At the memorial event for slain US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Sunday, President Donald Trump and his supporters celebrated the 31-year-old’s life using the language of religious fervor.
“He’s a martyr now for American freedom,” Trump said of Kirk, who was killed on September 10 at a Utah university campus. Trump was the final speaker to address nearly 65,000 people at the event, held at a stadium in the southwestern US state of Arizona, with people coming from far and wide to pay their respects.
“I look at him as a Christ martyr, definitely,” said Monica Mirelez, a 44-year-old nurse who drove more than 12 hours from Texas to attend Kirk’s memorial. Mirelez told AFP she watched Kirk’s videos on Instagram every day.
“He was a perfect example of what we should be doing as Christians; we should be bold and speak up,” she said. “It’s so sad that he was silenced like this,” Mirelez continued, adding that “it feels like losing a brother.”
