The Power Struggle Unleashed After Charlie Kirk’s Death
What’s unfolding online after Charlie Kirk’s assassination is something that almost feels like a political drama being written in real time — and the internet is doing most of the writing. In the months since Kirk was shot and killed during a Turning Point USA event, his legacy has been amplified in every imaginable way. His funeral was broadcast from State Farm Stadium, flags were lowered across red states, and President Trump even designated his birthday as a National Day of Remembrance. Conservative media doubled down on honoring him, and his wife Erika was given a newly created “Charlie Kirk Legacy Award.” Online, he was practically canonized as a martyr for white Christian values.
But then something unexpected happened.
Also Read:Instead of solemn tributes, the internet has turned Kirk into a surreal collage of memes, deepfakes, and photoshopped absurdity. His face is being pasted onto everything from Japanese adult performers to Na’vi characters from Avatar, and even characters in long-running conspiracy memes. In any other political era, these would just be tasteless jokes. But because X.com has essentially become the center of right-wing online culture, these memes feel like an indicator that the movement itself is fracturing.
This shift is opening space for someone else — and many observers think that person might be Nick Fuentes.
Before Kirk’s death, Fuentes spent years positioning himself as the antagonist of the more polished, influencer-driven MAGA brand that Kirk represented. His followers — the “groypers” — regularly disrupted Kirk’s events. And although Trump has always kept Fuentes at arm’s length, he has never fully rejected him. That ambiguity has made room for Fuentes to cultivate younger, angrier conservatives who feel mainstream Republicans aren’t radical enough.
Now that Kirk is gone, the memes mocking him — especially those too offensive for the White House or MAGA influencers to repost — are creating a cultural vacuum. And Fuentes, who thrives on taboo-breaking internet chaos, seems eager to fill it. While major conservative voices have completely avoided acknowledging these viral images, Fuentes has already laughed about some of them on livestreams, treating the whole spectacle as entertainment. For many disillusioned young right-wing activists, that irreverence reads as authenticity.
At the same time, Erika Kirk has been thrust into another wave of digital turmoil. Deepfakes featuring her circulated almost immediately after the assassination. Some portrayed her as insincere, others placed her in fabricated political scenes, and all of them contributed to a fast-moving storm of misinformation. Analysts warn that this is a preview of how AI-driven deception will shape political storytelling in the coming election cycle.
Whether that actually translates into real political influence is still uncertain. But online, where the future of the movement is being shaped one meme at a time, the shift is already visible.
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