Washington: Since the conservative activist of the United States Charlie Kirk was shot in a shameless sample of violence, President Donald Trump has adopted spokesperson in an extraordinary way.
Trump was the first to confirm the news of a country in shock that Kirk was dead and first announcing that the last suspect was in custody. He shared when Kirk's funeral would take place and said he would attend.
Before a suspect outside, Trump blamed, without presenting evidence of the “radical left” for Kirk's murder, and many of his followers repeated the accusation and asked for revenge in the middle of a wave of right wrath.
Kirk, a popular but divisive podcast presenter and author of a half dozen books, left a wife, prominent friends and legions of followers after being shot dead in a Utah College campus on Wednesday, where he was giving a speech.
However, it is Trump who has assumed a central role in messaging after the spooky public death of his political ally, delivering information that he would typically come from the application of the law or local officials instead of the leader of the nation.
His actions contrast with the most cautious approach to past presidents. But they are very in line with their inclination for direct communication, challenging the convention and in the midst of national and international problems.
“The only thing Donald Trump is that he is a very detailed individual,” said Mercedes Schlapp, Trump's main advisor in his first mandate. “Whether you are building the Rose Garden Club or we have this horrible tragedy, she wants to be the one who says the news.”
Trump ordered the flags to be flown to the half -mast, said he would give Kirk the presidential medal of La Libertad and saw his vice president accompany Kirk's coffin to his native state in the two -way force, all the quite unusual forms so that the United States government honors a political operation that has never held a position or served in the army.
Trump had a personal and political relationship with Kirk, the co -founder and president of the group of conservative students Turning Point USA that gives him credit by helping him appeal to young voters.
“Charlie had a magic about children,” Trump said Friday at “Fox and Friends of Fox News”, remembering how his teenage son Barron was amazed by the charismatic 31 -year -old activist.
Kirk was also a very partisan figure whose combative style and anti -immigrant rhetoric often led him to collide with others online and public. His opinions of extreme right about abortion, civil rights and arms control also obtained strong reactions from the groups that their comments pointed out.
Trump has asked for a non -violent response from his supporters, but avoided the reports of the reporters about how to unify the country in the midst of his most sustained increase in political violence since the 1970s. Trump himself was the subject of two murder attempts last year.
Trump minimized the extremism of the political right, telling journalists on Thursday that “we just have to overcome them”, reviving the calls of their followers to political revenge against the “radical left.”
Tyler Robinson de Utah, twenty -two, was arrested Thursday night by the shooting. The reasons remained unclear, and the researchers closely analyzed the messages recorded in four bullet plots. Experts have said they could refer to left or right groups.
Defining the narrative
Schlapp said Trump, a former reality television presenter, has come to enjoy unstructured exchanges with the press and the thug pulpit that comes with the attention he thanked him.
She pointed out that her communication approach has been more aggressive in her second term in office.
“He really wants to drive the news, and who is better to conduct the news that Donald Trump? And his strategy has worked,” he said. “His administration is offensive from the point of view of the media as nothing he has seen. They saw us beaten all the time in the first mandate. He has allowed the president to define a narrative.”
There have been no reports from Trump's assistants from the shooting. Attendees regularly postpone Trump in policy ads or the thought of the administration, who refuse to “get in front of the president.”
The style at the time at the time of Trump entails the risk of influencing a process of application of the law or then being contradicted by a clearer image of the facts.
“The presidents generally do not disseminate last minute news like that,” said Yu Ouyang, a professor of political science at Purdue Northwest. “They know the impact their words would have.”
Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, took Trump to the task of her comments last week, ignoring that liberal and democratic figures have also been subject to political violence in the United States. Some commentators contrasted repeated Trump messages about Kirk versus their relatively silent response to the murder of Minnesota's democratic representative, Melissa Hortman, earlier this year.
In a video message from the Oval office on Wednesday, he said: “Violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom they do not agree”, but then only called the rhetoric on the left.
“Although [Trump] He is trying to comfort sometimes, much of his rhetoric has also been increasing a lot, blaming a particular group before we even know who has done it, “said Denise Bostdorff, a professor of communication studies at the Faculty of Wooster who has studied the presidential rhetoric.
The White House did not respond to comment. Trump's staff promotes the president's accessibility, while many of his supporters enjoy his overwhelming and pursed communication style.
“Ronald Reagan was a speaker,” said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign advisor, “but Donald Trump understands the speed of the news and how to get a story.”
