Charlie Kirk’s Widow Denounces Vandalism of Statue in Arizona: ‘His Instinct Was Always to Build, Not Destroy’

Not long after it went on view, a sculpture of Charlie Kirk outside his Arizona nonprofit was vandalized, leading to condemnation from the right-wing activist’s widow.

The eight-foot-tall statue appeared last week at the Phoenix headquarters of Turning Point USA, the conservative organization that Kirk cofounded in 2012. It was installed last Thursday on the one-year anniversary of the day that Kirk was killed after being fatally shot in the neck before a crowd. That same day, another statue of Kirk briefly appeared in New York’s Times Square.

The sculpture outside Turning Point was vandalized with red paint, with one splatter placed at its neck so that it appears to be dripping blood. A poster close to the statue was also vandalized. In it, Kirk, who once claimed that the US was facing a “constitutional crisis” driven by the sense that “we no longer have a Christian nation,” is welcomed “into the merciful arms of Jesus, our loving Savior.”

In a post on X, Turning Point said the vandalism was “not funny” and “diabolical.”

“The incident happened in the middle of the night because evil never sleeps,” the organization wrote on Sunday. “Beyond spray painting on the neck and face, they made the intentional decision to cross out the name of Jesus on a nearby sign.”

Erika Kirk, the activist’s widow, also weighed in on X, writing, “Charlie once said we should be building two statues for every statue that they tear down. His instinct was always to build, not to destroy.” (During his lifetime, Charlie Kirk was widely accused of using divisive rhetoric. He claimed that Democrats and “free market socialists” were among those plotting to undo the nation, and he also spoke of “prowling Blacks” and a “great replacement strategy” that would “replace white rural America with something different.”)

“They thought a bullet would silence my husband’s voice but it only made it louder,” Erika Kirk continued. “They think spray paint can obscure his legacy, but it will only spread it further. Every attempt to tear down what Charlie built makes us root deeper and work even harder.”

Of the vandalism of the memorial, she wrote, “God will not be mocked.”