By Sophie Albertie
Is it a Memorial service if the focus shifts to political campaigning for the future?
Thousands of fans gathered in Arizona for the funeral of Charlie Kirk, but not a single family member was present apart from his wife.
The first family also attended the memorial service. All of Trump’s children and his ex-wife made an appearance.
The service itself was rampant with worship music,large wooden crosses, and huge holograms of Kirk projected on the screen behind the podium. This was to be expected, considering the man the service was commemorating was a born-again Christian that emphasized his faith in every aspect of his political productions.
What was not to be expected, however, was the contents of President Donald Trump’s speech when he got up to the podium. In a bizarre turn of events and tone, Trump came close to passive aggressively dissing Kirk’s tolerance of his opponents.
“He did not hate his opponents, he wanted what was best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry Erika,” Trump said.
This single sentence was the turning point of Trump’s speech. Suddenly, the service was not to honor the “Missionary with a noble spirit and a great purpose.” Instead, Trump started addressing how his administration took out “1500 career-criminals,” and how they stopped the crime in Washington D.C. in 12 days.
He ended the discordant address by encouraging Erika Kirk as the new leader of Turning Point USA.
“Under the leadership and love of Erika, it will become bigger and better and stronger than ever before,” Trump said.
The concept of the president shifting from love to hate in front of a packed arena of die hard Kirk fans and MAGA supporters is nothing short of disingenuous. For a party that is set on the motto of not everything being political, this objectively took focus away from a supposed tragedy and instead adjusted the spotlight to uphold anger and vitriol.
Democrat or Republican, eulogies should showcase humaneness instead of pushing a political agenda.
