Erika Kirk Will Attend State of the Union as Trump’s Guest

Erika Kirk—the widow of influential conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated this past fall—is set to attend the State of the Union address as President Donald Trump’s guest. The White House confirmed to TIME that the President had invited Erika Kirk to the President’s highly anticipated speech on Tuesday evening. The Daily Wire first reported the news. “Erika Kirk will be one of President Trump’s Special Guests at the State of the Union,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X. In September, 31-year-old Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event he was hosting at a Utah university. His killing sparked outrage and grief from the right, and prompted a wave of concern about the rise of political violence in America. The President publicly mourned Charlie Kirk’s death, ordering flags to fly at half-mast. Trump spoke at Charlie Kirk’s funeral. “He didn’t deserve this—our country didn’t deserve this,” Trump said at the funeral. “And anyone who would make excuses for it are just out of their mind. Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man, on one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation. … The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.” In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the board of Turning Point USA—the youth activist group that he founded—named Erika Kirk as its CEO and chair. She has since then become an increasingly influential public figure, pledging to continue her husband’s work. “To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen,” she said in a livestream in September. “No one will ever forget my husband’s name, and I will make sure of it.” Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned Charlie Kirk’s killing and political violence overall. But some on the right, including the President, called for a crackdown on the left in the aftermath of the assassination.  At the funeral, Trump said that while Charlie Kirk “did not hate his opponents,” Trump himself did. “He did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponent,” Trump said at the funeral. “And I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Erika. But now maybe Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that’s not right.” Erika Kirk struck a different note than Trump at her husband’s funeral. In an emotional speech, she said that her husband had “wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life,” and that she forgave the suspect, Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with his murder. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do,” Erika Kirk said at her husband’s funeral. “The answer to hate is not hate.”