‘We Will Not Let Them Win.’ Trump Marks One Year Since Charlie Kirk’s Assassination.
On the night of Sept. 9, 2026 — the eve of the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination — President Donald Trump (R) paused his keynote at the Republican National Committee’s first-ever Midterm Convention in Dallas, found Erika Kirk in the crowd, and let the arena chant her late husband’s name before he spoke.
“One year ago tomorrow, a far-Left extremist assassinated my great friend and conservative voice Charlie Kirk because Charlie Kirk spoke the truth,” Trump told the crowd at American Airlines Center. What followed was not a political attack line. It was a tribute — and, in Trump’s own framing, an argument about what comes next.
- Sept. 102025Charlie Kirk shot and killed at a Turning Point USA event, Utah Valley University — age 31
- Sept. 92026 speechTrump's tribute, delivered the night before the actual anniversary — RNC Midterm Convention, Dallas
- 7counts chargedagainst defendant Tyler Robinson, 23 — ruled to proceed to trial Sept. 1, 2026; pleaded not guilty
- $389,000,000TPUSA raisedcumulatively from its 2012 founding through mid-2023 — public IRS nonprofit filings
- $85,000,000TPUSA 2024 revenueup 142% over five years — public IRS nonprofit filings
- Oct. 2026next court datefor Robinson's capital murder case — NPR
Trump was near the end of his address when he asked the arena where Erika Kirk was seated. Cameras found her near Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (Trump administration). The building rose in a standing ovation and broke into chants of “Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!” before Trump continued.
“What shocked millions of Americans was not only the fact that Charlie was murdered, as bad as it was, but also how many people made an excuse for it or cheered for it.”
President Donald Trump (R) · RNC Midterm Convention · Dallas, Texas · Sept. 9, 2026
“We will not let them win. And in Charlie's honor, I just want to say we love you, Charlie.”
President Donald Trump (R) · same address
The convention hall reserved a physical seat for Kirk — an empty chair draped with a folded American flag and a placard reading “Saved for Charlie,” positioned near the stage for the length of the two-day event. Trump used the moment to draw a direct line from Kirk’s death to the coming midterms, casting the political reaction to the killing, not any misstep of his own, as the thing voters should weigh in November.
“For a brief moment, the mask came off the radical left, and you saw what they were really all about. And now those same people are trying to get power over you in this election, and they are all voting Democrat.”
President Donald Trump (R) · RNC Midterm Convention · Dallas, Texas · Sept. 9, 2026
'CHARLIE! CHARLIE! CHARLIE!' The RNC Midterm Convention crowd rises for a standing ovation for Erika Kirk before breaking into chants of her late husband's name as President Donald Trump recognizes her from the stage. 'We will not let them win. And in Charlie's honor, I just...'
An earlier Turning Point USA post from March 2026 highlighting Erika Kirk discussing motherhood and her leadership of the organization since her husband's death — background on the woman Trump singled out from the stage in September.
Kirk was shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at a Turning Point USA event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem. He was 31. Tyler Robinson, 23, was charged with seven counts, including aggravated murder with a political-assassination enhancement; prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. On Sept. 1, 2026, Utah Judge Tony Graf ruled there was sufficient probable cause on all seven counts for the case to proceed to trial. Robinson has pleaded not guilty. His next court date is in October 2026. No verdict has been reached, and nothing here should be read as a statement of his guilt.
In the year between the killing and this tribute, Trump announced a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Kirk within a day of his death, spoke at his Sept. 21, 2025 memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and presented the medal to Erika Kirk in the White House Rose Garden on Oct. 14, 2025 — what would have been Charlie Kirk’s 32nd birthday. Turning Point USA’s board unanimously elected Erika Kirk as CEO and Chair within days of the killing; she has run the organization since.
The RNC scheduled a separate, formal tribute segment for the second night of the convention — Sept. 10, the anniversary itself — featuring Senate candidate Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), ahead of a closing program built around Vice President JD Vance (R) and Trump. Separately, Turning Point USA planned its own memorial, “Freedom Built to Last: Honoring Charlie Kirk,” at the UCCU Center on the Utah Valley University campus — the site of the killing — that same evening. Three distinct commemorations, on two different nights, all converging on the same date: a measure of how large a place one activist’s death has come to occupy in the run-up to a midterm election.
