On the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assasination, Donald Trump Jr. praised the late conservative activist, urging Republicans to continue "carrying his torch to save this nation."

"Charlie was good. He was pure. He represented the light," the eldest son of the president said of his close friend, "the killer who put a bullet in his neck in cold blood, and the leftists who laughed and mocked his murder, well, they represent the darkness that we are all up against."

Along with the eldest Trump scion, it was Kirk who urged Trump to add the then-Ohio Sen. JD Vance to the ticket. His murder, the son of the president said, was part of a larger trend of left-wing violence from the attempt on Trump's life to the 2024 murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. "We've reached a dangerous place in our culture where these extremists don't just excuse political violence," he said. "They actually glorify it."

Trump urged the GOP convention to rally to the memory of Kirk ahead of the midterms. "Stand with people like Charlie," he said before adding, "stand with my father" and "stand with Republican candidates who need to push this movement forward and push back on the tyranny of the left."