After Kirk Murder, Trump and Allies Vow to ‘Destroy’ Progressive Groups
President Donald Trump and his allies are intensifying their dangerous and anti-democratic threats to use Charlie Kirk’s murder to suppress progressive political activity.
Reacting to Kirk’s death, Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, vowed to investigate and dismantle left-leaning non-profits that they claim — without evidence —fund and promote violence in the U.S.
The Trump administration’s rhetoric around Kirk’s murder, and its attempt to link it to progressive causes and groups, has raised fears it seeks to use the killing as false justification to further crack down on political speech and opposition politics in the U.S.
The organizations named by Trump officials and other top Republicans include the Open Society Foundations, a progressive grant network founded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks right-wing extremism, and the Ford Foundation, another progressive philanthropic organization.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot while speaking at a college event in Utah last week. Kirk’s killing drew condemnation from both sides of the political aisle.
A 22-year-old suspect has been arrested and is expected to face several state and federal charges, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice and felony discharge of a firearm.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) last week said authorities believe the suspected shooter acted alone and currently have no information that would lead to additional arrests.
While hosting Kirk’s podcast Monday, Vice President JD Vance called for dismantling the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation, while alleging that they pay “the salaries of terrorist sympathizers” and “promote violence and terrorism.”
“Do you know they benefit from generous tax treatments?” Vance told viewers. “They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer. And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.”
Open Society Foundations, chaired by George Soros’ son, Alex Soros, has repeatedly denied the allegations and denounced Trump’s threats as political retaliation. After Kirk’s death, Alex Soros condemned political violence.
Vance’s comments came after Trump, who blamed the political left for Kirk’s murder before authorities had identified a suspect, told reporters Sunday his administration has launched a probe into unnamed figures in response to Kirk’s murder.
“They’re already under major investigation — a lot of the people that you would traditionally say are on the left,” the president claimed. “They’re already under investigation.”
The president did not provide details of the claimed probe but said his administration would make an announcement.
While speaking with reporters, Trump also again downplayed right-wing extremism by solely blaming the political left for violence in the country.
“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right,” the president said. “When you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag-burnings all over the place — that’s the left. That’s not the right.”
A day prior to his probe announcement, Trump asserted in an interview with NBC News that George Soros, one of the leading donors to Democratic candidates and progressive causes, must be “jailed” because “he’s a bad guy.”
The president late last week asserted that his administration would “look into” Soros for possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. Trump and his allies have long claimed without evidence that Soros funds violent protests in the U.S.
During Monday’s podcast, Vance also downplayed political violence stemming from the political right, claiming that “people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.”
“This is not a both-sides problem,” the vice president said. “If both sides have a problem, then one side has a much bigger and malignant problem and that is the truth.”
Vance only listed violence targeting Republican lawmakers and did not mention recent violence against elected Democrats, including the June killing of Melissa Hortman, the former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Though he acknowledged that “most Democrats do not share these attitudes,” Vance claimed that “something has gone terribly wrong with the lunatic fringe — a minority, but a growing powerful minority on the far left.”
Trump and Vance both routinely refer to their Democratic political opponents as “radicals” and frequently labeled mainstream Democratic beliefs as “extremist” in nature.
Senior White House officials also continued to assert that the best way to honor Kirk’s death would be to use the power of the state to go after Democrats and left-leaning institutions.
In a Fox News interview, Miller invoked Kirk’s last words to him while calling for a political purge against the left, which he called a “domestic terrorism movement.”
“The last message Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven, was he said that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence,” Miller said.
“We are going to do that. Under President Trump’s leadership, I don’t care how — it could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection — but we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities,” he added.
Miller went further Monday, alleging without evidence that a “vast domestic terror movement” was behind Kirk’s murder.
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” he said.
Miller in the Oval Office Monday detailed how the administration, through the Department of Justice (DOJ), may proceed with its crackdown on progressive nonprofits.
“Somebody is paying for this. This isn’t happening for free,” Miller said. “And under the president’s direction, the attorney general is going to find out who is paying for it, and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence.”
If Attorney General Pam Bondi does carry out such investigations under Trump’s direction, it would mark further erosion of the DOJ’s longstanding tradition of independence and apolitical law enforcement.
Miller has previously referred to the Democratic Party as “a domestic extremist organization,”
Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who earlier this year claimed that the Trump administration was attempting to “liberate” Los Angeles from its elected leaders, also cited Kirk’s last words to her in advocating for unspecified actions against state and local leaders who do not cooperate with the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“The last thing Charlie had texted me about, about a day or two before he passed away, was about those mayors and governors. He wanted them to be held accountable for how dangerous they were making the situation for their people that had to live in those cities.”
Trump’s allies in Congress, too, have demanded investigations into political organizations in reaction to Kirk’s murder.
In a letter to House leadership last week, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and over 20 other Republicans demanded a select committee be formed to investigate the “money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which advocates for the end of white supremacy and combats hate and extremism, was among the “radical organizations” Roy highlighted as potential targets of the committee.
This story has been updated with additional details.