The exhalation about the importance of the murdered Christian and MAGA evangelist Charlie Kirk is more than just a public lament about a fallen right-wing social media creation.
Kirk is being exalted because Trump and the MAGA movement need a martyr to carry it through the next few years while Trump is walking through a minefield of dangerous issues concerning his role in Jeffrey Epstein’s child pedophile ring and money laundering operations, Trump’s failed foreign policy efforts, a declining economy, more public outrage about violent ICE arrests and illegal deportations, his self-serving real estate and crypto deals, and the general dysfunction of his government agencies.
Kirk’s martyrdom serves a purpose to Christian evangelists, anti-WOKE Trump supporters, institutionalists, revenge-seekers, and Congressional Republicans who need a distraction from the constant scandals. Plus, they have a compliant media and a national stage for their law-and-order message.
So, a murdered MAGA associate is just what Trump needs. And he got it.
Now, the right-wing media machine, accompanied by corporate media (CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times), Congressional Republicans, evangelical Christians, and even the New York Yankees and some members of the NFL, are all claiming that Kirk warrants national attention. Kirk did have some controversial “all-American” goals of forming a Christian society bound by church morality, MAGA principles, such as being anti-immigrant, the dangerous role of “Jewish money” to control the media, and the usual slew of MAGA-tinted slurs that are part of Trump’s message.
People forget that Trump’s first act as president was to pardon about 1,600 convicted felons from the Jan. 6, 2020, insurrection. This was an event that resulted in the subsequent deaths of five policemen, millions in damage to the Capitol, and a near-successful attempt to prevent the authorization of the 2020 election of Joe Biden.
MAGA is a violent movement. Trump’s administration uses violence frequently, from blowing up boats in the Caribbean with no evidence of a crime being committed to using masked men to arrest civilians on the street with no reason.
State vs. Individual Violence
Kirk’s murder also blurs the line between state and personal violence. When the state commits a crime (shooting innocent people in their beds, choking people during an arrest, or sending the wrong people to prison), it often goes unpunished.
Personal crimes against political leaders (as opposed to average citizens) get special treatment since they challenge the state’s authority to be the only ones responsible for committing violence with no repercussions.
Kirk was a MAGA propagandist. He made millions in promoting a Christian lifestyle (chastity, marriage fidelity, honest work habits, and ethics) that are admirable, but have nothing to do with Trump’s criminal, sociopathic lifestyles, which he has been practicing for the past 50 years. Being a Trump affiliate is also profitable. At the time of his death, Kirk, age 31, was worth an estimated $12 million and was making about $407,000 a year.
So what was the political attraction between Trump and Kirk? Not much. Trump is lawless. Kirk would be against that. Trump is an adulterer and a rapist. Kirk would be against that. But Kirk had a following that Trump needed, so he forged a link.
However, for political reasons, Trump recognized Kirk’s message, and his appeal to young, uninformed voters who should have been in the camp of Bernie Sanders, if the Democrats had been farsighted. Instead, Trump co-opted and claimed Kirk’s message, so he could claim it as his own, even though he has absolutely nothing to do with living it.
To distract from Trump’s criminality, increasing unpopularity, and possible impeachment for a third time if the Democrats win Congress, Trump is going all-out to exalt Kirk to a level he never deserved. This is being done for Trump’s benefit, not Kirk’s. Giving Kirk a medal or having flags flown at half-staff is all theater for the MAGA crowd.
Trump will push the Vatican to declare Kirk a saint, except he is not Catholic. The corporate media wrings its hands over the murder of a quasi-political leader because it fails to recognize that violence is as American as apple pie. Ask the native Americans, Blacks, and now immigrants and citizens who have Spanish last names. MAGA is a violent, lawless movement. Remember the Jan. 6 insurrection and the immediate promise by Trump to pardon all the convicted felons who had a role in it, with the understanding that they would become his Brown Shirts when the need arose.
It’s hard to avoid this MAGA martyrdom campaign by Trump and the Christian right. But it is their latest lifeline to stay in power and complete their Project 2025 anti-democratic agenda.
We can watch as more conservatives jump on the Kirk martyrdom bandwagon, not because they all agree with Kirk’s beliefs, but because they, too, have something to hide.
