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Erira Kirk, wife of Charlie Kirk, who was killed a few weeks earlier during an outdoor activity on a university campus in Utah, spoke at a memorial service that had the feel of a political rally.

Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, delivered an emotional speech at his memorial service in which she said she forgives alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson.

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-09-22T11:31:13.572079805Z

In an emotional address, Erira Kirk struck a stark contrast with the other speakers, whose remarks had turned the ceremony into a platform for political attacks.

Amid this combative tone, she chose a different path, declaring that she forgave her husband’s killer.

Before a crowd gathered both to pay tribute and to project a combative political stance, she chose to deliver a message of forgiveness.

«I forgive the man who took my husband’s life», she declared, prompting a mix of astonishment and applause.

«I hate my opponent»

-Donald Trump

Her words, marked by gravity, gave the ceremony a profound tone amid a memorial service overshadowed by an unusual militant atmosphere, shaped in part by the speeches of JD Vance and Donald Trump

JD Vance says Kirk is «a martyr»

Addressing the thousands gathered at the memorial, Vice President JD Vance cast Charlie Kirk’s death in explicitly heroic and religious terms.

«We must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America, and he is a martyr for the Christian faith. May our heavenly Father give us the courage to live as Charlie lived», Vance told the crowd, framing Kirk not only as a political figure but as a symbol of Christian sacrifice and national devotion.

Trump wants division

At the Glendale memorial for Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump drew a sharp contrast between his own political stance and the values he attributed to the slain conservative activist. Paying tribute, Trump described Kirk as «truly … a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose.»

Trump added that Kirk embodied a generosity of spirit:

«He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them.»

But Trump immediately distanced himself from that approach, offering words that underscored his combative posture:

«That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry, I am sorry, Erika,» he declared, addressing Kirk’s widow.

The admission, delivered in front of thousands, highlighted the president’s readiness to embrace confrontation, even in a moment intended for remembrance and reconciliation.

«The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.»

Erika Kirk calls for forgiveness

Erika Kirk delivered a message that sharply contrasted with the combative tone of Trump:

«My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life», and with her voice breaking, she added:

«That young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it is what Charlie would do.»

She urged the audience to resist anger and retaliation, declaring:

«The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.»

A vow to carry on his mission

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, was shot and killed earlier this month during an outdoor event on a university campus in Utah.

His death sent shockwaves through the conservative movement and drew tens of thousands to Glendale, Arizona, for a memorial that blended religious fervor with partisan politics.

While his assassination has intensified political divisions, his wife Erika Kirk has emerged as both the guardian of his legacy and the new chief executive of his organization, vowing to continue the mission he began.

“[Charlie] did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them."Read: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol…

— Rolling Stone (@rollingstone.com) 2025-09-22T14:48:46.709Z

Donald Trump has confirmed a strike against a second ship accused of transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States.

The US military killed three people in another deadly strike on a vessel in international waters around South America allegedly "transporting illegal narcotics" from Venezuela, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post. https://cnn.it/4na60EM

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-09-15T20:37:27.065538936Z

The administration claims that this second attack, carried out in international waters, left three people dead.

« Violent drug cartels »

Without providing specific details, Trump described the ship’s passengers as « violent drug trafficking cartels » and claimed that the strike was necessary to protect US national security.

The first incident

The first bombing ordered by the Trump administration occurred on September 2, when the US military created an international surprise by destroying a ship from Venezuela, which Trump then accused of belonging to the « Tren de Aragua » gang.

The Trump administration justified the strike by claiming to know « exactly » the identity of the people on board, their activities and the origin of the vessel, without however presenting any public evidence. It presented it as a defensive action against drug trafficking threatening public health and the security of the United States.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the government « knew exactly » who was on board and what they were doing.

Tensions rise with Venezuelan president

According to Reuters, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro strongly denounced this U.S. first strike as aggression, rejecting the justifications put attack, in particular the allegation that the ship was actually carrying drugs or being used by narco-terrorists.

Legality and controversy

The bombings ordered by Donald Trump are causing considerable legal and political controversy.

In the United States, legal experts are denouncing the lack of a clear authorization from Congress, considering that the executive is overstepping its powers. On the international scene, experts point out that the law authorizes the use of force only in cases of imminent threat, or with the approval of the UN, conditions deemed not to have been met.

Many also point to the extra-judicial nature of these strikes, carried out without public proof.

BREAKING: Trump says the U.S. again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela and three people were killed in the strike.

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) 2025-09-15T20:22:17Z

According to Bloomberg, Larry Ellison has become the richest man in the world, surpassing Elon Musk.

In fact, theOracle co-founder has seen his company’s share price jump by over 40% in recent days. His fortune is now calculated at nearly $400B (US), unlike Musk’ s $385B (US).

NEW: Larry Ellison becomes the richest person in the world, with shares of the tech giant he co-founded surging more than 40%. https://t.co/oFC0H91tLV

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 10, 2025

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg completes the top-3, with Jeff Bezos and the duo of Larry Page and Sergey Brin close behind.

With the Ellison family’s recent investments in politics and media, plus anOracle order valued at over $450B (US) for Cloud services and contracts withAI, Nvidia and OpenAI, their empire has taken off in leaps and bounds. The Ellison family also recently bought Paramount Global for $8B (US).

Oracle and Ellison are also planning further deals over the coming months, which could exceed $500B (US), including a data center project with Softbank’s Masayoshi Son and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

The president threatened an ABC News reporter who asked him about free speech, suggesting he might ask U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after him.

The comments were the latest in a string of threats the president has made against the press in the last 24 hours.

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) 2025-09-16T18:00:12.209669Z

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Pam Bondi promised that the U.S. Justice Department would target « hate speech » attributed, according to Trump and his allies, to the left.

Bondi’s statements provoked an outcry, with many fearing they would threaten freedom of expression. It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump threatened a journalist who asked him about these concerns, which are shared even in his own political camp.

Asked about free speech from the White House lawn, Trump threatened Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News.

« Many of your allies say that hate speech is free speech, » the ABC News reporter challenged Trump, echoing criticism of the administration on this point and recalling Charlie Kirk’s own comments that even hate speech should be protected « by the First Amendment ».

Referring to Pam Bondi, Trump replied to the reporter:

« She’d probably go after people like you, because you treat me unfairly. That’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. »

Boasting that ABC had paid him « $16 million », Trump added:

« Then maybe they’ll come after you. »

Protected by the First Amendment

In 2024, Charlie Kirk had declared in a post on X:

« Hate speech doesn’t legally exist in America. There is ugly speech. There is rude speech. There is malicious speech. And all are protected by the First Amendment. Let’s keep America free. »

https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1786189687260103119

Recall that, during a recent podcast, Pam Bondi had declared that Department of Justice « will target you and come after you, if you come after anyone with hate speech. »

These remarks immediately drew criticism from a variety of quarters, including some MAGA Republicans, concerned about a possible rollback of free speech.

Bondi later clarified to Axios that the DOJ would not prosecute or investigate mere hate speech unless it constituted unlawful incitement to violence.

https://bsky.app/profile/axios.com/post/3lyxtnpmdek2p

Political polarization in the United States has reached an extremely dangerous level, affecting Democrats and Republicans alike. Since Donald Trump entered politics in 2017, a surge in threats and attacks has been evident.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is apparently the latest in a string of terrifying acts of political violence in the U.S. “A society that resorts to violence to solve its problems starts to surrender its claim on being a society,” @dgraham.bsky.social writes.

— The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) 2025-09-11T06:45:02Z

Yet while Trump points the finger of blame at the « radical left », citing the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the failed attempt on his life, he is silent about attacks on Democratic elected officials, including the foiled kidnap attempt on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the deaths of Melissa Hortman, a Democratic elected official from Minnesota, and her husband.

Even more, we can’t ignore the gap between pre- and post-Trump: from 2016 to 2025, figures from the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) reveal a dramatic increase in threats and incidents targeting U.S. elected officials.

In 2016, there were around 902 open cases. By 2017, the year Donald Trump became president, this figure jumped to 3,939, more than four times as many. The trend then accelerates: 5,206 in 2018, 6,955 in 2019, then a peak of 8,613 in 2020 in the midst of the presidential campaign.

An absolute record

The absolute record is reached in 2021 with 9,625 cases… never seen before! After a slight drop to 7,501 in 2022, the volume rises again in 2023 (8,008) and climbs again in 2024 to 9,474, almost to the record level of 2021. Full figures for 2025 have yet to be released, but Congressional security officials confirm that the pace remains high.

In less than ten years, the number of recorded threats has increased tenfold, a sign of political polarization that is now turning into physical danger not only for elected officials, but also for polarizing public figures like Charlie Kirk, media personalities building their notoriety on controversial comments and whose rise has accelerated with Trump’s arrival in politics.

Between 2017 and September 2025, many American politicians and public figures were the target of threats, attacks or violent plots.

Steve Scalise, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

By 2017, the attacks were multiplying: first with bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers, orchestrated by Michael Ron David Kadar and Juan M. Thompson, then with the shooting of Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice, where Republican Steve Scalise was seriously wounded by James Hodgkinson, a staunch opponent of Trump from the radical left.

The following year, the escalation continued with package bombs sent by Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc to Democratic figures such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as to CNN, and the attempt to intimidate Senator Susan Collins with a powdery letter.

A worrying tipping point

In 2019, the Christopher Paul Hasson case illustrates a worrying shift: a Coast Guard officer fascinated by Anders Breivik, he was planning a mass attack against Democratic elected officials such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as journalists from CNN and MSNBC, all motivated by white supremacism.

Gretchen Whitmer, Mike Pence and Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi

The following years confirm the seriousness of the phenomenon: in 2020, a far-right group plots the kidnapping of Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, out of hostility to Covid-related health measures.

During the Capitol Hill insurrection on January 6, 2021, several U.S. elected officials were directly threatened by Donald Trump supporters trying to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. In particular, the rioters chanted slogans calling for « hanging Mike Pence », then Republican vice president, accused of betraying Trump by validating the election result. Nancy Pelosi, then Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, was also among the priority targets, with intruders seeking out her office by shouting her name.

In 2022, physical assaults multiplied, with the attempted cutter attack on Republican Lee Zeldin, armed threats aimed at Democrat Pramila Jayapal and the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi, motivated by far-right conspiracy theories.

Nikki Haley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jack Smith and Donald Trump

The years 2023 and 2024 saw both a wave of swattings, affecting elected officials and judges of all stripes (Nikki Haley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Shenna Bellows, Jack Smith, Tanya Chutkan, Arthur Engoron, Rick Scott, Michelle Wu, etc.), and serious threats against Joe Biden.

It was also in 2024 that two assassination attempts were made against Donald Trump: the first in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bystander was killed and Trump wounded, and the second near his golf club in Florida, attributed to Ryan Wesley Routh, still on trial.

Josh Shapiro, Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk

In 2025, the attacks continued with the arson on Governor Josh Shapiro’s official residence in Pennsylvania, committed by Cody Allen Balmer, mixing personal hatred, anti-Semitic motives and reference to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

A few weeks later, Minnesota was hit by the assassination of Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, while Senator John Hoffman and his wife were seriously wounded by an assailant posing as a police officer.

Then, in September 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk is gunned down at an event at Utah Valley University, a tragedy still under investigation.

A heavy trend

We can see that political threats and violence in the United States are no longer isolated events, but a heavy trend that has been rising steadily since 2017. They affect Republicans and Democrats alike, fueled by extreme polarization, conspiracy rhetoric and the use of hate as a political weapon.

Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death perfectly illustrates the dilemma: rather than calling for appeasement, he directly points the finger of blame at the radical left, reinforcing the idea of an existential clash between camps.

This selective reading on the part of the President, who neglects the attacks coming from the right, risks further fueling the cycle of violence and further weakening American democracy.

At a private event filmed at Bedminster Golf Club, Donald Trump said smart people don’t like him.

The president took a swipe at his critics but seemingly revealed his thoughts on his supporters in the process.trib.al/mQ769pC

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) 2025-09-15T15:30:07.082419Z

A mocking statement, but one that some believe reveals his perception of his supporters.

A viral video at Bedminster Golf Club

In a video widely relayed on social networks, we see Donald Trump, microphone in hand, addressing a small group of people gathered around him.

The scene was filmed on September 13, at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, according to several sources.

While Trump was addressing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which occurred a few days earlier, as well as the suspect, it was nevertheless these words that caught the eye.

A revealing statement?

This statement, obviously made in a mocking tone, triggered laughter in the room.

Yet some observers saw it as a revealing remark, likely to reflect what Trump really thinks of his own supporters, especially as he has in the past expressed ambivalent views on the education or intelligence of his electorate, most notably in 2016, when he declared:

« I like the poorly educated . »

Trump’s latest comments are part of a long list of controversial outbursts, often calculated to provoke, confuse or polarize opinion.