Charlie Kirk and the Leader-Mob Dynamic of Trumpism

The secret to his success was acquiescing to power

I’ve read a few Charlie Kirk tributes, most notably by Andrew Sullivan, Tanner Greer, Ezra Klein, and Ross Douthat. For a contrary take, there is the always indispensable Michael Tracey.

The consensus among most observers is that Kirk was, as Klein put it, “practicing politics the right way.” He went into the belly of the beast and took on college students, which was extremely difficult at a time when conservatives, especially on university campuses, were a small and despised minority. He gave them a glimmer of hope, and a reason to believe that things might one day get better.

With a more critical eye, Michael Tracey points to clear instances of Charlie Kirk bending his principles in service of the Trump movement.

Perhaps most notoriously, after taking a personal phone call from Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk hopped on his podcast the next day and proclaimed, “Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being. I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration. I’m gonna trust my friends in the government.” He then bizarrely tried to deny that he said this, or insist it had somehow been taken out of context — which it hadn’t. The context was that Trump got annoyed that a bunch of people had criticized him over Epstein at Kirk’s “Turning Point USA” conference, and then Trump called up Kirk, and then shortly thereafter, Kirk announced he was going to do the government’s bidding. That’s just what Kirk was, and the role he played in US political affairs — notwithstanding how people might now want to exalt him as a paragon of truth-telling virtue because of his untimely death

His conduct was even more egregious in the run-up to Trump bombing Iran in June. During that episode, he pretty much served as a blatant government disinformation agent. Harsh as that might sound after he was brutally gunned down yesterday, it’s simply true. His mission was to demand uncritical faith in the US government, during a time of war — which is totally inexcusable for anyone who would consider themselves anything even remotely approximating a “journalist.” But that’s clearly not what Charlie Kirk considered himself. He instead considered himself a government media mouthpiece. On April 3, he said “A new Middle East war would be a catastrophic mistake.” Then by June 17, as drumbeats for the joint US-Israeli war against Iran were intensifying to full volume, Charlie changed his tune to mollify Trump, whom his whole identity was built around sycophantically serving. “It is possible to be an extreme isolationist,” Charlie Kirk warned his massive audience. “President Donald Trump is a man made for this moment, and we should trust him.” This was just pathetic. Turn off your critical thinking skills and place unquestioning “trust” in the US government to wage a war on false pretenses! What awesome, noble “truth-telling”!

Michael is centering the conversation around his obsessions – foreign policy and Epstein – but the point he makes is correct. Whenever Charlie Kirk’s stated principles, or even the things he recently said, conflicted with the goals of the Trump administration, he took the side of power.