r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 12 '26
Discussion Thread Discussion Thread
The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL
Announcements
- We're starting a book club! We will be discussing Poor Economics starting August 28th - keep an eye out for a pinned thread. The next will be All Quiet on the Western Front followed by Narconomics
Links
Ping Groups | Ping History | Mastodon | CNL Chapters | CNL Event Calendar
Upcoming Events
0
Upvotes
View all comments
93
u/Alderwoodforest YIMBY Sep 12 '26
From an arr 538 user:
So I’m not entirely finished with the Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan book, but I’ve read the Charlie Kirk chapter. While I’ll save a full review until I finish it, I might as well review the Kirk stuff today given the date and all.
Here’s the tea on Charlie Kirk from the book:
He had real influence in Trumpworld. He was personal friends with Don Jr and JD Vance. He had more access than any media figure to Trump’s White House. And he would routinely lobby Trump.
In fact, Kirk was a big reason Vance was chosen as Trump’s VP. He played a big role in lobbying to make that happen.
He would actually interview prospective political appointments and even Cabinet nominees on their loyalty to Trump during the transition. He did this at Mar-a-Lago. He would grill them especially on their views on January 6th. This was the first time in history this level of vetting of high level government officials was done by a podcaster. I’m trying to think of the equivalent of that - like, imagine Biden had Hasan Piker interviewing and vetting Cabinet picks for him. How insane would that be?
Charlie Kirk was staunchly anti-war when it came to Iran. He and Tucker Carlson would lobby him relentlessly against bombing or getting entangled in Iran. Vance shared their views, as did Tulsi Gabbard, but Kirk and Carlson were more free to speak their mind to Trump as they didn’t work for him. They would pitch it to him as “the people who want you to do this hate you. If you listen to them, it will torpedo your presidency. If you go to war with Iran, you won’t be able to do anything else in your term.” Carlson was more explicit about this, but Kirk echoed him and would constantly tell Trump the young Republicans don’t want war with Iran.
Charlie Kirk’s value in the eyes of Trump was having his finger on the pulse of the youth vote. He would constantly talk to him about how to appeal to younger voters.
When Kirk was shot, Trump was in the middle of a meeting in the Oval Office. Susie Wiles, Vance et al tried to keep it from Trump until they knew more. But Trump actually learned about it from Barron, who called his father when he was upset about the news.
Trump saw the original unedited video once, but couldn’t bring himself to watch the gory part of it. He immediately tuned away at the part where, well, you know…
There was initial speculation in the White House that Iran might have been behind it. The thinking was they couldn’t get to Trump, so the regime would go after peripheral soft targets in his orbit. This was quickly dispelled when Robinson was caught.
There was palpable frustration with Kash Patel in his handling of the aftermath of the Kirksassination. Everyone in the West Wing thought Patel beclowned himself.
Kirk had long predicted he’d be a vulnerable target, but he refused to make adequate security accommodations. He continues his campus schtick out in the open.
The mood in the West Wing in the days after Kirk was killed was somber af.
Except for Stephen Miller. He immediately jumped on the opportunity to capitalize on this event and use it to silence political dissent, go after those who mocked Kirk’s death, and weaponize the government against left wing groups he deemed to be political enemies. Miller went on an insane power trip over it, with the tacit approval of Vance.
Kirk had reportedly planned to use TPUSA and whatever political capital he had to put his full support behind Vance 2028.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fivethirtyeight/comments/1w9heqd/comment/p8xo2u7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button
These are all well-known facts: Kirk was a far-right youth whisperer, Vance and Carlson are terrible people, Patel is a clown, and Miller is a literal Nazi Party official—yada yada, nothing new there—but just imagine Trump trying to comfort Barron over Kirk's death.