After the assassination of American political activist and commentator Charlie Kirk in September 2025, there followed widespread disciplinary and retaliatory actions against people seen as celebrating, justifying, or trivializing Kirk's death, encouraging further political violence, denigrating Kirk, or tarnishing his legacy. These efforts were promoted and directly facilitated by the U.S. federal government: in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, President Donald Trump explicitly condemned "the left" for violence, and pledged to target left-wing groups and causes, monitor political speech, revoke visas, and designate Antifa and groups that might support it as domestic terrorists.
On the night of Kirk's killing, the Department of State announced it would penalize foreigners considered to be "praising, rationalizing, or making light of Kirk's death". Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced an investigation into the reactions of members of the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as subsequent firings and dismissals of those found to have made obscene or blasphemous comments about Kirk. Commentary cited as reasons for firings and other reprisals included comments which openly celebrated Kirk's demise, spoke critically of his politics or political influence, or quoted his words in ways intended to dishonor his memory. In some cases, even criticizing the Republican Party's response to his killing could result in termination of employment or other disciplinary actions.
Following Kirk's death, a number of prominent conservatives called for retaliation against or punishment of private citizens and government or military employees whose comments about Kirk were, in their view, likely to encourage additional political violence, or which were deemed insufficiently respectful towards Kirk and his legacy. They also called for investigations into left-wing groups, universities, and the military for putative anti-Kirk speech. On The Charlie Kirk Show following his death, Vice President JD Vance called for Kirk's followers to report people who made disparaging remarks about Kirk to their employers, with the goal of getting them fired. Trump later announced that any network that criticized him too harshly could be subject to a revocation of their broadcast license. Multiple analysts have regarded these efforts by the political right as a significant crackdown on political speech and dissent in the United States, and an effort to silence criticism of Kirk and the conservative political ideology he promoted. Critics of the Trump administration have labeled its response as a form of cancel culture and censorship, and some have compared it to McCarthyism.
Altogether, over 600 Americans were punished in some way over their comments about Kirk. Roughly one year onward, employers and other organizations had paid out $2million in legal settlements to people who were fired or otherwise punished in the reprisals.
Background
Charlie Kirk was an American right-wing influencer who founded Turning Point USA and hosted The Charlie Kirk Show. He was known for his debates on college campuses where he attempted to promote his conservative views to young audiences. His statements about topics such as LGBTQ+ individuals, the role of women in marriage, and race in the United States were controversial. At a campaign event in Kentucky with Nate Morris in June 2025, Kirk himself spoke about the potential for violence. He told the crowd: "We're on the front lines where it's not always safe."
On September 10, 2025, Kirk was engaged in one of his regular debates as part of his American Comeback Tour with college students at Utah Valley University—debating mass shootings in the United States committed by transgender individuals—when a gunman on a nearby rooftop shot and killed him. Reactions on social media varied. The vast majority of people on both sides of the political aisle condemned the murder; some who opposed Kirk's views celebrated, justified, or mocked his death. After the shooting, some users on Bluesky made posts glorifying or celebrating Kirk's killing—which in extreme cases incited further violence against other right-wing figures, several posting or reposting a meme that said "do Trump next" or "Elon next please". This prompted the platform to issue a statement denouncing such posts. Other social media platforms including Meta, YouTube, and Reddit issued similar warnings to their users.
Initial reactions by the Trump administration
Speaking to the nation during the aftermath of Kirk's death, President Donald Trump, while calling for nonviolence and lamenting "the demonization of those with whom we disagree", blamed "a radical left group of lunatics" for the killing; Trump said that leftist political rhetoric and activism was terrorism and hate speech responsible for Kirk's death, and stated that he would "get that problem solved". He subsequently announced that people and groups "on the left" would be investigated for alleged responsibility for political violence and would face retaliatory action. Critics said that Trump was exaggerating the prevalence of left-wing political violence and downplaying a rise in violence on the right, citing statistics showing that cumulatively over decades most extremist killings in the U.S. have been caused by right-wing perpetrators. ●For data, Schneid cites From 2022 through 2024, all 61 political killings were committed by right-wing extremists.
In an interview on September 13, Trump reiterated his intent to crack down on speech and activism by left-wing and progressive groups, calling for prominent Democratic Party donor George Soros to be jailed, accusing Soros as well as other left-wing political figures and organizations of effectively funding Kirk's murder via support for "violent protest". The groups Trump had explicitly accused of funding and fomenting violence, such as the Open Society Foundation and Indivisible, condemned the killing prior to Trump's remarks and denied ever supporting or funding violent protest. After Jimmy Kimmel's show was indefinitely suspended a few days later when Kimmel opined on air that "the MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it", Trump stated that broadcasters who criticized him too strongly could risk being subject to loss of licensure.
Hosting Kirk's podcast after his death, JD Vance called for the dismantling of progressive political organizations, including Soros's Open Society Foundation, and told Americans to report "uncivil" speech about Kirk to employers and relevant authorities, demanding that individuals who engaged in inappropriate speech about Kirk be terminated. Thousands were flagged by vigilante online conservative groups for allegedly celebrating Kirk's death, often incorrectly and without evidence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that any non-citizens who celebrated Kirk's death would be immediately deported, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed staff to identify and purge any members of the military service or his department who condoned or mocked Kirk's death.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller immediately blamed the left for Kirk's murder, writing that left-wing ideology was a "twisted, depraved ... ideology at war with family and nature ... that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence", and accused the left of "celebrating". Miller later claimed on Kirk's podcast with Vance that, on the day before his death, "the last message that Charlie sent me ... was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-leaning organizations that are promoting violence in this country." Miller alleged that "a vast terrorist network" on the left was responsible for the murder, and declared that the administration would "destroy" progressive political organizations in response, in Kirk's name. Miller said the federal government would devote every resource at its disposal to vengeance against left-wing non-profit and political non-governmental organizations and networks and would "identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks". Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated on Katie Miller's podcast and in subsequent Department of Justice announcements that she intended to "target" speech against Kirk following his death as hate speech, which led to a backlash within a section of the right.
On September 22, Trump signed an executive order intended to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, and to "investigate, disrupt, and dismantle" individuals and groups associated with, or providing material support, to antifa, raising concerns that it could be used as a pretext to target political opponents. As with his previous attempt in 2020, legal experts said that there is no precedent for labeling a domestic group as a terrorist organization under U.S. law.
Doxxing
Far-right activists such as Laura Loomer sought to identify social media users who were posting offensive or celebratory content about Kirk's death. Reuters reported that some right-wing influencers who encouraged reporting social media posts had previously mocked political violence; Reuters cited comments from a number of right-wing activists, including Kirk, about past events including the attack on Paul Pelosi. On September 11, in response to the previous day's "horrific assassination", Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau invited his social-media followers to report any foreign-born U.S. residents who "glorify violence and hatred" to the Department of State in order to protect the American people. On September 15, Vance guest hosted Kirk's podcast and told listeners that if they saw anyone who was reportedly celebrating Kirk's death to "call them out" and continued stating: "Hell, call their employer. We don't believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination."
Personal information was gathered on a website called Charlie's Murderers, which was registered shortly after his death. The site listed names, employment details, locations, social media accounts, and email addresses of the targeted individuals, while the administrators of the site have remained anonymous. The site received thousands of submitted names to be added to the list. The website was later rebranded as the Charlie Kirk Data Foundation, before it was taken down on September 16. Vance and Republican members of Congress have called for the government to start investigating progressive organizations following Kirk's assassination, and those targeted have compared the firings to those of McCarthyism in the 1950s, when suspected communists were targeted and ostracized from American society.
Due to many unverified accusations, uninvolved individuals with similar names were publicly identified and harassed: a man with the same name of an online poster received threatening messages and phone calls and was suspended from his job, and his family left their home out of safety concerns. In another case, the Students for Trump national chair Ryan Fournier had to retract an accusation against a teacher in Wisconsin, although Fournier asked for doxing and accusations to continue with more evidence. Additionally, the school's principal reached out to Fournier, who did not respond; Fournier ultimately took two days to retract the post, and after he did, he issued an apology that the school's principal called "half-assed".
Employee terminations and investigations United States