Charlie Kirk’s widow and successor as head of Turning Point USA will be President Donald Trump’s guest at the State of the Union (SOTU) speech Tuesday night, highlighting Charlie’s legacy and Erika Kirk’s ongoing work.
Trump's Truth Social platform promoted an article from The Post Millennial Tuesday announcing that the president had invited Erika Kirk to be present at the SOTU as his guest. Trump previously and posthumously awarded Charlie America's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Erika accepted in her husband's name. Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September 2025 by an LGBTQ radical, cutting short the life of one of the most enthusiastic patriots, fervent Christians, and successful political organizers in the modern American political scene. Instead of expanding TPUSA for years to come and even running for president, the young husband and father died after a single shot from Tyler Robinson. It was a tragedy and — no pun intended — a turning point in American history.
The most charitable conservative figure, the man famous for encouraging everyone's free speech, was martyred. Charlie's death and the gleeful leftist reaction to it illustrated in painful clarity that the Democrat Party is thoroughly evil and either we will make that party a nightmare of the past, or it will destroy our country as it destroyed Charlie. There cannot be compromise. Patriots tried to ignore the lessons of the Democrat-launched Civil War, and it led to the current political and cultural crisis, including Charlie's assassination and multiple attempted assassinations on Trump. We cannot afford to be blind in the next three years.
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It has been a concern of some conservatives, including myself, that Americans now often have a short memory even about traumatic events, and that perhaps the fervor inspired by Charlie's death would wear off even before the midterm election. I think Trump is helping reawake that fervor by inviting Erika to the SOTU, which means the president also intends to pay tribute to Charlie during the address.
American conservatives were rightly riled up after Charlie Kirk's tragic murder, but that did not translate into effective political organizing ahead of the 2025 elections, which went badly for Republicans. We cannot afford to make that mistake this election year. If there's one political achievement of which Charlie Kirk was proud in the last two years, it was helping ensure Donald Trump's 2024 re-election. Charlie had a successful model. Why shouldn't the GOP adapt it for the Republican Party across the nation? And does not every voter have a role to play in getting out the vote?
In that way, we would be honoring Charlie's memory, just as attending church or synagogue, fearlessly challenging lies, educating young people, defending free speech, and unifying Americans of different backgrounds is honoring his memory.
Charlie Kirk died before he could accomplish half of what he aimed to accomplish. That means that the torch has passed not only to his widow Erika and the TPUSA team, but to all of us who love family, faith, and freedom as Charlie did. President Trump is rightly honoring Charlie and Erika Kirk at the SOTU, but each one of us should be carrying on Charlie's legacy through our actions not just tonight, but every single day.
Editor's Note: PJ Media will be live-blogging the SOTU Tuesday night starting at 8:45 pm EST! Don't just join us -- share your own thoughts with the PJ team as Trump speaks!
