On September 10, gunfire opened on a college campus. What made this different from a regular day on U.S. soil is that this was not a mass shooting. One single shot rang out, and instead of hitting a student, it hit the speaker for the event being held, white supremacist podcaster Charlie Kirk, quickly killing him.

And although it could have been clear that the shooter was not a liberal, given that his finger was on a trigger and not a “send tweet” button, the Trump administration and its loyalists immediately began to fantasize about a civil war. 

Kirk’s death was confirmed by Trump on Truth Social at 2:40 that afternoon. At 3:03 p.m., Matt Forney, a well-known author in white supremacist circles, tweeted the following: “Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire. It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned under RICO. Every ‘libtard’ commentator must be shut down. Stochastic terrorism. They caused this.” (@realmattforney on X)

At 4:47 p.m., an account specializing in U.S. Homeland Security updates posted:

“OPEN CARRY EVERYWHERE NOW! CIVIL WAR HAS BEGUN” (U.S. Homeland Security News on X, Sept. 10)

And at 4:47 p.m., South Carolina Republican Congressional Rep. Nancy Mace stated: “Democrats own what happened today. … just because you speak your mind on an issue [aka spread Nazi ideology] doesn’t mean you get shot.” (Leah V. on X, Sept. 10)

Half-mast for a fascist

Trump did not waste time ordering every state in the country to fly their flags at half-mast on Sept. 11 through Sept. 14 for Kirk. Ironically, Kirk himself has said, “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Three states — New York, New Jersey and Minnesota — did not lower their flags for Kirk. But from Trump and Vice President JD Vance to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, politicians of both major parties were not only condemning “political violence,” but condemning the people on the left who refused to mourn a white supremacist. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed his staff to report military personnel celebrating or not condemning Kirk’s death; the internet opens that directive to the public with an online database with the name of CharlieKirkMemory. 

MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd was fired immediately after simply saying on air, “Hateful words lead to hateful actions,” as that was not sycophantic enough and was counted as a “celebration.” Dowd was a key political strategist for the 2004 George W. Bush presidential campaign. 

Black campuses receive death threats

And with Black people being blamed somehow, although the assassination occurred in majority white Utah and on a majority white college campus, historic Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) received an influx of threats by people claiming Black people weren’t condemning his death properly.

As with all the mass shootings of at least the last decade, while the shooter’s identity was still unknown, the ultraright spent the time hoping they were not white or if they were white, that they were at least transgender. In fact, Utah Gov.  Spencer Cox confessed at a press conference two days later that he spent all 33 hours that the shooter was at large hoping that “we could blame this on Muslims or migrants,” presumably so the U.S. can immediately launch the race war the right fantasizes about and/or start another war against a Muslim country. Cox was devastated when it turned out to be the usual demographic, a white man, and lamented that his “prayers have not been answered.” (Fuzan Gözükara on X)

When the suspect was revealed to be 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, very much not on the left ideologically, some bigots still clung to hope that they’d have at least one marginalized group to “justifiably” commit hate crimes against in retaliation, after initial reports that the bullets had trans “ideology” inscribed on them. This turned out to be the manufactures label, TRN. Not giving up yet, the current claim is that Robinson had a transgender lover. (cnn, Sept. 12)

Some right-wingers are still ready to wage war on whoever, even if the narrative doesn’t fit, including now-widowed Erika Kirk, who threatened, “You have no idea what you have unleashed across this country and the world.” (bbc.com, Sept. 13)

Other voices changed their tune; Rep. Mace suddenly called the shooter a “lost individual” to pray for. Trump, the same day, changed the subject completely; when asked how he’s holding up, he immediately brought up developments on the new White House ballroom being built, since no Democrat or oppressed group can be blamed for what happened to Kirk. Just one of their own. 

The orientation of the revolutionary left should be to prepare for more repression while continuing to organize the masses of workers and oppressed people against the capitalist system — the source of all fascist reaction from the White House to propagandist influencers such as Kirk.