On Tuesday, the Trump administration staged a grotesque and openly fascistic ceremony in the White House Rose Garden to canonize the racist propagandist Charlie Kirk as a “Christian martyr” for the MAGA-Republican Party.
At the ceremony, aspiring dictator Donald Trump awarded Kirk’s widow the Presidential Medal of Freedom and proclaimed October 14, his birthday, a “National Day of Remembrance” for “Charlie—a father, a husband, a Christian martyr, and a titan of the American conservative movement.”
The canonization of Kirk is being used to accelerate the criminalization of political opposition to capitalism and the transformation of the United States into a police state.
Tuesday’s state event was attended by virtually the entire cabinet, Republican congressional leadership, top intelligence and military officials, billionaire donors, far-right media figures and even Argentine President Javier Milei. The event served two main purposes: (1) To whitewash Kirk’s racist and white supremacist legacy; and (2) To use his death as a pretext for outlawing political opposition and criminalizing dissent against the financial oligarchy.
The choice of venue and timing was symbolic: the Rose Garden is the heart of presidential pageantry, and October 14 was Kirk’s birthday. Guests for the fascist memorial included Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House leadership like Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer, and Senate Republican leadership including John Thune, John Barrasso and Ted Cruz.
Cabinet and intelligence officials in attendance included FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, alongside MAGA propagandists and neo-Nazis such as Benny Johnson and Jack Posobiec.
In his remarks, Trump, as he did in Glendale, Arizona last month, cast Kirk as a modern-day “Christian warrior” slain in a “demonic act,” by the “left.”
Trump said:
We’ve watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one, they know that they are failing, they have the devil’s ideology and they are failing. They know it, they feel it and they become violent, they seem to become very violent on the left.
While no evidence has emerged that Kirk’s alleged assassin is part of any left-wing or anarchist group, Trump still blamed the “radical left” for his death:
Especially in wake of Charlie’s assassination our country must have absolutely no tolerance for this radical left violence, extremism and terror. We are done with the angry mobs and we are not going to let our cities be unsafe.
The fascistic president made clear that Kirk’s killing would be used as a pretext for the administration to erect a police-military dictatorship throughout the country:
So we are done with the voices of fools, they are fools, and death threats. And we are going to make our cities safe. That was Charlie’s, one of his biggest dreams was that. He couldn’t believe it ... Chicago is going to be a great city again. … So that’s why last month I directed the attorney general and Department of Homeland Security to confront the very real threat of left-wing terrorism in our country. It’s a real threat, not when you confront it, it’s not, because they are not brave people. In fact, they are cowards when you confront them, you, they immediately fold. You have to see them fold, you have to see them crying. They fold.
Citing his previous executive order targeting “antifa,” Trump repeated that he had instructed his attorney general and Department of Homeland Security secretary to “dismantle the networks” of the left, which he equated with terrorism. He said,
But it includes dismantling the networks that fund them and finance them. And we are finding out whose those networks are. We already know quite a few of them.
This comment was met with applause by the Republicans, neo-Nazis and Christian nationalists in attendance.
Laying the groundwork for police-military intervention against the upcoming “No Kings” protest set for October 18, Trump also claimed that all the signs at protests against him were made with “beautiful wood” by “anarchists.”
Trump’s attacks on the “left” are not mere words, but the prelude to state suppression. Following the ceremony, the State Department under Marco Rubio announced that several visas had been revoked for people who did not properly venerate Kirk’s passing on social media. In a fascist declaration on X, the State Department said that Trump and Rubio:
... will defend our borders, our culture, and our citizens by enforcing our immigration laws. Aliens who take advantage of America’s hospitality while celebrating the assassination of our citizens will be removed.
There is nothing in the US Constitution that limits free speech based on immigration status or whether or not it adheres to a “culture” imposed by the ruling class. This blatantly unconstitutional and fascist order targeted individuals from South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Paraguay.
Joining Rubio in attacking democratic rights, in an appearance on Kirk’s podcast before the ceremony, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made clear that the department under him would be targeting not only opponents of Kirk and fascism, but people and organizations that oppose Israel and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Bessent claimed that “violence” along with “antisemitism” had been “embraced” following October 7, 2023.
Bessent claimed that many of those expressing “antisemitism” following October 7—that is, opposition to the US-backed Israeli genocide—were being financed by non-profit organizations and that the US government is going to “follow the money.”
He said,
We have started to compile lists, put together networks ... this is mission-critical for us now, just as after 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit was captured, we are operationalizing using this here Treasury and we are going to track down who is responsible for this so Charlie’s death has set this off...
The invocation of the “war on terror” signals the repurposing of the legal, financial and surveillance architecture developed after September 11, 2001 for use against domestic political opposition.
The United States is not a totalitarian state. But the scaffolding of such a state is being erected piece by piece. All of this proceeds with the acquiescence, silence and active complicity of the Democratic Party. Following Kirk’s assassination, Democrats in both the House and Senate backed resolutions drafted by Republicans praising Kirk.
While the Democrats hold the occasional protest against the Trump administration, they refuse to mobilize mass opposition to Trump’s fascist drive.
Instead, as the government shutdown enters its third week, leading Democrats continue to plead with their “Republican colleagues” to “come to the table” and negotiate a deal to reopen the government so the Trump administration, fully funded, can continue its dictatorial rampage on the democratic, social and economic rights of the working class.
The fight to protect democratic rights and jobs cannot be left to the Democratic Party. As the World Socialist Web Site explained earlier this month:
The working class must intervene in this crisis, mobilizing its immense social power, to force the Trump administration from office and put an end to its criminal conspiracies. This struggle cannot be defined by or subordinated to the Democratic Party, which is opposed to any popular mobilization against Trump’s ongoing coup d’état.