The assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has sparked an extraordinary family clash inside the Trump orbit, with Mary L. Trump accusing her uncle, President Donald Trump, of fueling the kind of political violence that claimed Kirk’s life.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed on Wednesday at a Utah university. In a televised Oval Office address later that evening, Trump called Kirk a “martyr” and placed the blame on his political opponents. He said the “radical left” was spreading rhetoric “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and other political violence,” Trump declared. Mary Trump responded Thursday in her Substack newsletter The Good in Us, writing that her uncle “should start with himself.”
“Political violence and the rhetoric that drives it are almost entirely on the side of the Republican Party, and no person is more responsible for it than Donald Trump,” she wrote.
She argued that Trump’s rhetoric has long deepened divisions. “We have arrived here in large part because this country has been purposefully and maliciously divided against itself because of the rhetoric coming from Donald Trump and the Republican Party.”
When asked for comment, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson condemned Mary’s remarks as “disgusting” and provided a fuller excerpt of Trump’s speech. “Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died,” Trump said Wednesday.
“The values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God. Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”
Mary, 60, a psychologist and author, is a longtime critic of her uncle. She linked Kirk’s murder to Trump’s broader record, including his role in the January 6 Capitol riot and his later pardons of more than 1,600 rioters. “He has incited violence against his perceived political enemies as well as against his own government and then pardoned those who committed it on his behalf. This is not a ‘both sides’ issue.”
She added that Republicans often celebrate political violence, citing the “positively gleeful” reactions after the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi. Trump later mocked the assault during a 2023 speech. Mary emphasized she did not condone Kirk’s killing. “That does not mean rejoicing in what happened to Charlie Kirk,” she wrote.
The FBI has released photos of a person of interest but has not identified a suspect or motive. Meanwhile, Trump and right-wing allies cast the assassination as evidence of dangerous rhetoric from the left. Elon Musk wrote on X, “The Left is the party of murder.”
Mary countered that such messages “are designed to pour gasoline on the already raging fire,” adding, “The fire was started by the Republicans.”