—the widow of prominent conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was this past fall—is scheduled to attend the as a guest of President Donald Trump.
The White House confirmed to TIME that the President had extended an invitation to Erika Kirk for his much-anticipated speech on Tuesday evening. first broke the news.
“Erika Kirk will be among President Trump’s Special Guests at the State of the Union,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X.
In September, 31-year-old Charlie Kirk was at an event he was hosting at a Utah university. His death sparked anger and sorrow on the right, and led to a regarding the in America.
The President publicly grieved Charlie Kirk’s passing, flags to fly at half-mast. Trump delivered remarks at Charlie Kirk’s .
“He didn’t deserve this—our country didn’t deserve this,” Trump at the funeral. “And anyone who makes excuses for it is completely out of their mind. Charlie’s murder wasn’t just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation. … The gun was aimed at him, but the bullet was targeted at all of us.”
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the board of Turning Point USA—the youth activist organization he founded—appointed Erika Kirk as its CEO and chair. She has since become an increasingly prominent public figure, vowing to carry on her husband’s work.
“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not end. It won’t. I won’t let that happen,” she in a September livestream. “No one will ever forget my husband’s name, and I will ensure that.”
Lawmakers from both political parties condemned Charlie Kirk’s killing and political violence in general. But some on the right, including the President, for a crackdown on the left in the wake of the assassination.
At the funeral, Trump stated that while Charlie Kirk “did not hate his opponents,” he himself did.
“He didn’t hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them. That’s where I differ from Charlie. I hate my opponent,” Trump said at the funeral. “And I don’t wish the best for them. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Erika. But maybe Erika can talk to me and the entire group now, and perhaps they can persuade me that that’s not the right approach.”
Erika Kirk took a different stance than Trump at her husband’s funeral. In an emotional address, she said 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 with his murder.
“I forgive him because that’s what Christ did, and that’s what Charlie would have done,” Erika Kirk said at her husband’s funeral. “Hate is not the answer to hate.”
