Kirk memorial: 'I won't call America a theocracy... But it's not a million miles off'

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• A memorial has been held for far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk, with Donald Trump and key figures from the MAGA movement praising him as a “martyr” for free speech and Christian values.
• The event, held inside a stadium which seats more than 63,000 people, saw speeches from the president, and other influential figures from America’s right-wing, including a comparison between Kirk and Jesus made by broadcaster Tucker Carlson.
• The News Agents say the blurred line between faith and politics in America is now more evident than ever, with religious deities now potentially being seen as the true leaders of the country.

What’s the story?

Fireworks. Donald Trump doing a little dance. Speeches that echoed Nazi propaganda. Charlie Kirk's memorial was certainly... something.

An estimated crowd of more than 200,000 people attended Arizona's State Farm Stadium on Sunday to pay tribute to podcaster Charlie Kirk.

Hailed as a hero to some – including the American government – his comments about women, Black people, gay people, on reproductive rights and rape victims being forced to carry their pregnancy to term, meant the lavish ceremony left a distinctly unpleasant taste in the mouth for others.

Kirk’s wife Erika took to the stage as flamboyant pyrotechnics were lit, Donald Trump spoke about his "hate" for people who oppose him, (and took a moment to praise his own tariffs) while White House deputy chief of staff Steven Miller delivered a speech which bore chilling echoes to one given by Joseph Goebbels to Hitler’s Germany in 1932.

Kirk was murdered on 10 September while delivering a speech on a Utah university campus with a single shot to the neck, and his killing has been blamed by the Trump administration on "far left radicals" – despite the alleged gunman not fitting "any pattern of domestic terror".

“The message from Trump is no different 10 days on, from the message we had on the first night that he learned of Charlie Kirk's death,” says Emily Maitlis.

“The radical left are to blame for this, a network of terrorism, Antifa, are to blame – and those are people he hates.

“He's not the President of the United States of America, he's the president of Red America.”

Trump, and those around him, continue to push the message that political violence is a “unique problem” which only exists in the left-wing of politics. This is a lie, and all evidence shows the exact opposite.

Is Charlie Kirk MAGA Jesus?

One key message from the memorial event was that in his death, Charlie Kirk has become an even bigger figure for the hard-right in America – partly, of course, due to their own actions and words since his death.

"Trump was right about one thing – that Kirk is bigger now than ever before, he's eternal," Lewis Goodall says.

"I think that is completely right, at least in the sense of his place within the MAGA movement.

"Trump explicitly referred to Kirk as a martyr."

Lewis describes the memorial as a “deeply evangelical” event.

And it doesn’t get more evangelical than comparing someone like Charlie Kirk to Jesus, and that is precisely what Tucker Carlson, who also spoke at the memorial, did.

Carlson likened Kirk’s killing to Jews killing Jesus, claiming it happened to stop him “telling the truth”.

Lewis says the implications, implicit or explicit, of this parallel were evident throughout, including in a speech given by Erika Kirk, in which she said she forgave his killer.

He says seeing the cheers of the MAGA audience to that moment was “moving”, but also highlighted the deep contradiction in the US right’s interpretation of the bible story.

Is America now a theocratic state?

Religion, or at least a pretence towards religion, has always been a major part of US politics, with leaders stressing their faith in order to maintain support from key voters in America's Bible Belt and other key Christian states.

Now it appears the line between politics and belief has blurred almost completely.

"There is now a Christian nationalist movement in America which believes in sowing the teachings of Christ and of Christian philosophy into the workings of government itself," says Emily.

"I'm not going to call it theocratic, but it's not a million miles away. It's a state that feels rewarding of Christian faith."

Lewis says what was seen on the Arizona stage was a return to a “language of morality, and therefore a language of censorship”.

"It is not that surprising that the right actually would have a very strong bit of cancel-culture inside them," he says.

"Historically, it was the right, particularly the religious right, that had the strongest sense about what you should say and what you shouldn't say.

"What we saw in the stadium is these threads becoming more and more exposed."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.