Charlie Kirk and the Total MAGA Revolution

Martyrdom as a turning point in America’s spiritual and political struggle

Alexander Dugin depicts Charlie Kirk as the unifying spirit of MAGA whose martyrdom awakens America to the need for systemic change and frames the struggle as a civilizational clash between Christian tradition and globalist liberalism.

Conversation with Alexander Dugin on the Sputnik program Escalation.

Host: Let us turn to a subject that cannot be ignored — the farewell to Charlie Kirk in the United States. In Arizona, a memorial was held for political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead. It took place at the football stadium in Phoenix and was attended by the entire White House administration. Donald Trump and members of his team spoke. The arena was nearly full; more than 100,000 people came to say goodbye to Charlie Kirk. Many statements were made. Let us try to answer the question: who was Charlie Kirk for America? Why such attention, such influence? What do you think

Alexander Dugin: After Trump’s victory, I delivered several talks where I outlined the key foundations of the MAGA movement and its leading figures. At that time, they were almost unknown to us. Later, I published a book, The Trump Revolution: A New Order of Great Powers, inspired in many ways by the program Escalation on Sputnik.

In those talks, I spoke about figures entirely unfamiliar to our audience: Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson — perhaps somewhat better known — Alex Jones, Sam Hyde. I explained the context in which each operated and the influence they carried.

MAGA remains in many ways a mystery to us. We know Trump, we have heard of Elon Musk — these are iconic names. But who is Peter Thiel? What are the philosophical views of JD Vance, now vice president? That was unknown to us. Few in our society have read René Girard or Carl Schmitt. MAGA, where Charlie Kirk played a central role, embodies an ideology unusual for us: a consistent traditionalism, a conservatism with a strong Christian foundation. It is a new form of Christian movement, adept in its use of social networks, memes, and outreach to youth in universities — a space once monopolized by leftist globalists. It relies on X — banned in our country but transformed by Elon Musk into a new medium free of liberal censorship. Since censorship in today’s world is almost entirely liberal, globalists stigmatize their opponents as “right-wing,” “far-right,” “fascists,” “racists,” in order to silence them. On X, this is impossible, and thus a networked conservative revolution is being created.

Who was Charlie Kirk in this movement? He was responsible for the youth. Trump regarded him as his political son. After Trump’s victory, Kirk gained entry to the White House, though he had started out as a marginal, moderate, soft-spoken conservative activist. He did not even finish college.

Host: Yes, he left college without graduating.

Alexander Dugin: Exactly. A devout Christian, a passionate defender of family values and American identity, a patriot of his country — Charlie Kirk may have seemed unremarkable, but he embodied the essence of MAGA. His clear, accessible way of explaining the aims of the American conservative revolution became its heart.

In ten years, starting from nothing, he achieved tremendous results while staying in the shadows. He founded Turning Point USA, a movement that set up tables for dialogue on university campuses. He would arrive, put up a table, and announce: “Christ is King — argue with me, bring your reasoning.” For hours he would debate with students, patiently enduring the attacks of trans activists, feminists, and BLM supporters. In return, he would calmly invite dialogue: “Christ is God. The Church is indispensable. Love of country is noble. A strong family and order in society are what we need.”

Though not a philosopher, he played a crucial role, helping JD Vance become a senator by connecting him with sponsors who supported his campaign. Kirk became a figure of great importance for America, perhaps because of his modesty and humility. He strove to reconcile. Within MAGA, where powerful personalities — Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer, Nick Fuentes — argued and advanced their own agendas, Kirk stood as a symbol of consensus. He would say, “Friends, let us first defeat our enemies and unite.”

Loyal to Trump, he nonetheless distanced himself from Trump’s one-sided support for Israel, voicing careful criticism. He was his own man — a tuning fork of MAGA: moderate, open to dialogue, and never extreme. He allowed ideological opponents into his debates and argued tirelessly with them, like a preacher.

He was a Christian conservative preacher — neither pastor nor scholar, without a university diploma — but he lived the values he proclaimed. His family — widow Erica Kirk and their small children — was a reflection of his convictions. He could argue for hours yet always remain gentle. Elon Musk said, “They murdered our emissary of peace.” That is precisely true. Within MAGA, there are radicals demanding harsh measures, but Kirk represented moderation — passionate, committed, steadfast.

Conservative America, now in power, recognized him as a saint — a national symbol who suffered for Christ, the homeland, patriotism, family, and purity of belief. This sentiment swept through all. He ceased to be marginal and became one of MAGA’s ideologues, a voice of common sense uniting diverse figures. Even radical Zionist Laura Loomer, a fierce defender of Netanyahu and Israel, admitted that Kirk’s doubts about the pro-Israel lobby and his restrained criticism of Trump were justified. He drew even the extremes.

Within MAGA, there were no opponents of Charlie Kirk. His murder was an attack on everyone. Sam Hyde, the conservative comedian, showed a photo of Kirk on his show and said, “This is you.” Conservative America, now governing, understood that the blow struck at every one of them — every father, every faithful Christian.

Churches are now overflowing — a miracle. Where once there were only a few worshippers, now the parking lots are full. Through his death and martyrdom, Kirk awakened America. At his funeral in Arizona, hundreds of thousands came — not only the 100,000 inside the stadium but vast crowds outside. The entire American government was present, alongside figures like Elon Musk, who had quarreled with Trump, and Tucker Carlson, who criticizes pro-Israel policy — both spoke in front of Trump’s pro-Israel officials. This was unprecedented.

America found in Kirk a common denominator. He became the voice of a generation, the symbol of an America that defied the globalists, Soros, Obama, cancel culture, and transgender ideology — forces banned in Russia but dominant in America. This is a reversal. Six months ago, I published The Trump Revolution, describing MAGA, its principles and aims. But soon I grew uneasy: Trump was drifting from the course. I took the book off the shelf and stopped giving it away. MAGA was meant to be a new, consistent movement for a new world order. Yet events unfolded otherwise.

On Escalation at Sputnik, we discussed how Trump was drifting, how MAGA was fracturing, what disputes were tearing it apart, and how its attitude towards Russia was shifting. Initially, MAGA wanted to halt support for Ukraine and reconcile with Russia. The phrase “This is not my war, this is Biden’s war” resonated with Kirk, Carlson, and Bannon. But Trump did not stop the aid. Figures alien to MAGA appeared — Lindsey Graham, a neocon designated here as a terrorist, and others influencing Trump. It seemed everything was collapsing.

The book was translated into English and handed to Trump — I do not know his reaction. But after its release, events moved in another direction. They said MAGA was dead. Musk quarreled with Trump and wanted to found his own party. Carlson expressed doubts. U.S. policy, and Trump’s, with rare exceptions, followed the old path. And then — the murder of Charlie Kirk. Suddenly everything described in the book was relevant again. MAGA, Trump, and his circle returned to their original course. This is a huge success for America. The reaction of their opponents — liberals and Democrats — was monstrous: dancing on his grave, laughter, threats to annihilate all conservatives, and accusations of fascism. This outraged the average American. Not only MAGA but ordinary America, the undecided, said, “We cannot go with liberals, Soros, and his networks.”

In Kirk they recognized themselves, not in the screaming trans activists shouting “kill fascists,” “abolish borders,” and “admit more migrants.” America rejected this, despite brainwashing and pressure forcing children into gender change. These are horrific experiments carried out by the globalists on America. MAGA is returning to its roots.

Attitudes towards Israel remain polarized: Trump supports Netanyahu, but most of his supporters oppose him. As for Russia, even those who support Israel see no reason to oppose Putin. We are not antitheses, not absolute enemies. This is a tsunami engulfing America, one that will shape both its foreign and domestic policy. A new wave of terror cannot be ruled out. Kirk’s opponents, incapable of dialogue, drove him off YouTube and Facebook and persecuted him in the same way they persecute Russia. He felt this keenly. An English acquaintance of mine, a close friend of Kirk, was scheduled to meet him two days after the tragedy. He told me, “You cannot imagine how much Kirk did to bring America and Russia closer together.”

In conversations, while remaining a public figure, he exerted real influence. For us, he is a hero. Bishop Tikhon wrote that it matters to us when a man stands against a Satanic civilization and declares, “I stand for Christ — shoot.” He is killed, crucified for Christ, for tradition, for human dignity, against Satan. He is a hero of America. Though a Protestant, in recent months — according to his friend — he had shown a keen interest in Orthodoxy, perceiving in it the purity of Christian tradition. He was moving towards us, even as he remained an American patriot.

We have lost a friend, a hero, and a defender of just values. He was one of us. Bishop Tikhon saw this, despite confessional differences. Because of our Soviet past, we once leaned towards the left, but today right-wing conservatives are closer to us and our traditional values than the left, which now advances the anti-human, posthumanist, transgender, and perverse agenda of the West. We too are a right-wing country, though we have not yet fully realized it. Americans are only now beginning to understand. The events surrounding Kirk and the gathering in Arizona will influence both American and global politics. For us, this is far from irrelevant.

Host: You said that the United States will change, and change profoundly. I have some doubts. Can such a country change if the system in which it operates does not change? Of course one would hope that the United States might change, perhaps for the better — towards that brighter, truer direction — but will this really happen?

Alexander Dugin: The analysis of American conservative experts — their posts, speeches, interviews, and articles — shows that the name of Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point, only now reveals its full meaning. Only after his tragic death did the U.S. government and people, assembled in the Arizona stadium, grasp the essence of this turning point. It is the necessity of systemic change.

The system in the United States has been a dictatorship of illegitimate elites, imposing their agenda regardless of the will of the people. As Americans themselves say, it was a “hijacked democracy.” Freedom of speech was suppressed, a perverse, pathological left-liberal ideology of gender politics and posthumanism was imposed, and this became the foundation of the Deep State. For six months, Trump and his circle tried to adapt to this system, but it became clear: further hesitation would lead to their destruction. On the opposite pole, criminal structures and terrorist brigades were consolidating. Soros built a parallel America — a network uniting hives of deviants: illegal immigrants, transgender people, furries, feminists, BLM activists, Spanish-speaking cartels, and narco-structures. The key role was played by educational campuses.

We face a similar risk, for over the past thirty years our own education system has been saturated with Soros-linked networks and grants, and the flight of figures such as Sinelnikova, a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, after the start of the Special Military Operation. Layers of Western influence have become embedded in our educational and scientific institutions. But the source lies in America, where the roots are far deeper. It is a network.

Soros and liberal foundations financed universities and campuses, instilling perverse models in the youth. They called it cultural Marxism, but in reality it was Trotskyism — an instrument of big capital. This anti-human ideology permeated American society. These funded networks organized riots, such as those after the arrest of George Floyd — riots that were financed, with stones and barricades delivered in advance. Liberals, relying on the political system, prepared the ground for civil war, blaming Trump for it.

The murder of Charlie Kirk forced MAGA to realize that without systemic change nothing will change. This criminal, dictatorial model must be dismantled, starting with the campuses. It was no accident that Trump and especially Musk immediately abolished the Department of Education, which — unlike ours — was under liberal control. These forces have now been exposed as terrorists. Pretending to be victims, minorities, they revealed themselves as killers with sniper rifles, ready to destroy their opponents under the slogans of transgender rights, sexual minority rights, and “furry” rights.

This frenzy is akin to what we see in Ukraine — the same radical types, the same perversions, parts of one and the same network. We see the periphery of this nightmare in Ukraine, but Americans live in a society where it has long been entrenched. In his first term, Trump did not dare to touch this system, which is why his election was stolen, why he was expelled from social networks, and why attempts were made to imprison and even to kill him. This is what they faced. Without systemic change, America cannot be saved. What is happening now is not just a mourning spectacle but a symbolic turning point.

I am deeply moved, for I too have lived through tragedy — the murder of my daughter Dasha [Daria]. The resemblance is striking. She was a muse of conservative youth, promoting a Christian, Orthodox, and traditionalist vision to her audiences. Dasha was a year older than Kirk: he was thirty-one, she would have turned thirty-three in December. They are peers, conservatives of the new wave. I was astonished when Erica Kirk, Charlie’s widow, at the funeral — where the stadium demanded the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the killer of this new American saint — stood at the podium with Trump and declared: “I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would do.” Referring to the Lord’s Prayer, she reminded everyone: if we do not forgive our debtors, God will not forgive us. This Christian spirit shook America. The crowd cried for vengeance — “an eye for an eye,” “let us punish!” — but she said: “Christ would have forgiven.” Incredible.

Host: And yet, Alexander Gelyevich [Dugin], one must note the words of Donald Trump, who, unlike the slain activist, declared that he hates his opponents and wishes them no good. Trump said he will find all the instigators against conservatives and deal with them harshly. If Charlie Kirk’s widow forgave, Donald Trump did not.

Alexander Dugin: And rightly so. But look at the moral example Erica Kirk has given. Having lost her husband, the father of her children, she found the strength to remain a Christian. This is a great example. The response will be powerful — this is war. Musk said: it is a war of light and darkness. Darkness kills us; we must fight for the light. This is serious. Forgiving enemies is not the duty of the entire conservative camp — they must consolidate, unite, coordinate their actions, and change the system. Yet they are driven not by animal vengeance but by something greater — by principle. The struggle for light must be waged with clean hands. Sometimes force is necessary, and it will be used, but the blows must fall on the headquarters, not on the executors, who are themselves victims.

Tyler Robinson, the twenty-two-year-old killer who lived with a transgender person, is a sick man — a product of liberal propaganda, of a system that cripples people mentally and physically, turning them into furries, gender-changers, and perverts. Such people find it hard to live; they break down into violence. He is a victim.

But Soros, Obama, Biden, Kamala Harris, the globalists of the European Union — provoking color revolutions, overthrowing regimes, covering the planet with their networks — remain unpunished. The focus must be shifted from the executors to the true criminals — the ideologues of liberal civilization, the Satanic forces. Even if Robinson acted alone, he was prepared, shaped, and directed. The inscriptions on his sniper rifle bear witness to this.

Trump too is called a fascist, and now any transgender person, immigrant, or madman can take up a rifle and shoot at “fascists.” This is an intolerable condition of society. Those responsible must be held to account. If Soros is not arrested, if it is not uncovered who has for years financed the propaganda of perversion, sodomy at festivals, who imposed this nightmare of anti-civilization on humanity — then blows must fall on the headquarters. This is the turning point for those who will hold power in America six months from now and beyond. They are undergoing a decisive test and must strike the headquarters — not the furries, not the deranged feminists who need psychiatric care, but those who promote this. Soros is the frontman, openly declaring color revolutions, the hunt for conservatives, and the war in Ukraine against Putin and Russia.

But he is not alone. There is a core of the Deep State that has not yet been exposed. The globalist circles are not just clowns or corrupt figures. One must dig deeper: BlackRock, with its promotion of inclusivity; the financial circles; the ideological centers. This is what the U.S. government will have to confront, but it is a battle with a dragon, with the devil — a formidable task. The Christian dimension of Kirk provides a clue. Without God, without the Church, victory is impossible. This is a war in theological terms. We in Ukraine understand it as such, and Americans are coming to the same conclusion. They have encountered hidden evil without restraint. Without Christ, without the Church, without religion, victory is impossible.

Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, in his article on Kirk’s murder, brought these depths to light. A churchman did not remain on the sidelines but said: humanity is at war — either with Christ or against Him. Christ said, “He that is not with me is against me.” There is no middle ground. Humanity, once drowsy and absorbed in daily routine, is now caught in the grip: the forces of the Antichrist do not conceal their intentions, and the people of light will not allow collapse. This is a serious moment. For us, it began three and a half years ago with the start of the Special Military Operation. Our people and state made a choice, without which there would have been no successes against Western civilization. Americans are making the same existential, theological choice.

(Translated from the Russian)