On September 10, 2025, Right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a Turning Point USA public debate event on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.

Since then, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have threatened retribution (“consequences”) for people who speak callously about his killing.

Both in and out of Trump’s administration people have been fired, suspended or reprimanded for exercising their Constitutional right to freedom of speech. 

Charlie Kirk 

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Among those so far fired or punished: Teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit. 

Over the weekend following Kirk’s death, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s assassination.

On September 15—five days after Kirk’s death—Vice President J.D. Vance hosted Kirk’s podcast: “So, when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out and, hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”  

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance had criticized the preceding Biden administration for encouraging “private companies to silence people” who spread misinformation about the COVID pandemic:

“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.” 

J.D. Vance

At the Pentagon, military leaders declared a “zero tolerance” policy for any posts or comments from troops that joked about or celebrated the death of Kirk.

“It is unacceptable for military personnel and Department of War civilians to celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American,” wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed to use law enforcement to go after Americans who mocked Kirk’s death, calling that domestic terrorism:

“We will not live in fear, but you will live in exile, because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and if you have broken the law to take away your freedom.” 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended an Army colonel for a post-criticizing Kirk after his death and said the Pentagon was “very closely tracking responses celebrating or mocking Kirk’s death.” 

Trump ordered the lowering of the American flag on all public buildings from September 10 to the 14th in honor of Kirk.

Yet he refused to do so following the June 14 murder of Minnesota State Representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman in her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

Also shot—and killed—was her husband, Mark.

Melissa Hortman 

Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier that morning, Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, had been shot in their home in nearby Champlin. Both were hospitalized and survived.

And how did Republican United States Senator Mike Lee react to the shootings? 

Writing on X, the Utah Senator posted: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”

On the contrary: Vance Luther Boelter, the alleged shooter, was virulently anti-abortion and anti-Democrat—and voted in the Republican Presidential primary.

And in a second post, Lee posted a picture of Boelter under the caption “Nightmare on Walz Street,” parodying the title of the slasher film, “Nightmare on Elm Street.” It was also a slam on Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz. 

On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) blamed news outlets for having guests on who called Trump a “fascist” or compared him to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Yet it is Republicans who have repeatedly called Democrats “fascists.” 

For example: On August 14, 2023, a Georgia grand jury indicted Donald Trump and 18 allies for election interference in that state following the 2020 Presidential election. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani responded: “We’re going to beat these fascists into the ground.”

Trump has repeatedly called “radical left Democrats” “fascists.” On his website, Truth Social, he claimed that his “persecution” by the “Biden Crime Family” was “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.”

And contrast Republicans’ outrage at Democrats “lack of civility” with the behavior of Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. 

On the September 10 edition of “Fox & Friends,” Kilmeade advocated the execution of mentally ill homeless people.

Kilmede was talking with co-hosts Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt about the August 22 stabbing murder of Iryna Zarufska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A homeless and mentally ill man, Decarlos Brown Jr., was arrested for the murder. 

Jones suggested that those homeless who didn’t accept services offered to them should be jailed.

Kilmeade’s solution: “Or involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill ‘em. I will say this, we’re not voting for the right people.”

So far, the Fox Network has made no move to oust Kilmeade for calling for the executions of more than an estimated 120,000 mentally ill homeless Americans. 

In George Orwell’s classic political fable, Animal Farm, the dictatorial pig, Napoleon, decrees that a sign be posted:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL.

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

According to Republicans’ behavior: All violent deaths of politicians are terrible. But the violent deaths of Right-wing politicians are more terrible than others.