbling religious foundation by engaging thousands of pastors nationwide' in order to 'breathe renewed civic engagement into our churches'."
Council for National Policy and CNP Action
Kirk is the William F. Buckley, Jr. Council Member of the Council for National Policy
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group that advocates for conservative and Republican Party initiatives in the United States. It was launched in 1981 during the Reagan administration by Tim LaHay ...
(CNP), a group "that has served for decades as a hub for a nationwide network of conservative activists and the donors who support them," according to the CNP's September 2020 membership directory leaked in February 2021. He is a spokesperson for CNP Action, the political arm of the CNP.
Mount Vernon Project
According to Kirk, the Mount Vernon Project is a movement to "recruit leaders to serve on the RNC (Republican National Committee) and at the state level who wish to better represent the grassroots voice."
Air Force Academy Board of Visitors
In March 2025, President Trump appointed Kirk to the United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...
Board of Visitors. Other notable appointees made by Trump included senator Tommy Tuberville
Thomas Hawley Tuberville (; born September 18, 1954) is an American politician and retired college football coach who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from Alabama, a seat he has held since 2021. Before ...
, Col. Doug Nikolai & Dina Powell
Dina Powell, also known as Dina Powell McCormick (née Habib, ; born June 12, 1973) is an Egyptian-American financial executive, philanthropist, and political advisor, best known for having been the United States Deputy National Security Advisor ...
.
Talk radio host
In October 2020, Kirk began hosting a daily three-hour radio talk show, called ''The Charlie Kirk Show'', on Salem Media
Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and what ...
's "The Answer" radio channel.
In 2024, NBC News reported that it was presented with internal data showing that Kirk's podcast is being downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times each day. It is currently ranked No. 13 on Apple Podcasts for news.
Political positions and activities
"You're being brainwashed" tour
Prior to the 2024 presidential election
This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world.
*2024 United Nations Security Council election
*2024 national electoral calendar
*2024 local electoral ...
, Charlie Kirk visited around 25 college campuses, marketed as the "You're being brainwashed" tour, trying to stir up more Gen-Z voter turnout by where he would engage/debate with students on many different relevant topics. According to Turning Point Action, the tour produced around two billion viral views on social media. The tour has been praised as having a "critical role" in helping Donald Trump's election. Kirk has aided the President-elect in choosing leadership positions for his administration, including cabinet positions.
Promotion of falsehoods and conspiracy theories
Kirk promotes the antisemitic Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory
"Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that misrepresents Western Marxism (especially the Frankfurt School) as being responsible for modern progressive movements, identity politics, and political correctness. ...
, and has described universities as "islands of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
".
In a 2015 speech at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Kirk stated that he had applied to the United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
in West Point, New York
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York (state), New York, General George Washington stationed his headquarters in West Point in the summer and fall of 1779 durin ...
, and was not accepted. He said that "the slot he considered his went to 'a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion'" whose test scores he claimed he knew. He told ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' in 2017 that he was being sarcastic when he said it. He told the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' in 2018 that "he was just repeating something he'd been told," while at a New Hampshire
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
Turning Point event featuring Rand Paul
Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011.
A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
in October 2019 he claimed that he never said it.
On July 7, 2018, Kirk falsely claimed on social media that Justice Department
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
statistics showed an increase in human trafficking
Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...
arrests from 1,952 in the year 2016 to 6,087 in the first half of 2018. He deleted the tweet without an explanation the next day, after a fact-checker had pointed out that the false 2018 number had originated on a conspiracy site 8chan
8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ...
.
In December 2018, Kirk falsely claimed that protesters in the French yellow vests movement
The yellow vests protests or yellow-jacket protests (, ) were a series of Populism, populist, grassroots weekly protests in France that began on 17 November 2018 and ended on 28 June 2020. Some minor protests started again after the restriction ...
chanted "We want Trump." These false claims were later repeated by President Trump himself.
In defending the Trump administration Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to:
* First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021
* Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025
See also
* ...
's response to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Kirk falsely stated that during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic it "took President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...
'millions infected and over 1,000 deaths'" to declare a public health emergency.
Kirk has spread falsehoods about voter fraud and the COVID-19 pandemic. According to ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
,'' Kirk is known for "his repudiation of liberal college education and embrace of pro-Trump
Trumpism, also referred to as the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, is the political movement and political ideology, ideology behind U.S. president Donald Trump and his political base. It comprises ideologies such as right-wing p ...
conspiracy theories."
Racial issues and opinions on Martin Luther King Jr.
Kirk has said that the concept of white privilege
White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the Social privilege, societal privilege that benefits white people over Person of color, non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or ...
is a myth and a "racist lie." Kirk served on President Donald Trump's 1776 Commission
The 1776 Commission, also nicknamed the 1776 Project, is an advisory committee established in September 2020 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to support what he called "patriotic education". The commission released ''The 1776 Report'' on Janu ...
, a response to the 1619 Project. Assuming "more hard-right positions", he said that Democratic immigration policies were aimed at "diminishing and decreasing white demographics in America". In October 2021, Kirk began the "Exposing Critical Racism Tour" of a number of campuses and off-campus venues to "fight racist theories on America's college campuses!!" On the Minnesota leg of the tour on October 5, 2021, Kirk called George Floyd
George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...
a "scumbag" and appeared to refer to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol when he said that "if you dare walk into the U.S. Capitol building and take a selfie, they'll put you in solitary confinement."
In a November 2021 Fox News article, Kirk wrote that state power should be used to stop teachers from indoctrinating children with critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...
: "directly confronting the left, and promising to fight their illiberal Historically, the adjective illiberal has been mostly applied to personal attitudes, behaviors and practices “unworthy of a free man”, such as lack of generosity, lack of sophisticated culture, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, meanness. Lord Ches ...
ideology with state power when necessary, is the key to winning everyday Americans."
Kirk praised Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
prior to December 2023, variously calling him a "hero" and a "civil rights icon"; that December, however, he used a speech at AmericaFest to describe him as "awful … not a good person" and as someone who is admired only because he "said one thing he didn't actually believe." The speech also saw Kirk condemn the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
, calling its passage a "huge mistake" and alleging that it had created a "permanent DEI-type bureaucracy".[ Kirk told the New York Times “I take the Caldwellian view, from his book ‘]The Age of Entitlement
''The Age of Entitlement'' is the fourth studio album by The Basics. It was released on 14 August 2015 both digitally and physically. The album title is pulled from the title of Australian treasurer Joe Hockey's infamous 2014 budget speech.
T ...
,’ that we went through a new founding in the ’60s and that the Civil Rights Act has actually superseded the U.S. Constitution as its reference point. In fact, I bet if you polled Americans, most of them would have more reverence for the Civil Rights Act than the Constitution. I could be wrong,” he added, “but I think I’m right.” In January 2024, Kirk said that a "myth" had been created around King which had "grown totally out of control" and that King was currently "the most honored, worshiped, even deified person of the 20th century" despite "most people" supposedly disliking him during his life. Responding to accusations by Malcolm Kenyatta
Malcolm Kenyatta (born July 30, 1990) is an American politician from the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he serves as the Pennsylvania state representative for the 181st distric ...
that he was working to undermine King and the Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...
, Kirk called this claim "a lie" and "fear-mongering", and added that telling the "truth" about King "should not be trampling sacred ground" since he was "just a man ... a very flawed one at that" and a "mythological anti-racist creation of the 1960s." Kirk later claimed to have "found the sacred cow of modern America" in criticizing King.
Also in January, 2024, Kirk blamed DEI programs for national aviation issues, saying "If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified.'" He had previously expressed opposition to DEI programs describing them as "anti-White." NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
further reported that Kirk's comments about DEI programs and his comment about Black or African American airline pilots resulted in ongoing conflict with the Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...
over outreach to Black voters.
Abortion
In a debate hosted by Jubilee Media
Jubilee Media is a Los Angeles–based media company. It runs the Jubilee YouTube channel, which has 10 million subscribers as of May 2025.
History
Jubilee was established by entrepreneur Jason Y. Lee. Lee founded Jubilee as a non-profit company i ...
, Kirk argued that there may be situations wherein abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
could be medically necessary if the mother's life is at risk. However, he also argued that abortion is murder and should be illegal. He is against exceptions for rape.
Climate change
Kirk has consistently supported the extraction and use of fossil fuels. He is a climate change denial
Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
ist, falsely claiming that humans have no significant effect on global climate change.
Republican and pro-Trump activism
Kirk addressed the 2016 Republican National Convention
The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party (United States), Republican Party chose the party's nominees for President of the United States, president and Vice President of the United Sta ...
. In an interview with ''Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' magazine during the convention, Kirk said that while he "was not the world's biggest Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
fan," he would vote for him, and that Trump's candidacy made Turning Point's mission more difficult. Kirk flipped to supporting Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention
The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party (United States), Republican Party chose the party's nominees for President of the United States, president and Vice President of the United Sta ...
and spent the remainder of the campaign assisting with travel and media arrangements for Donald Trump Jr.
Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977), often nicknamed Don Jr., is an American businessman and political activist. He is the eldest child of U.S. president Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana.
Trump serves as a trustee and exec ...
In October 2016, Kirk participated in a Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
event along with Trump Jr., Eric Trump
Eric Frederick Trump (born January 6, 1984) is an American businessman, activist, and former reality television presenter. He is the third child and second son of U.S. President Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump.
Trump is a truste ...
, and Lara Trump
Lara Lea Trump ( Yunaska; born October 12, 1982) is an American political figure who is the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She is married to Eric Trump, the third child of U.S. President Donald Trump. She was the producer ...
that had a pro-Donald Trump tone.
In July 2019, Kirk became chairman of Students for Trump
Students for Trump (S4T) is an American group whose mission was to elect President Donald Trump. The group was founded in 2015 by two college students, Ryan Fournier and John Lambert. In July 2019, Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, becam ...
, which had been acquired by Turning Point Action, and launched a campaign to recruit one million students for the 2020 Trump reelection campaign. The unsuccessful effort led to TPUSA and the Trump campaign blaming each other for an overall decline in youth support for Trump.
At an August 2020 meeting of the Council for National Policy
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group that advocates for conservative and Republican Party initiatives in the United States. It was launched in 1981 during the Reagan administration by Tim LaHay ...
, Kirk said: "Democrats have done a really foolish thing by shutting down all these campuses... It's gonna remove ballot harvesting
Ballot collecting, also known as ballot harvesting or ballot chasing, is the gathering and submitting of completed absentee or mail-in voter ballots by third-party individuals, volunteers or workers, rather than submission by voters themselve ...
opportunities and all their voter fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
that they usually do on college campuses – so they're actually removing half a million votes off the table. So please keep the campuses closed – it's a great thing. Whatever!"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' argued that Kirk " alksthe line between mainstream conservative opinion and outright disinformation
Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
" and that "with a powerful ally in the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Kirk both amplifies the president's message and helps shape it.
COVID-19 misinformation
Kirk spread false information and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 on social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
platforms, such as Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, in 2020. Kirk sharply criticized Democrats' criticism of Donald Trump's withdrawal of World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
(WHO) funding and referred to COVID-19 as the "China virus", which was retweeted by Trump.
Kirk alleged that the WHO covered up information about the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. He was briefly banned from Twitter after falsely claiming that hydroxychloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. Other uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, an ...
had proved to be "100% effective in treating the virus"; He alleged Gretchen Whitmer
Gretchen Esther Whitmer (; born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of R ...
, the Democratic governor of Michigan, threatened doctors who tried to use the medication. These falsehoods were retweeted by Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
whose account was then suspended by Twitter as well. Kirk also described the public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...
measure of social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
prohibitions in churches as a "Democratic plot against Christianity" and made the unfounded assertion that authorities in Wuhan
Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...
, China, were burning patients. In 2020, Kirk said that he refused to abide by mask requirements, stating that "the science around masks is very questionable."
In July 2021, Kirk promoted misleading claims about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. On Fox News' Tucker Carlson
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator who hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was term ...
show, Kirk called student mandatory requirements for taking the COVID-19 vaccine "medical apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
".
Election fraud claims and the 2021 United States Capitol attack
Immediately after Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Kirk promoted false and disproven claims of fraud in the election. On November 5, 2020, Kirk was the leader of a Stop the Steal
After Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, Republican nominee and then-incumbent president Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support from his campaign, ...
protest at the Maricopa Tabulation Center in Phoenix.
Charlie Kirk was considered a "big name" social influencer in Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
's communications plan to overturn the 2020 election.
On January 5, 2021, the day before the Washington, D.C. protest that led to the storming of the United States Capitol, Kirk wrote on Twitter that Turning Point Action and Students for Trump were sending more than 80 "buses of patriots to D.C. to fight for this president".[ A spokesman for Turning Point said that the groups ended up sending seven buses, not 80, with 350 students.] In the lead-up to the storming, Kirk said he was "getting 500 emails a minute calling for a civil war." Publix heiress Julie Fancelli gave Charlie Kirk's organizations $1.25 million to fund the buses to the January 6 event. Kirk also paid $60,000 for Kimberly Guilfoyle
Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle ( ; born March 9, 1969) is an American television news personality and former prosecutor in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She served as an advisor and led the fundraising division of President Donald Trump's 2020 presid ...
to speak at the Trump rally.
Afterward, Kirk said the violent acts at the Capitol were not an insurrection and did not represent mainstream Trump supporters.
Appearing before the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack
The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (commonly referred to as the January 6th Committee) was a Select or special committee (United States Congress), select committee of the ...
, Charlie Kirk pleaded the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. His team however "provided the committee with 8,000 pages of records in response to its requests." In another closed-door meeting of the House January 6 Committee, Ali Alexander blamed Kirk and Turning Point USA for financing the travel of demonstrators to the Stop the Steal rally.
School board activism
In May 2021, Kirk tweeted for parents to protest at school board meetings urging parents to stand up and push back on mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory.
Views on relationships and "sexual anarchy"
In October 2021, Kirk said on his podcast that Democrats wanted Americans to live where "there is no cultural identity, where you live in sexual anarchy, where private property is a thing of the past, and the ruling class controls everything." Following social media backlash, he released a statement on the website of the Claremont Institute
The Claremont Institute is an American conservative think tank based in Upland, California, founded in 1979 by four students of Harry V. Jaffa. It produces the ''Claremont Review of Books'', '' The American Mind'', and other publications.
Th ...
doubling down on and expanding his remarks.
According to Media Matters, at the TPUSA Young Women's Leadership Summit 2022 Conference, Kirk said that the "biblical model" for women to pursue in romantic relationships is a partner who is "a protector and a leader, and deep down, a vast majority of you agree" and that "if you want to go meet conservative men that have their act together, that aren't like, woke beta men, like, start a Turning Point USA chapter, you'll meet a lot of them."
Kirk has advocated for parents to never let their daughters receive prescriptions for birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
medication for any reason. He claimed that the medication makes women angry and bitter, which he alleged suited the political leanings of the Democratic Party.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kirk characterized the conflict as a "border dispute" and spread false claims from Russian state media that Ukraine was firing mortar shells at a Russian separatist enclave in Ukraine.
At the February 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC ) is an annual political conference attended by Conservatism in the United States, conservative Activism, activists and officials from across the United States. CPAC is hosted by the American ...
, Kirk said that "The southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border" and that "In fact, I want every Republican leader who comes up on stage the next couple days to call what's happening on the southern border an invasion because two million people waltzed into our country last year."
LGBT issues
According to a 2024 ''NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
'' report, Kirk was relatively secular regarding LGBT issues in 2018, but shifted towards more socially conservative stances. Kirk has argued there is an "LGBTQ agenda", and opposes gay marriage.
Kirk has argued against gender affirming care for transgender people, saying "We must ban trans-affirming care — the entire country. Donald Trump needs to run on this issue", according to Media Matters
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a non-profit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization. It was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center. It seeks to ...
.
Conflict with the Republican National Committee
In December 2022, Kirk warned the Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...
that they needed to listen to their grassroots voters or face the consequences of ignoring them. Kirk stated that "If ignored, we will have the most stunted and muted Republican Party in the history of the conservative movement, the likes of which we haven't seen in generations."
Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty
In November 2019, Kirk and Jerry Falwell Jr. co-founded the "Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty", a right-wing think-tank funded, owned and housed by Liberty University
Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...
. Fellows included Antonio Okafor, director of outreach for Gun Owners of America
Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a gun rights organization in the United States. It makes efforts to differentiate itself from the larger National Rifle Association (NRA) and has publicly criticized the NRA on multiple occasions for what it consid ...
; Sebastian Gorka
Sebastian Lukács Gorka (; born October 22, 1970) is a British-Hungarian-American media host and commentator, currently affiliated with Salem Radio Network and NewsMax TV, and a United States government official. He served in the first Trump ...
, former deputy assistant to President Trump; and Jenna Ellis
Jenna Lynn Ellis (born November 1, 1984) is an American conservative lawyer who was a member of Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign's legal team. She is a former deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado. During the Trump preside ...
, a senior legal counselor for Trump. In 2020, the Falkirk Center spent at least $50,000 on political Facebook advertisements promoting Trump and Republican candidates.
Students and alumni raised objections about the organization's aggressive political tone, which they considered to be inconsistent with the university's mission. Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University in August 2020, and the university did not renew Kirk's one-year contract in late 2020. In 2021, the university renamed the organization "Standing for Freedom Center".
Awards, achievements and honors
Kirk was listed on the 2018 ''Forbes 30 Under 30'' in Law & Policy.
In May 2019, Kirk was awarded the honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
of Doctor of Humanities (D.Hum.) from Liberty University
Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...
.
Kirk was appointed by President Donald Trump to a commission promoting "patriotic education".
Books
Kirk co-wrote, with Brent Hamachek, the 2016 book ''Time for a Turning Point: Setting a Course Toward Free Markets and Limited Government for Future Generations'' (Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
).
Kirk wrote the 2018 book ''Campus Battlefield: How Conservatives Can WIN the Battle on Campus and Why It Matters''. Donald Trump Jr. wrote the foreword for the book. In a review for ''The Weekly Standard
''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis, and commentary that was published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' was described as a ...
'', Adam Rubenstein described the book as a "hot mess", "nothing more than a marketing pitch for TPUSA" and said the "thin" book was "stuffed with reprintings of his tweets and quotes from others."
In 2020, Kirk's book ''The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future'' was published.
In 2022, Kirk's fourth book, ''The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth'' was published.
In 2024, Kirk's book, ''Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West,'' was released.
Media
As of December 7, 2021, ''The Charlie Kirk Show'' podcast was ranked as the 21st most popular podcast on Apple Podcasts. Kirk's "Turning Point Live" is a three-hour streaming talk show aimed at Generation Z
Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2 ...
. Turning Point USA's monthly online average has grown to 111,000 unique visitors in 2021. A February 2023 Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
study found Kirk's podcast contained the second-highest proportion of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among 36,603 episodes produced by 79 prominent political podcasters.
In 2022, journalist Bari Weiss
Bari Weiss ( ; born March 25, 1984) is an American journalist. She was an op-ed and book review editor at ''The Wall Street Journal'' from 2013 to 2017 and an op-ed staff editor and writer on culture and politics at ''The New York Times'' fro ...
released a report of internal Twitter documents dubbed "The Twitter Files
The Twitter Files are a series of releases of select internal Twitter, Inc. documents published from December 2022 through March 2023 on Twitter. CEO Elon Musk gave the documents to journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and authors Mi ...
", which alleged that Twitter was censoring conservative personalities on the social media platform. Weiss posted screenshots of Twitter tools that moderators could use to limit the reach of posts and accounts. According to ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, Kirk's Twitter account was flagged under "do not amplify", which meant algorithms would not highlight tweets coming from those accounts.
Kirk has also made an appearance on Gavin Newsom's podcast, '' This is Gavin Newsom''.
Personal life
Kirk is an evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
. In May 2021, Kirk married Erika Frantzve (born 1988), a podcaster and businesswoman who won the Miss Arizona USA pageant competition in 2012. The couple's first child, a daughter, was born in August 2022. The couple's second child, a son, was born in May 2024.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Charlie
1993 births
Living people
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century evangelicals
Activists from Florida
Activists from Illinois
American anti-abortion activists
American conservative talk radio hosts
American evangelicals
American founders
American male non-fiction writers
American political podcasters
American political commentators
American political writers
Harper College alumni
Illinois Republicans
People associated with the 2012 United States presidential election
People associated with the 2016 United States presidential election
People associated with the 2020 United States presidential election
People associated with the 2024 United States presidential election
People from Arlington Heights, Illinois
People from Longboat Key, Florida
People from Prospect Heights, Illinois
People from Wheeling, Illinois
Youth activists
Salem Media Group people