GLENDALE, Arizona — Some 200,000 people turned out to honor Charlie Kirk on Sunday, including President Trump, who called the slain Turning Point USA founder “a patriot whose heart still had so much to give.”
State Farm Stadium, which has a max capacity of 73,000 people, filled up within hours of doors opening at 8 a.m. local time, and organizers began turning away pilgrims who had traveled from across the country to honor the slain MAGA icon.
The Arizona Cardinals home stadium was packed to the rafters, giving the space the enthusiasm and fervor of a religious revival, where much of Trump’s cabinet and key White House staff joined Kirk’s grieving widow, Erika, for impassioned remarks in reverent reflection of his life and work.
“He was murdered for speaking the truth,” Vice President Vance said from the stage, calling Kirk a “friend” who wouldn’t let “evil” get the better of his beliefs.
“It is better to face a gunman than live your life afraid to face the truth,” he added.
Just before Trump took the stage, Erika Kirk, who was recently named the new CEO of Turning Point USA, stunned the crowd when she offered mercy and forgiveness to her late husband’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson.
“That young man. That young man. On the cross our savior said, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ — that man, that young man, I forgive him,” she said as the audience rose in a standing ovation, many of them in tears.
“I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
The headliner was Trump, who called Kirk “a Great American hero,” who drew huge crowds both in life and death.
“Charlie Kirk loved America with everything he had. And as we can see so clearly today, America loved Charlie Kirk,” Trump said.
“A great American hero, that’s what he is.”
Calling Kirk, “a martyr now for America,” the president said of his friend that his message will resonate even louder in death than it had in his short life.
“On that terrible day, September 10, 2025, our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal,” he said.
“I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie Kirk, and neither now will history.”
Additional attendees were sent to the adjacent Desert Diamond Arena, home to the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes with a capacity crowd of 20,000.
Turning Point USA, Kirk’s organization, said 200,000 people registered for the event and cops on scene said they were estimating at least that many people turned out for the service — which features President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Kirk’s widow Erika.
Elected officials from around the country were seen streaming into the arena ahead of the event, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Andy Briggs (R-Ariz.), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was also spotted in the crowd and is expected to speak.
Erstwhile head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, was also seen waving to the crowd, as well as conservative podcaster Matt Walsh, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
Addressing the crowd, GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, 36, credited Kirk with launching her career.
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“There would be no congresswoman Luna without Charlie Kirk,” she said to audience applause.
“We are all Charlie Kirk now, and his legacy has just begun.”
Right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson asked the roaring crowd if any of them had been moved “closer to Christ” by Kirk, calling him “a martyr in the true Christian tradition.”
Dressed in their red, white and blue “Sunday best” — as requested by Turning Point USA in advance of the event — throngs of fans and supporters packed the area outside the stadium while waiting to get in.
Greg Waters, 71, of Bishop, California, said he listened to Kirk’s podcast every day.
“He’s like a son to me. We are connected through the blood of Jesus Christ,” he told The Post.
“The problem the world has is it doesn’t understand the spiritual connection.”
He added: “I think the more people who turned out shows that he had more impact than people believed. They need to have a bigger stadium.”
Waters said he walked two miles to get to the stadium in time to line up for the memorial service.
Some attendees told The Post they arrived as early as 4 a.m. to beat the crowds, while some gave up on the overflowing parking lot and walked as much as two miles from their vehicles.
Betty Santasiero, of Pinal County, Arizona, 56, came wearing a red “I am Charlie Kirk” shirt.
“It’s just important to keep an open dialogue especially since I’m from New Jersey…and we have friends on both sides,” she said.
A cop said about a dozen attendees waiting in the 90-degree Arizona weather required medical attention by 9 a.m. local time, telling The Post “a lot of people are not prepared for the heat.”
A handful of protesters were spotted outside the stadium in cordoned-off “free speech zones.”
Among them were members of the unhinged Westboro Baptist Church who held signs reading, “God sent the shooter in fury,” and “America is doomed.”
Nearby, in the same area of the stadium parking lot, a separate group brandished a variety of anti-Kirk messages, including one woman holding a reprehensible sign reading, “It should be quick; it should be televised. Rot in Hell.”
Asked why she was at the event, she smiled and said, “Because I hate Charlie and I’m standing up for what I believe in … I like when bad things happen to bad people,” she said, branding Kirk “an a–hole.”
The woman declined to identify herself but said she lived in Glendale.
State Farm Stadium, where the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals play, holds as many as 73,000 for mega-events. Organizers expected the crowd to be greater than the capacity, so the Desert Diamond Arena next door, which can hold an additional 20,000, was also reserved.
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