Charlie Kirk memorial latest updates: Trump and Vance to join tens of thousands of people at service for rightwing activist | Charlie Kirk shooting

Charlie Kirk was shot while speaking at the campus of Utah Valley University, near Salt Lake City, as part of the American Comeback tour, which is hosted by the university’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter and was attended by as many as 3,000 people, according to Jeffrey Long, the police chief at the university.

Kirk had pioneered a style of ideological warfare against what he viewed as bastions of leftism, helping turn campuses into cultural battlefields and paving the way for Donald Trump’s unprecedented campaign to weaken American universities and subject them to his movement’s ideological agenda.

“Charlie Kirk will be remembered as one of the foremost architects of the political strategy of treating faculty and students with whom he disagrees as enemies to be defeated,” said Isaac Kamola, a political science professor at Trinity College whose research focuses on conservative efforts to undermine higher education.

Lauren Gambino

at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona

Thousands of people wearing red, white and blue are pouring into State Farm Stadium in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. Lines snaked several blocks earlier this morning before sunrise in the desert, where temperatures were expected to near 100 this afternoon.

Inside, many followers of Kirk, the vast stadium was dotted with red MAGA hats and American flags. Seats began to fill hours before the official program was due to begin. Some supporters were already in tears as they listened to a Christian rock group that was performing on stage.

Christian nationalists in the US are positioning Charlie Kirk as a martyr for their movement, one that has grown in popularity and whose rise was intertwined with Kirk’s own political ascent.

After Kirk’s killing, his widow, Erika Kirk, wrote on social media that the “world is evil”, but God “so good”. The “sound of this widow weeping [echoes] throughout this world like a battle cry,” she said. “They have no idea what they just ignited within this wife.”

While Erika Kirk’s private sorrow is no doubt very real, her public remarks are telling, said Jeff Sharlet, the author of several books on Christian nationalism and the far right. “That’s holy war, that’s accelerationism, and it’s incredibly powerful,” he said, particularly in the emotional context of a grieving widow.

Lauren Gambino

Americans are grappling with the brutal killing and complicated legacy of the 31-year-old far-right “youth whisperer”, Trump ally and podcasting provocateur, who was gunned down on 10 September in a brazen act of what prosecutors have labeled political violence – and which has deepened fears about the trajectory of a profoundly divided nation.

Kirk was struck by a single bullet in broad daylight as he spoke before a crowd of 3,000 mostly college students at Utah Valley University, the first stop on his national “American Comeback” campus tour. Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with capital murder in Kirk’s killing and said they will seek the death penalty.

In the wake of Kirk’s death, Trump and his advisers have sought to cast blame on Democrats, even though elected leaders and party officials have uniformly condemned the killing. Officials have said they believe the suspect acted alone.

Prosecutors have said that they suspect Robinson killed Kirk because he personally had become sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”. But, citing three sources familiar with the investigation into Kirk’s killing, NBC reported Saturday that federal authorities have not found any link between Robinson and leftwing groups, on which the Trump administration has threatened to crack down after the deadly shooting.

Fueled by an outpouring of grief and rage on the right, conservatives are demanding punishment for those who mocked or disparaged Kirk – a campaign of retribution critics say mirrors the very cancel culture he railed against. Since his death, teachers, students, journalists and late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel have been fired, suspended or disciplined over comments related to Kirk or his death, in a clampdown that free speech advocates, democracy scholars and other comedians say amounts to government censorship.

Donald Trump has boarded Air Force One to fly to Arizona for Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. The US president is expected to address the crowd later today.

Before leaving the White House, Trump told reporters:

“We’re here to celebrate the life of a great man. Really a great man. A young man. We look forward to it. That something like this could’ve happened is not even believable. Will be a very interesting day. A very tough day.”

Donald Trump, JD Vance and other senior US administration officials will attend a memorial service for murdered rightwing activist Charlie Kirk today as more than 100,000 people are expected to turn up.

Doors for the service being held at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona open at 8am local time (11am ET). But crowds already swelled hours earlier to secure a spot in the stadium, which can hold 63,400 people. Admission is on a first come, first served basis, organisers said.

Kirk, a close ally of the US president, was shot dead at a university campus event on 10 September. His death in Orem, Utah, shocked the nation and sparked condemnation from Republicans and Democrats. Utah resident Tyler Robsinson, 22, has been charged with several counts including aggravated murder following the 31-year-old’s killing.

Since the killing, top Trump officials have been threatening vengeance against anyone deemed not to have sufficiently mourned Kirk’s death. Vance endorsed a mass “doxing” effort to track down and intimidate people and vowed to crack down on groups who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents. Dozens of people have lost their jobs in the aftermath of the killing or been penalised, including late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, whose show was yanked off air over Kirk-related comments.

Federal law enforcement is treating the event with the same security arrangements as the Super Bowl, according to Fox News. The Department for Homeland Security is assigning the memorial Special Event Assessment Rating Level 1, one of the highest possible levels after a presidential inauguration or the Olympics.

We will bring you the latest political news and reaction from the memorial.