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President Donald Trump concluded his official state visit to the United Kingdom on Thursday, Sept. 18, by meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
After the pair discussed their countries’ newly signed agreement on artificial intelligence technology, they faced members of the press, who asked them about a variety of current events.
Early on in the press conference, Trump took a moment to thank all the British citizens who had offered him condolences on the death of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed during a political speaking event on a college campus on Sept. 10. He was 31.
“Just last week, a great American, Charlie Kirk, was heinously assassinated for speaking his mind,” Trump said. “He related to youth, and they’re devastated.”
Kirk rose to fame after co-founding Turning Point at just 18 years old to advocate for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. In recent years, he had become a major figure in the Republican Party, especially with young voters.
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Kirk’s eponymous podcast was downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times each day, according to a 2024 report, and he often went viral for his debates with liberal-leaning students at college campuses around the country.
This popularity led many to question if he had future plans to run for office. According to Trump, this was something he encouraged.
“I told him, ‘Charlie, you have a good shot someday at being president,’ ” Trump revealed on Thursday.
Kirk’s wife, Erika, broke her silence on his murder on Sept. 12, saying, “Charlie always said that when he was gone, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith.”
She also shared some insight into her late husband’s possible political plans.
“He told me, if he ever did run for office, that his top priority would be to revive the American family,” Erika said, revealing that plans are being made for Kirk’s American Comeback Tour to continue without him in the fall.
“I honestly have no idea what any of this means. I know that God does, but I don’t,” she added. “All the evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done.”
The press conference marked the final official engagement of Trump’s second state visit to the U.K. after being welcomed by King Charles and Queen Camilla a day prior.
During a state dinner on Wednesday at Windsor Castle, Trump and King Charles showed their admiration for one another in their remarks to the 160 gathered guests.
King Charles spoke about the “special” relationship between their two countries. “I cannot help but wonder what our forebears from 1776 would make of this friendship today,” he joked, noting that both President George Washington and Charles’ “five times great-grandfather,” King George III, had harsh words for each other during the time of the American Revolution.
“Today, however, we celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined,” he added.
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The King also celebrated Trump’s British roots and his success in building two golf courses in his mother’s native Scotland: “I understand that British soil makes for rather splendid golf courses!”
For his part, Trump thanked the royals for their warm welcome during his unprecedented second state visit, calling it “truly one of the highest honors of my life.”
