Murder, Memes, and Messaging

Donald Trump and his MAGA Media allies wasted no time this week in pointing fingers after the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk. Within hours of the horrific shooting, the president placed blame for the violence squarely on the “radical left” for comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.”

Fox News hosts and right-wing influencers quickly echoed the charge, framing the killing as the inevitable consequence of Democrats and the news media demonizing conservatives and demanding that America “wake up” to the supposed threat. Jesse Watters, for example, declared on air, “Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us! And what are we gonna do about it?”

But days later, even after police arrested a suspect, the shooter’s precise ideology remains unclear. Authorities identified the alleged gunman as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah, raised in a conservative, church-going household, with no party registration. The ammunition recovered bore strange engravings, cryptic meme-laden phrases referencing fascists, video games, and online inside jokes.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox acknowledged Friday that the bizarre slogans defied easy interpretation and said investigators were still piecing together what they meant. “I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean,” Cox said. In other words, no coherent political motive has yet been established.

And yet, since the shooting, right-wing media figures have promoted their preferred narrative, claiming Kirk was killed by “the left,” calling for outright vengeance, and escalating their rhetoric about a “war” on conservatives. They’ve framed the situation as an “us versus them” moment to their audiences.

Suffice to say, but the rush to weaponize Kirk’s death by blaming an entire political movement—especially before the facts are even known—is deeply irresponsible in a tinderbox political climate. And it is possible that the profile of the suspect that emerges in the days ahead may very well stand in contrast to the one depicted to millions of Americans at this fragile moment.

Of course, for much of MAGA Media, that won’t matter. Falsehoods seeded in the immediate aftermath of violence are often how people remember the history of an event, regardless of what investigators later discover. Trump and his allies know this. By the time authorities clarify the shooter’s true background, the MAGA narrative will already be baked in for millions of Americans who were told—without evidence—that a leftist militant carried out the crime.

Time and time again in the right-wing media universe, unverified claims are presented as truth and amplified by high-profile voices who should know better. In this case, that rhetoric has included explicit calls for vengeance and disturbing talk of a looming civil conflict.

At a moment when political violence is on the rise, the responsibility of media figures should be to de-escalate, not stir the pot. Instead, Trump and his allies have chosen to dump gasoline on the fire, turning Kirk’s assassination into yet another weapon in the culture war—all before the truth about the suspect is even known. That kind of reckless behavior isn’t just misleading, it pushes America’s already volatile political climate into even more dangerous waters.