Elon Musk has risked stoking the heightened political tensions surrounding the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by posting on X the statement: “The Left is the party of murder.”
Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and a key ally of President Donald Trump, was shot in the neck by a sniper’s bullet at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday. He was raced to hospital but died soon afterwards. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.
As President Trump leads the tributes to Kirk, his killer remains at large at the time of writing. Two people were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the incident but both have since been released without charge. The manhunt for the gunman continues.
Musk’s inflammatory reaction was posted in response to another message on his social media platform that read: “The Left lectured us for the last decade about the dangers of violence from the Right. From the assassination attempts of President Trump to Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO, being murdered. Now to Charlie Kirk. The danger was actually on the Left.”
The tech billionaire wrote in response to another post: “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die.”
He further agreed with a post from right-wing media personality Mike Cernovich that accused wealthy investors George Soros, Bill Gates, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman of “funding” left-wing terrorism, without providing evidence.
Musk later issued a one-word response (“Exactly”) to another partisan post that read: “The left-wing mainstream media, as well as figures like Gavin Newson claiming Trump plans to be dictator, has created a climate of hysteria against right-wing figures that could radicalize any number of unstable people to engage in political violence.”
Newsom – the Democratic governor of California, who hosted Kirk on his podcast earlier this year –was among the first public figures to condemn the killing, writing on X: “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”
Other Democratic victims of political violence, including former congresswoman Gabby Giffords and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, were quick to follow suit and express their sorrow over the tragedy.
Musk went on to retweet Trump’s video message from the Oval Office paying tribute to Kirk as well as a post from Vice President JD Vance remembering his friend and an allegation from a person who claimed to have been in attendance at the event in Utah and said students were chanting “kill Charlie Kirk” before the shot was fired, which has not been substantiated.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss also reacted to a post alleging that users on rival platform Bluesky were “celebrating” Kirk’s death by saying: “They are celebrating cold-blooded murder.”
His remarks were quickly condemned on his own platform, with one person branding him “dangerous” and advising him to delete his account, while at least two more posted charts of mass shooting events to claim that the political affiliation of the assassins responsible was Republican in the majority of cases.
Musk became closely aligned with Trump following the attempt on the president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer, donating generously to his election campaign and serving for the first half of the year in his administration before the two men endured a spectacular falling out in early July.
He has largely stayed out of the political fray since then.
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