Donald Trump was a no-show at Sunday’s religious vigil for slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The president spent the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to his White House press schedule. He was seen speaking about Kirk’s death on Saturday night during a “Hope Through Education” gala held at the residence, where he discussed the suspect in Kirk’s murder, Tyler Robinson, becoming “radicalized.”
Trump’s schedule for Sunday included no public events. He returned to the White House at 6:30 p.m. after huge queues had formed outside the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the slain influencer.
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The vigil started at 6 p.m. and was attended by 85 members of Congress as well as key MAGA figures, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
While Trump was not present, his presence was felt.
During her impassioned speech, Leavitt covered for her boss, stating, “I speak on behalf of the president when I say President Trump loved you, Charlie, so much.”
Other speakers at the event included Sen. Jake Hoffman of Arizona, a friend of Kirk, who told the guests, “We know there are two special individuals in that big, beautiful White House that care about Charlie Kirk, don’t we?”
“President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance love Charlie Kirk just like you love Charlie Kirk.”
His statement was greeted by huge applause.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on Trump’s absence.
While not present for the prayer vigil, the president reiterated Sunday that he would attend Kirk’s funeral next weekend in Arizona, following his state visit to the U.K. this week.
“It’s a very sad weekend in the sense that we lost a great person,” Trump said. “We’re going to Arizona, taking some people with us on Air Force One.”
When asked if his wife, Melania, who is also going to the U.K., would accompany him to Kirk’s funeral, Trump said, “I didn’t ask her that, but a lot of people are. We’re going to Europe, so we’re going to be doing that. I haven’t even thought of it. I’ve been thinking about other things.”
Picking up from his comments at Bedminster on Saturday night, Trump once again lashed out Sunday at what he has called the “radical left.”
The president also confirmed his administration was already investigating foreigners living in America who had celebrated Kirk’s death online.
“The problem we have is on the left,” Trump said. “And when you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speak so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that’s the left. That’s not the right.”
He added, “We wouldn’t celebrate if something happened on their side. And we don’t. These are sick people. These are really deranged people.”
Trump’s absence at the prayer vigil was filled by numerous other key allies. Speaker Johnson talked about a mixture of “unspeakable sadness and grief and anger and even fear” after Kirk’s assassination last week.
“It’s as if a dark shadow was cast over our country and certainly here, even on Capitol Hill. The leaders of the nation have been shaken, as have university students and college students and young people all across the country. It’s as if the ground was shifted beneath us.”
Johnson said Kirk “recruited and trained and educated a generation of happy warriors.”
Leavitt said she owed her job to the “heroic work” of Kirk in “turning the political tide” for American youth to vote for Trump and that he was the first person to call her to congratulate her on landing the press secretary role.
RFK Jr. was welcomed to the stage with a rousing chant of “USA! USA!”
The 71-year-old said of Kirk, “We were soulmates, we were spiritual brothers.”
He added, “He ended up being the primary architect of my unification with President Trump.”
An emotional Kennedy said he had spoken to Kirk about “the danger” they both faced from “challenging entrenched interests.”
“He asked me if I was scared to die. And I said to him, ‘There’s a lot worse things than dying.’ And one of those, and chief among us, is losing our constitutional rights and having our children raised in slavery.”
He added, “Charlie gave his life so that the rest of us would not have to suffer those fates worse than death.,
After a long manhunt, the FBI announced on Friday that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson had been identified as the suspect in Kirk’s murder last Wednesday at Utah Valley University. Robinson is expected to be charged on Tuesday.
