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This Is Existential Maga S Siege Mentality Deepens After Kirk Killing

Bonisiwe Shabane
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this is existential maga s siege mentality deepens after kirk killing

September 11, 2025 at 1:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment “Charlie Kirk’s assassination has unleashed an outpouring of rage across the MAGA universe, with many leaders feeling his death is evidence the movement is under attack from leftist forces,” Axios reports. “At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the criminalization of the Democratic Party.” Along those lines, The Federalist writes that “it is time to designate the Democrat Party a domestic terrorist organization.” “President Trump says Americans are lucky he’s in office as he sought Monday to refocus his administration on concerns about the rising cost of living that have gripped much of… Charlie Kirk's assassination has unleashed an outpouring of rage across the MAGA universe, with many leaders feeling his death is evidence the movement is under attack from leftist forces.

Why it matters: At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the criminalization of the Democratic Party. What they're saying: Within minutes of the shooting at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, MAGA leaders cast Kirk as the victim of an existential political battle. Between the lines: The shooter in Wednesday's attack is still at large and their motive unknown, though the presumption is that Kirk's platform and politics played a role. Zoom in: Many MAGA influencers on X declared Kirk's assassination a turning point, labeling Democrats a "domestic terrorist organization" and demanding sweeping retribution. memeorandum is an auto-generated summary of the stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now. Unlike sister sites Techmeme and Mediagazer, it is not a human-edited news outlet, but rather a media-monitoring tool for sophisticated news consumers.

View the current page or another snapshot: Nihilistic political violence is becoming normal to Americans “It’s really comforting to be around so many good, faithful, God-fearing people,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told the thousands gathered for a prayer vigil at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC,... It was four days since Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University. The Maga movement was mourning his death with a convulsive anger and Kirk was on his way to becoming a secular saint. The assassination has laid bare America as a country soaked in religion and violence.

The vigil began with Christian acoustic rock and the pledge of allegiance. The bald, muscular man beside me let out shouts of, “Yes, God” and “amen” as he held his palms to the ceiling. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson – a short man with a cartoonishly young face – led the hall in prayer and said the “ground has shifted beneath us”. He was right. Do not underestimate the adoration conservatives felt for this 31-year-old activist. Kirk was the William F Buckley of his generation.

He did not have Buckley’s patrician flair, but they were both media juggernauts who were much closer to the government than their readers or viewers thought. Kirk was friends with Donald Trump and JD Vance. His organisation, Turning Point USA, was a factory for future Republican leaders. Kirk was a mentor to Leavitt when she ran for Congress in 2022. He lobbied Trump on top appointments and pushed for Vance to be his running mate. At the Kennedy Center, RFK Jr credited Kirk with facilitating the alliance between himself and Trump.

As voices across the political spectrum call to lower the temperature following the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, many in the MAGA world are mourning his loss, with some enraged... Across social media, some of the most popular voices in the pro-Trump movement are calling for a crackdown on Democrats and for the Trump administration to take action in the aftermath of the killing. In private, peers of Kirk say they are shocked and horrified by the shooting -- with some MAGA influencers telling ABC News they may be hesitant to do public events in the future --... "This will be the real turning point," one person told ABC News. MORE: Charlie Kirk shooting: A visual timeline of how it unfolded Charlie Kirk speaks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2022.Brian Cahn/ZUMA

Wednesday’s fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was greeted with widespread grief, horror, and shock by many MAGA and right-wing figures, some of whom counted Kirk as a friend or cited him as... But while many simply expressed their grief for Kirk and his family, and politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the killing, some public figures used the moment to make incendiary claims. On Wednesday evening, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that “[t]he subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” (By that point, far-fetched conspiracy... This did not stop some figures from stoking outrage, particularly against “the left,” whom—despite lacking any evidence as to the shooter’s identity and motive—they blamed for the killing. Former DOGE head and Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted to his 225 million followers, “The Left is the party of murder.” “The goal for Republicans in the next ten years shouldn’t just be to win elections, but to destroy the Democrat Party entirely and salt the earth underneath it.”

Why it matters: At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the criminalization of the Democratic Party. Other MAGA activists outlined specific demands, including the establishment of a House select committee on “left-wing violence” and prosecutions of progressive donors and funders. Zoom out: Mike Jensen, the research director at the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, was skeptical that America would reverse the trend of heightening political violence.

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September 11, 2025 At 1:54 Pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

September 11, 2025 at 1:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment “Charlie Kirk’s assassination has unleashed an outpouring of rage across the MAGA universe, with many leaders feeling his death is evidence the movement is under attack from leftist forces,” Axios reports. “At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the cri...

Why It Matters: At A Moment Of Extreme Volatility In

Why it matters: At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the criminalization of the Democratic Party. What they're saying: Within minutes of the shooting at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, MAGA leaders cast Kirk as the victim of an existential political battle. Between the lines: The shooter in Wednesday's attack is ...

View The Current Page Or Another Snapshot: Nihilistic Political Violence

View the current page or another snapshot: Nihilistic political violence is becoming normal to Americans “It’s really comforting to be around so many good, faithful, God-fearing people,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told the thousands gathered for a prayer vigil at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC,... It was four days since Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley Unive...

The Vigil Began With Christian Acoustic Rock And The Pledge

The vigil began with Christian acoustic rock and the pledge of allegiance. The bald, muscular man beside me let out shouts of, “Yes, God” and “amen” as he held his palms to the ceiling. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson – a short man with a cartoonishly young face – led the hall in prayer and said the “ground has shifted beneath us”. He was right. Do not underestimate the adoration conservatives fel...

He Did Not Have Buckley’s Patrician Flair, But They Were

He did not have Buckley’s patrician flair, but they were both media juggernauts who were much closer to the government than their readers or viewers thought. Kirk was friends with Donald Trump and JD Vance. His organisation, Turning Point USA, was a factory for future Republican leaders. Kirk was a mentor to Leavitt when she ran for Congress in 2022. He lobbied Trump on top appointments and pushed...