The moment in Charlie Kirk’s memorial that lifted thousands to their feet

Glendale, Arizona: Erika Kirk closed her eyes for a moment. “My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men,” she said. Then she lifted her gaze to the centre of the stadium. “Just like the one who took his life.”

Fighting back tears, the distraught widow looked to the sky as she recalled the prayer Jesus Christ is said to have uttered on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Then her voice fell to a whisper as she said of her husband’s alleged killer: “That man. That young man. I forgive him.”

The tens of thousands of Americans who had come to farewell Charlie Kirk rose to their feet and applauded as his wife’s face crumpled. In the crowd, people looked at each other and said: “Wow.”

It was the most powerful moment of a five-hour memorial – part eulogy, part evangelical sermon, part MAGA rally – for the prolific activist and campaigner who has become a contemporary conservative icon after being assassinated while speaking on a university campus.

Kirk was killed by a single bullet fired from a rooftop while he debated attendees at Utah Valley University on September 10. He was 31. A 22-year-old man from Utah has been charged with murder.

The event has rocked US politics, particularly on the right, with the country sharply divided about a spate of political violence that has run from the attempt on Donald Trump’s life last year to the assassination of Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and now the killing of Kirk.

Sunday’s memorial was held at State Farm Stadium, a cavernous dome rising out of the Arizona desert a few kilometres north-west of Phoenix. Tens of thousands of well-wishers, many dressed in patriotic regalia or sporting Trump campaign gear, packed the 63,000-plus venue, as well as a nearby overflow arena.

Among them was Trump himself, joined by most members of his cabinet, Vice President JD Vance, senators and representatives, high-profile pundits and business leaders – including Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who briefly joined the US president in his box suite.

The scale and security of the event was likened to a presidential funeral or the Super Bowl. “Charlie’s having some serious heavenly FOMO right now,” said Tyler Bowyer, a friend of Kirk’s and the chief operating officer at Turning Point USA, as he surveyed the cheering crowd.

Trump, who spoke last after Erika, praised Charlie Kirk as “one of the brightest lights of our times, a giant of his generation”. On the day he was assassinated, Trump said, “our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal”.

“He’s a martyr now for America, freedom,” the president said. “None of us will ever forget Charlie Kirk, and neither, now, will history.”

Late in his speech, Trump addressed the country’s complex reaction to Kirk’s assassination, which has featured some progressives dismissing or even celebrating his death, and conservatives seeking vengeance. The Trump administration has also signalled a crackdown on left-wing activists it deems to be inciting violence.

“No side in American politics has a monopoly on disturbed or misguided people,” Trump said.

“But there’s one part of our political community that believes they have a monopoly on truth, goodness and virtue, and concludes also they have a monopoly on power, thought and speech.

“Atrocities of this kind … are the eventual consequence of that kind of thinking. If speech is violence, then some are bound to conclude that violence is justified to stop speech.”

Trump invited Erika Kirk back on stage at the end of his speech; he hugged and consoled her as she rested her head on his shoulder.

Earlier, she had spoken about seeing her husband’s dead body in hospital. “I saw the wound that ended his life. I felt everything you would expect to feel … but there was something else too,” she said.

“I also saw on his lips the faintest smile, and that told me something important. It revealed to me a great mercy from God … it told me that Charlie didn’t suffer.”

As Kirk did in his life and work, the ceremony straddled religion and politics. It began with a bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace – Kirk loved the instrument – and mixed prayer with a political call to arms.

“Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus,” said Kirk’s pastor Rob McCoy, co-chair of TPUSA Faith. “He knew if he could get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty, you’d come to its source, and that’s the Lord.”

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller roused the crowd with a loud, fiery speech in which he said the angels’ tears over Kirk’s death had turned into “a fire that burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend”.

Casting Kirk’s murder as a rallying point in an existential battle between good and evil, Miller said: “The light will defeat the dark … They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.”

To those who wished to incite violence or hate against conservatives, Miller thundered: “You are nothing. You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing.

“We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity. You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk? You have made him immortal.”

Vance, who was a close friend and confidant of Kirk, drew attention to the young activist’s success building a conservative juggernaut that appealed to young people – on campus, in the media and at the ballot box.

“From this desert, Charlie Kirk built a movement,” Vance said. “He transformed the face of conservatism in our own time, and in doing so, he changed the course of American history.”

The vice president also credited Kirk with the Trump administration’s success with young voters at last year’s election. “We know we wouldn’t be here without him.”

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who was his de facto campaign manager in 2024, agreed. “Charlie didn’t just help, he made the winning difference,” she said. “I promise you that.”

A number of fellow conservative activists and commentators spoke. Mikey McCoy, who was Kirk’s chief of staff, quoted 19th-century Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard when he said: “The tyrant dies, and his rule is over. The martyr dies, and his rule has just begun.”

And Donald Trump Jr drew laughs from the crowd and the president when he imitated his father’s distinctive voice.

Trump entered the arena about two hours into the ceremony and sat in a box suite behind a bulletproof shield. Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White joined him for most of the service, while Musk made a brief visit, sitting beside Trump and chatting.

It was a sign their friendship had been at least partially rekindled following their spectacular falling out earlier this year. In a post on X, the White House credited the turnaround to Charlie Kirk bringing people together.

“He was killed because his words made a difference,” Musk said of Kirk in an off-stage interview. “Because he was showing people the light. And he was killed by the dark.”

Later, he echoed Erika Kirk’s words of forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” Musk posted.

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