President Donald Trump dedicated a portion of his opening remarks during a U.K. press briefing to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at a university campus in Utah on Sept. 10.
“Just last week, a great American, Charlie Kirk, was heinously assassinated for speaking his mind. He was a great young man. Incredible future,” said Trump as stood beside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Trump went on to say that Kirk, who he is awarding a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, could have been a future President of the United States.
“Some people said he might be President someday. I told him, I said, ‘Charlie, I think you have a good shot someday at being President,’” Trump noted, adding that he had “never seen anybody relate to youth like Charlie… they related to him, and they’re devastated.”
The President confirmed he would be attending a memorial service to “celebrate” Kirk on Sunday.
“I hope that together, our nations can lead a movement to defend the glorious traditions of freedom on both sides of the Atlantic,” added Trump.
Starmer also made remarks about the fatal shooting of Kirk, saying: “We all need to be absolutely clear about that whatever our political views, it is shocking and is to be condemned.” Starmer said he had reached out to Trump upon hearing the news, as he was aware of the President’s friendship with the influential conservative activist.
Read More: The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Political Violence Haunting America
Later in the press conference, which was held directly after Trump and Starmer signed a billion-dollar U.K.-U.S. Tech Prosperity Deal, the President was asked about “free speech” and how Vice President J.D. Vance has said it is under attack in the U.K. The reporter went on to highlight the “dismissal” of American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended “indefinitely” on Wednesday over on-air remarks he made regarding Kirk. “Is free speech more under attack in Britain or America?” the reporter asked.
“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else,” Trump claimed. “He said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk… they should have fired him a long time ago. You can call that ‘free speech’ or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
In the opening monologue of his show on Monday night, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s assassination.
Kimmel went on to poke fun at Trump’s response to a reporter’s question in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting. When asked how he was “holding up,” Trump responded by focusing on the ongoing construction of a new ballroom at the White House. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said. “This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
In a statement announcing the show’s suspension, TV station operator Nexstar Media Group’s broadcasting division president said: “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.”
Trump initially celebrated the suspension of Kimmel’s show via a statement on Truth Social, writing: “The ratings-challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on fake news NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!”
The response, and Trump’s reference to the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was announced in July, prompted some critics to accuse the Trump Administration of censorship.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said on Thursday: “This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes. Free speech is the foundation of our democracy, and we must push back against any attempt to erode it.”
Although the exact motive of Kirk’s killing remains unclear—suspect Tyler Robinson has reportedly been uncooperative as authorities continue to probe specific motives—Trump and Vance have vowed to crackdown on “political violence” from the “left.”
Speaking after the shooting, Trump argued in a video statement that “radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.” Trump referenced the assassination attempt on his own life that took place during a rally in Butler, Pa., in July 2024.
Days later, when taking the helm for a special episode of the The Charlie Kirk Show, Vance brought on senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller to talk about “all the ways we are trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence we are seeing on the far left.”
There has been a rise in political violence in America which has seen people of all political affiliations targeted.
This year alone, the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was set on fire by an arsonist, the fatal shooting occurred of two Democratic Minnesota legislators and their spouses, two Israeli embassy staffers were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C., a man shouting “free Palestine” tossed Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israeli demonstration in Boulder, Co., and a gunman who allegedly held anti-vaccine views opened fire at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
Following the killing of Kirk, “free speech” has proven to be a contentious topic, and Kimmel is not alone in facing consequences after making remarks.
Read More: MSNBC Apologizes Over Matthew Dowd’s ‘Insensitive’ On-Air Comments After Charlie Kirk Shooting
MSNBC issued an apology over on-air comments made by political analyst Matthew Dowd in the direct wake of the shooting of Kirk, before his death had been confirmed.
“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable,” read a statement from MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler. “We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
Dowd, a long-standing political commentator, who served as the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, was asked on-air to talk about “the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”
After emphasizing that there were no details of the shooting at that time, Dowd said of Kirk: “He’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive, younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
“And I think that’s the environment we’re in. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.”
A day after the on-air commentary, a source at the network told TIME that Dowd was no longer with MSNBC.