Politics
Who is Charlie Kirk? Discover How a Chicago Schoolboy Became a Millionaire MAGA Leader and Trump Ally!
Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead on Wednesday at the age of 31, had established himself as one of the most prominent and powerful conservative voices in the United States.
The right-wing political activist, who was killed during a speaking engagement for his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University, was a leading ally of President Donald Trump.
The president announced his death on social media site, Truth Social. “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. 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!”
Kirk’s journey to political prominence began at a young age. He was born on October 14, 1993, in Arlington Heights, Illinois into a wealthy family that lived in a five-bedroom mansion in Prospect Heights, on the outskirts of Chicago.
His father was an architect who designed and built middle-class luxury estates, while his mother was a trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who later worked as a mental health counselor. Classmates described the young Kirk as “rude”, “arrogant”, with “a superiority complex”.
The 2008 housing crisis hurt Kirk’s father’s business but it was the election of President Barack Obama later that year that really began to shape Kirk’s politics. While many in the Chicago area considered Obama a local hero, Kirk was a devoted fan of Ronald Reagan, and described teachers he disagreed with as “post-modern neo-Marxists”.
In 2022, Politico reported that the young Kirk was a passionate gun rights supporter who once argued with a teacher that if guns make people violent, “do forks make people fat?”
Kirk got his first taste of real politics in 2010 when he volunteered for the successful campaign to elect Illinois Republican Mark Kirk (not a family relation) to the Senate.
When he finished high school, Kirk hoped to attend the prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but his application was rejected. He would later claim that this rejection was not based on his academic performance, but that his place had been given to “a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion”, later saying he was being sarcastic.
In April 2012, at the age of 18, Kirk wrote to the right-wing news site Breitbart to express his belief that his school textbooks had been politically biased. They commissioned him to write a post, headlined: “Liberal Bias Starts in High School Economics Textbooks”, which garnered significant media attention and landed Kirk an interview on Fox News.
Around the same time, he met 71-year-old Tea Party candidate Bill Montgomery, who encouraged him to dedicate himself to political activism. Together, they founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a nonprofit that continues to advocate for conservative politics at schools, colleges and universities.
Ben Shapiro, a fellow conservative activist, recounted meeting Kirk as an 18-year-old and believing he was destined to take over the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Kirk never completed a college degree. He was briefly enrolled at Harper College, a public community college near Chicago, but dropped out before graduating. But by then, TPUSA had become his full-time job. The organization started out by sponsoring a series of debates between Democratic and Republican students on college campuses in the Midwest.
In August 2012, Kirk attended the Republican National Convention where he bumped into multimillionaire investor Foster Friess in a stairwell and convinced him to bankroll TPUSA.
After Obama was re-elected that November, Kirk redoubled his efforts to steer the Republican Party in a new direction. He became a central figure as the party was reshaped in the image of the Tea Party movement, and was an early supporter of Donald Trump, soon after the property developer and The Apprentice star launched his presidential campaign in June 2015.
Kirk befriended Donald Trump Jr and worked alongside him, Eric Trump and Lara Trump on the campaign trail. He was one of the youngest speakers at the RNC in 2016, and that year published his first book, Time for a Turning Point.
The election of Trump emboldened Kirk further. In December 2016, TPUSA published their controversial “Professor Watchlist” which targeted college professors who Kirk accused of spreading “leftist propaganda”.
They also organized college appearances for divisive figures like the alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, which often sparked protests on campuses. Kirk also chaired the short-lived 1776 Commission, which was created partly in response to The New York Times’ “1619 Project”, to stifle revisionist history teachings.
While Kirk initially presented himself as a secular figure, he later adopted evangelical Christianity. In 2019, he worked with Jerry Falwell Jr to establish the Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, a right-wing think tank at Virginia’s Liberty University. The center was named by combining their surnames.
During the pandemic, Kirk claimed that social distancing restrictions were intended to hurt churches as part of a “Democratic plot against Christianity”. He published his bestselling book The MAGA Doctrine in March 2020 and launched his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, a daily three-hour radio talk show. The following year, he partnered with California pastor Rob McCoy to launch TPUSA Faith, an organization designed to mobilize conservative Christians to vote Republican.
Kirk often used his show and public appearances to court controversy by peddling conspiracy theories. In 2023, he was branded “human garbage” by Adam Kinzinger, an outgoing Republican member of Congress, after promoting the theory that Buffalo Bills star Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest due to the Covid vaccine.
He continued to be an outspoken promoter of gun rights. At a TPUSA Faith event in April 2023, Kirk argued that “you will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death”.
He added, “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth [it] to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Kirk’s ability to stir up controversy and gain attention made him a wealthy man. By 2023 he was living in a $4.75m Spanish-style property in a gated Arizona country club that boasts a guest casita, a “resort-style” pool and views of the Sonoran Desert. TPUSA tax records showed that Kirk’s salary rose from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, and his income was bolstered further by the success of his podcast and public speaking fees.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Kirk visited approximately 25 college campuses in key battleground states as part of his “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour, with the intention of mobilizing Gen-Z voter turnout. He produced multiple viral videos showing himself engaging and debating directly with students, and Newsweek argued that his tour played a “critical role” in Trump’s return to office. The president reportedly called Kirk to ask his advice on Cabinet appointments.
In Trump’s second term, Kirk kept himself in the headlines with a string of controversial comments. In August, he celebrated Trump’s federal law enforcement takeover of Washington, D.C. and called for a “full military occupation” of other American cities. Last month, he offered his congratulations to Taylor Swift on her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce. “This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative. Engage in reality more… Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge,” he said on Real America’s Voice network.
Kirk was on another tour of campuses, dubbed the “American Comeback Tour”, when he was fatally shot. Two suspects were arrested on Wednesday and later released. The manhunt is still ongoing and a motive for the killing is not yet known.
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Kirk (formerly Frantzve), a fellow podcaster and 2012 Miss Arizona pageant winner whom he first met in 2018. He recalled in a video for TPUSA that over the course of a “very, very long dinner” at Bills Burgers in New York they discussed theology, philosophy and politics, and he knew “almost immediately” that she was “the one”.
The couple shared an evangelical Christian faith. When she recalled their first date in a fifth anniversary post on Instagram, Erika wrote: “Let God write your love story.”
They got engaged in December 2020 and married in Scottsdale, Arizona in May 2021. They had two children: a daughter, born on August 23, 2022, and a son, born in May 2024. Kirk endeavored to largely keep them off social media, saying: “We have a girl and a boy and it’s no one’s business what their names are or their faces.”
Just days before his death, Kirk appeared on Fox News to argue that young women should prioritize having children over their career. “What is going on with women and not wanting to prioritize family?” he said. “This is a pattern that I have seen time and time again on college campuses where young men are ordering their life correctly.”
According to Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, Erika and the couple’s children were present when Kirk was shot and killed.
An airplane carrying Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was forced to make an emergency landing in the UK Wednesday due to a crack in its windshield, officials said.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on social media that on the way back to the U.S. after NATO’s Defense Minister meeting in Belgium, the plane made an “unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom” because of a crack in the aircraft’s windshield.
The plane landed based on standard procedures, and all of the passengers on board, including Hegseth, were safe, Parnell added.
“All good. Thank God,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Continue mission!”
Hegseth was traveling in a C-32A, a modified Boeing 757 used by the Air Force for VIP transport. Other top leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and occasionally, even President Donald Trump, use the aircraft when visiting airports with runways too short for the modified Boeing-747 Trump typically uses as Air Force One.
It was unclear what caused the crack in the plane’s windshield.
Flight tracking data showed that the plane took off from Brussels and made it past Ireland before turning around to land at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in England at 7:07 p.m. local time. It was not known what time the plane initially took off.
Hegseth and previous Secretaries of Defence have traditionally used a different aircraft for foreign travel, the Boeing E-4B.
The Boeing E-4B is a modified Boeing-747 that has been hardened for use as an airborne command post by the president or Pentagon leadership during nuclear conflicts. It is known within the Air Force as “Air Force One when it counts” and the “Doomsday plane.”
It was not immediately clear why Hegseth was traveling on the smaller, C-32 plane.
The C-32, which had to perform an emergency landing, has less capabilities than the E-4B, but is decked out with a more luxurious interior thanks to upgrades made during Trump’s first term as president.
During his time in Brussels, Hegseth warned the U.S. would “impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression” if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end.
“If we must take this step, the U.S. War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do,” Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of Kyiv’s allies at NATO headquarters.
Hegseth did not elaborate. His comments came as Trump’s administration is considering a request by Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Earlier this year, an Air Force plane carrying Rubio to Munich was forced to return to Washington after experiencing a mechanical problem.
The trade war between China and the US intensified this week with both nations imposing new port fees on each other’s ships.
The latest escalation in tensions between the world’s two largest economies sent bilateral relations, and the markets, into a tailspin.
After Beijing announced stricter restrictions on rare earth exports – in retaliation for the US dramatically expanding sanctions on Chinese firms – president Donald Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs and new curbs on “all critical software”.
Trade analysts suspect that Mr Trump’s threatened three-digit tariff will heighten market uncertainty in the near term, especially in sectors with strong supply chain exposure to China like manufacturing and technology.
Rare earths, vital for use in electric vehicles, aircraft engines, military radars and a range of everyday electronics, are a key sticking point in negotiations between the sparring nations.
China produces almost 70 per cent and processes nearly 90 per cent of the world’s rare earth elements.
The Chinese announcement was an apparent surprise to Mr Trump, who called it an “out of the blue” move. But, over the weekend, he sounded more conciliatory than in the past, although he still refused to withdraw the tariff threat.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”
China seems unfazed by Mr Trump’s threats and its export boom suggests Beijing may be gaining the upper hand in the trade war.
“China’s position is consistent. If there’s a fight, we will fight to the end; if there’s a talk, the door is open,” a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“The US cannot demand talks while simultaneously imposing new restrictive measures with threats and intimidation. This is not the right way to engage with China.”
Is China winning the trade war?
China appears to be gaining the upper hand in the ongoing trade dispute with the US, nearly six months after Mr Trump imposed steep import levies on the Asian economic giant.
Chinese exports rose 8.3 per cent in September from a year earlier to about £246bn even as shipments to the US fell about 27 per cent.
After Mr Trump declared his worldwide tariffs in April, several major countries moved to diversify their foreign trade, signalling a global shift towards a system where the US was no longer the central market.
In line with this shift, Chinese shipments to non-US destinations grew 14.8 per cent, the fastest since March 2023, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. The exports to the EU grew 14 per cent, to Asean countries by 16 per cent and to Africa about 56 per cent.
The minimal impact of the Trump tariffs on its overall trade only strengthened China’s resolve to adopt a firmer position in negotiations with Washington, as reflected in the stricter restrictions on exports.
Strong demand from markets beyond the US indicates that Chinese exporters may be less vulnerable to the additional tariffs threatened by Mr Trump. Chinese imports were up 7.4 per cent last month, pointing to a potential recovery in domestic consumption.
A self-driven recovery in China would mark a clear erosion of US dominance in the global economy. But analysts caution it is too soon to declare a winner in the trade dispute.
“While China’s recent export growth suggests some resilience, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that Beijing has gained an advantage in the trade war,” Lukman Otunuga, a senior market analyst at broker FXTM, told The Independent.
“Much of that uptick could reflect front-loading of shipments ahead of new tariffs or shifts in trade routes. The overall picture remains mixed, with both economies experiencing structural challenges amid the prolonged trade tensions.”
Mr Otunuga said the additional US levies were likely to heighten market uncertainty in the near term, and “investors may see higher volatility as markets weigh the impact on corporate earnings and global growth prospects”.
What are the new levies?
Mr Trump last week unveiled an additional levy of 100 per cent on Chinese imports to the US, along with new export controls on critical software, from 1 November. He also threatened to cancel a planned in-person meeting with President Xi Jinping, their first in six years, but US treasury secretary Scott Bessent later told Reuters the two leaders were on track to meet in South Korea in late October.
Bloomberg Economics estimates that a 100 per cent tariff hike by the US will raise effective rates on Chinese goods to 140 per cent, which could halt trade altogether.
“So far this year, China has shown that while it does not wish for a trade war, it is willing to retaliate to escalations as needed,” Lynn Song, chief Greater China economist at ING Bank NV, told Bloomberg.
“The export resilience will likely strengthen confidence in this approach ahead of the talks later this month.”
According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, average US tariffs on Chinese imports reached 58 per cent by end of September, while Chinese tariffs were at 33 per cent.
Despite current rates already sitting 25 percentage points above the global average, China’s manufacturing strength continues to drive export growth.
In a tit-for-tat move, China hit US-owned vessels docking in the country with new port fees, which came into effect on Tuesday.
Vessels owned or operated by American companies or individuals would be subjected to a 400 yuan (£42) per net tonne fee per voyage if they were to dock in China, Beijing announced last week. The fees would be applied on the same ship for a maximum of five voyages each year, and would rise every year until 2028, when it would jump to 1,120 yuan (£117) per net tonne.
The duties are largely aligned with the port fees introduced by the US. Vessels owned or operated by Chinese entities will be charged $50 (£37) per net tonne for each voyage to the US, which will rise by $30 (£22) per net tonne each year until 2028.
China’s new port fees could affect oil tankers accounting for 15 per cent of global capacity, according to Clarksons Research.
Will Donald Trump meet Xi Jinping to negotiate trade?
Mr Trump and Mr Xi were expected to meet at the Apec summit in South Korea at the end of October. There was also talk of the US president visiting Beijing in January, but those meetings appeared less probable after the recent escalation in tensions.
Mr Bessent said the US president remained on track to meet the Chinese leader as he sought to reassure traders and investors on both sides of the Pacific, highlighting the cooperation between their negotiating teams and the possibility they could yet find a way forward from the current tariff truce.
“We have substantially de-escalated,” Mr Bessent told Fox Business Network on Monday.
Substantial communications between the two sides had taken place over the weekend and there would be US-China staff-level meetings this week in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual gatherings, he added.
“The 100 per cent tariff does not have to happen,” Mr Bessent said. “The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we’ll see where it goes.”
“President Trump said the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1,” he added. “He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on.”
Washington and Beijing have been negotiating since May.
China’s commerce ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a working-level meeting had taken place the previous day.
It also highlighted formal negotiations held earlier in London, Stockholm and Madrid, culminating in a 90-day tariff extension.
The ministry, however, warned that “the US cannot ask for talks while simultaneously threatening new restrictive measures”.
Politics
Latest Ukraine-Russia War Update: Trump Official Says Putin Will Pay the Price if Fighting Continues!
US pressures Japan to halt Russian oil imports
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he has urged Japan to halt all imports of Russian energy, signalling a harder line from the Trump administration toward allies maintaining limited trade ties with Moscow.
“Minister Kato and I also discussed important issues pertaining to the US–Japan economic relationship and the Administration’s expectation that Japan stop importing Russian energy,” Bessent posted on X after his meeting with Japan’s finance minister Katsunobu Kato in Washington.
The two met on the sidelines of the IMF annual meetings and the G7 and G20 finance leaders’ gatherings being held this week in Washington.”
Japan will do what it can based on the basic principle of coordinating with G7 countries to achieve peace in Ukraine in a fair manner,” Kato told reporters, when asked whether Japan was urged by Bessent to stop importing Russian energy.
Tokyo has already pledged to phase out Russian oil imports as part of the G7’s coordinated sanctions response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
However, Japan continues to buy Sakhalin Blend crude – a byproduct of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East.
The energy source remains crucial for Japan, providing about 9 per cent of its total LNG imports, a key component of its energy security.
Shweta Sharma16 October 2025 04:01
IMF chief plans to visit Ukraine, Bloomberg reports
The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, plans to travel to Ukraine, supporting its efforts to secure a new loan package in the fourth year of the war, Bloomberg has reported.
An IMF spokesperson said: “Our staff remains actively engaged with the Ukrainian authorities on macroeconomic policies aimed at maintaining stability, financing essential expenditures, and restoring debt sustainability, with a view to continued IMF support.”
The exact time of the visit is yet to be determined.
Harriette Boucher16 October 2025 04:00
India to stop buying Russian oil, Trump claims
Trump said on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to stop buying oil from Russia, India’s top oil supplier, but could not halt its shipments “immediately”.
The announcement comes as Trump tries to step up efforts to cut off Moscow’s energy funding.
“Now I’ve got to get China to do the same thing,” Trump told reporters.
The Indian embassy in Washington has not yet confirmed this.
Harriette Boucher16 October 2025 03:00
Zelensky and Greek PM discuss possibility of U.S.-supplied natural gas
Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed the possibility of the U.S. supplying natural gas to Ukraine as it struggles with the consequences of Russia’s multiple attacks on the country’s energy system.
Ukraine’s president said he was working to strengthen its air defence as much as possible before winter begins.
Harriette Boucher16 October 2025 02:00
Ukraine has prepared its ‘homework’ ahead of meeting with Trump, says Zelensky
Ukraine has prepared its “part of the homework” ahead of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump in Washington on Friday.
He says the agenda will be substantive, and the meeting could bring the war closer to an end.
We have already prepared our part of the homework ahead of the meeting with President Trump – both the military component and the economic one. Every detail is ready. The agenda of our meeting with the President of the United States is very substantive, and I thank everyone who… pic.twitter.com/Jwpp5bdn5h
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 15, 2025
Harriette Boucher16 October 2025 01:02
Kremlin denies Trump’s warning that Russian economy set to ‘collapse’
The Kremlin has hit back at accusations by Donald Trump that the Russian economy is on its way to “collapse”.
Asked about Trump’s remarks at an energy conference in Moscow, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees energy and the economy for the government, said that Russia had a stable supply of gasoline.
“We have a stable domestic market supply, we see no problems in this regard,” Novak said.
“The balance is maintained between production and consumption, and we, on the part of the government and the relevant ministries, are doing everything to ensure that this remains the case.”
You can read more below…
Nicole Wootton-Cane16 October 2025 00:00
Nato defence ministers agree ‘counter-drone measures’, Rutte says
A meeting of Nato country defence ministers have agreed additional counter-drone measures to step up support to Ukraine, chief Mark Rutte said.
In a post on X he wrote: “Excellent discussions with Defence Ministers, reaffirming increased defence investment, enhanced defence production & stepping up support to Ukraine.
“We will also implement additional counter-drone measures — #NATO is ready to do what it takes to keep our 1bn people safe & our territory secure.”
Nicole Wootton-Cane15 October 2025 23:00
Ukraine has relied on trains during the war – Russia is creating new technology to target them
As war rages on in Ukraine, the country has become reliant on its rail networks, which it has so far managed to keep running despite repeated strikes.
But officials and analysts are warning that advances in Russian drone capabilities and the growing tempo of attacks pose a serious threat to the vital infrastructure.
You can read more below…
Nicole Wootton-Cane15 October 2025 22:00
Trump has threatened to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine – but can they turn the tide of the war?
Washington may give access to powerful Tomahawk missiles, with Moscow threatening to respond. Experts tell Nicole Wootton-Cane that the weapons could significantly boost Ukraine – but their power shouldn’t be overstated.
Nicole Wootton-Cane15 October 2025 21:30
Watch: Zelensky confirms meeting with Trump in Washington
Nicole Wootton-Cane15 October 2025 21:00
