President Donald Trump said Wednesday night he is “filled with grief and anger” over the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder and CEO Charlie Kirk during an event in Utah.

“To my great fellow Americans, I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah,” Trump said in a more than 4-minute video posted on Truth Social. “Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.

“Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America.

“He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone so respected by youth.”

Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck during a forum with students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. A video from the event showed Kirk bleeding heavily from an apparent gunshot wound to his neck.

He is survived by his wife of four years, Erika, and children Mia Grace, 3, and James Charles, 1.

“Charlie also was a man of deep, deep faith, and we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven,” Trump said.

“Our prayers are with his wife Erika, his two young, beloved children, and his entire family who he loved more than anything in the world. We ask God to watch over them in this terrible hour of heartache and pain. This is a dark moment for America.”

Kirk was participating in the first of a 15-stop itinerary on what was billed as the “American Comeback Tour.”

In recent years, Kirk had made college campus stops a centerpiece of his messaging, encouraging students and the general public to ask him questions directly in a debate-style format. At the time of the shooting, Kirk was sitting at a “Prove Me Wrong” table, where he answers questions from the crowd.

“Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging in everyone interested in good-faith debate,” Trump said.

“His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody, to hear his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense. On campuses nationwide, he championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace.”

Trump then said it’s long past time Americans and the media “confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable ways possible.”

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.

“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that funded and supported, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to the country.

“From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”

Trump concluded by asking all Americans “to commit themselves to the American values to which Charlie Kirk lived and died.”

“The values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God,” Trump said. “Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.

“An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together, we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.

“Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before, and it’s not even close. May God bless his memory, may God watch over his family, and may God bless the United States of America.”

Source: Newmax