Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist shot dead at Utah Valley University, regularly presented himself as a staunch defender of Israel and the Jewish people, even claiming earlier this year that “no non-Jewish person my age has a longer or clearer record of support for Israel.”
Yet his past statements are laced with contradiction to that image. He used anti-Semitic tropes, from claims of Jewish “control” over cultural life to blaming “Jewish donors” for fuelling social and political ills. The tension between pro-Israel branding and rhetoric echoing well-known antisemitic stereotypes has been noted by Jewish and conservative commentators alike.
Here are his five anti-semitic remarks that drew particular criticism:
1- Jewish philanthropy “subsidising your own demise”
Shortly after Israel began its attack in Gaza in October 2023, Kirk claimed that Jewish philanthropy funding American universities was effectively “subsidising your own demise by supporting institutions that breed anti-Semites and endorse genocidal killers” — a framing that shifted blame onto Jewish donors themselves.
2- “Jews control … the colleges, the nonprofits, the movies, Hollywood, all of it”
In October 2023, Kirk alleged that Jews dominated universities, nonprofits and Hollywood alike, a sweeping claim echoing entrenched conspiracy theories of Jewish institutional control.
He also accused “elite” or “secular” Jewish philanthropies of “pumping money” into universities while turning a blind eye to antisemitism, effectively casting Jewish donors as complicit in the problem. He even labelled “elite Jewish culture” a main funding source for schools that “breed Jew hatred.”
3- “The number one funding mechanism… is Jewish donors”
Kirk argued that radical or liberal cultural and political institutions are primarily funded by Jewish donors, thereby reviving the trope of wealthy Jews manipulating politics and culture.
”The number one funding mechanism of radical, open border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions, and nonprofits" is “Jewish donors.”
Kirk linked Jewish financial support to the spread of so-called “Cultural Marxist ideas” — a narrative that has long been associated with anti-Semitic portrayals of Jews as the instigators of societal decay.
“Tucker Carlson mentions that Jewish Americans have primarily been financing cultural Marxist ideas. We said this, by the way, last week, and people came after us. We actually said it in a different way. We said, I'm glad that Jewish Americans are reconsidering their financing of cultural Marxism,” Kirk stated.
4- Casting Jews as drivers of “anti-white” politics
In November 2023, while defending billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who had endorsed an explicitly anti-Semitic post, Kirk said “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” and said that “the philosophical foundation of anti-whiteness has been largely financed by Jewish donors in the country.”
5- ‘Antisemitism is being misused to justify censorship’
Kirk argued that accusations of anti-Semitism were increasingly being weaponised to restrict debate.
“Once ‘antisemitism’ becomes valid grounds to censor or even imprison somebody, there will be frantic efforts to label all kinds of speech as antisemitic — the same way the left labeled all kinds of statements as ‘racist’ to justify silencing their opposition,” he said. “Not only that, but all of this won’t even work.”
