This wasn’t really a funeral as billed. It was a neo-fascist campaign rally. The crowd reportedly chanted slogans, waved flags, and shared clips that resembled a Turning Point USA conference. MAGA merch was everywhere. The tone set by President Trump was at once jubilant and hateful, not somber.
It was the beginning of what quickly became an unapologetic fusion of conservative Christianity — particularly evangelicalism, Kirk’s chosen religious tradition — and President Donald Trump’s style of conservative politics, sometimes delivered by prominent representatives of the United States government. — Religious News Service
“We want religion brought back to America,” Trump said. “We want to bring God back into our beautiful U.S.A. like never before.”
Trump lionized conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a public memorial service Sunday, claiming Kirk pleaded with him to use the military to “save Chicago” in one of their last conversations before Kirk was fatally shot.
Trump even used Kirk’s memorial as a launchpad for what he called one of the “biggest announcements in the history of the country”: a supposed breakthrough on autism, including blaming pregnant women’s use of Tylenol for autism in children. During his closing remarks at State Farm Stadium, Trump said:
“I think we found an answer to autism… We won’t let it happen anymore.”
Trump’s announcement wasn’t medical. It was political theater.
Leading medical organizations immediately pushed back:
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: “Acetaminophen remains a safe, trusted option for pain relief during pregnancy.”
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine: “The evidence linking acetaminophen to autism is inconclusive.”
FDA & NIH officials: Warned against politicizing prenatal care and overstating unproven treatments
Kirk’s death became a narrative device, sanctifying the movement and casting its opponents as agents of darkness. It’s a dangerous tactic, martyrdom as a vengeful, bloody flag.
Weekend Quotables
Benny Johnson, MAGA political commentator
“Charlie Kirk is a true Christian martyr… They wanted a funeral. But what they got was a spiritual awakening and a revival.” — Fox News
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Kirk habitually railed against “Black crime,” claiming that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to target white people.” He repeated the rape accusations against Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated Central Park Five who is now a New York City councilman, calling him a “disgusting pig” who had gotten away with “gang rape.” — Vanity Fair debate with Ezra Klein
Michael Cohen
But what we saw at his memorial was not a pause. It was not mourning. It was not reflection. It was theater, carefully choreographed to transform grief into political fuel and one man’s death into a rallying cry for MAGA’s survival. — Saint Charlie of MAGA
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
AOC did not attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial and was sharply critical of the political framing surrounding it. Her comments came in response to a House resolution “honoring the life and legacy” of Kirk, which she voted against along with 57 other Democrats.
Here’s what she said on the House floor:
“We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was: a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted Black Americans the right to vote was a mistake… His rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated, and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans—far from the ‘working tirelessly to promote unity’ asserted by the Majority in this resolution.” — Real Clear Politics
Sen. Chuck Schumer
I hope and pray that Trump will sit down with us and negotiate. — CNN
Michael Tomasky, editor
It’s Happened: The United States of America Is No Longer a Democracy. — TNR
Please—no “Banana Republic…autocracy, etc “…if it walks and talks like a Fascist, acts like Fascist, behaves in a Fascistic manner…he is a Fascist! Cut to the Chase!
AOC and her Justice Dems keep showing how they are a decent ‘party’ for the left to build.