Author Michael Wolff has weighed in on President Donald Trump’s response to the shooting death of Charlie Kirk, telling The Daily Beast Podcast that the president has put Kirk’s death to “dangerous political use without knowing the facts.”
”Before we had a suspect, Donald Trump was out essentially saying that the left, the liberals, the Democrats, and anyone who might oppose him was complicit in the killing of Charlie Kirk. This is not only just specious [and] wrong, but it’s obviously irresponsible,” Wolff said.
“I can’t help feeling that perhaps part of the issue is that he can’t talk about it. He can’t come to grips with this. Maybe in his mind, inside Trump’s head, it’s too associated—and how could it not be—with his own assassination attempt. So I think in some way he is running from this death instead of trying to do what a leader ought to be doing at this point and… expressing grief and empathy here.”
In a four-minute address posted to Truth Social on Wednesday night following Kirk’s shooting death, Trump lashed out at the “radical left,” blaming them for Kirk’s murder and labeling the Turning Point USA founder a “martyr.”
Trump’s comments came before a suspect had been apprehended, so nothing was known of the killer’s motivations or political beliefs.
The suspected shooter’s grandmother has since spoken out to claim that every member of their family is a Republican. “I don’t know any single one who’s a Democrat,” she told the Daily Mail.
The messages etched onto the bullets used in the shooting paint a picture of a person who could be more influenced by memes and toxic online spaces than someone motivated by a commitment to a clear political ideology.
Despite this, the White House is preparing to use Kirk’s death as a weapon against all of their political enemies, according to Wolff.
“I was picking up in the conversations… some reluctance from people around the president, but now as he has embraced this, it becomes the thing that they too have to embrace, which is that Charlie Kirk and the death of Charlie Kirk is now the weapon to be used against all perceived political enemies. And obviously that’s incredibly scary, frightening, and incredibly wrong,” he said.
When asked about why Trump appeared unmoved about Kirk’s death when asked by reporters how he was doing—instead opting to talk about the ballroom he’s building in the White House—Wolff explained that the president “doesn’t talk about personal feelings.”
“I can’t think of an instance, possibly briefly after the Butler assassination attempt on him, but he doesn’t talk about personal feelings. He never talks about personal feelings. Everything is exterior for Donald Trump,” Wolff said.
“I think Trump also knew [Kirk], liked him, felt a rapport for him. But because Trump can’t express this, this has become this other thing: it’s vengeance for Charlie Kirk. It’s the left or the liberals who killed Charlie Kirk and our commitment now is to going after them,” he explained of the perceived MAGA mindset.
“It’s this weird moment in which everybody seems to be having a great deal of trouble processing this on a normal human level.”
Citing reports that the Trump administration had delayed publicizing news of the shooter’s capture so that Trump could make the announcement himself on Fox News, Wolff described the cynical usage of Kirk’s death by the Trump administration as “horrifying.”
“They wanted to own this. They want to own Charlie Kirk. They want to own this terrible event. And they want to put it to use. I mean, it’s horrifying.”
When reached for comment about Wolff’s assessment of the situation, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
