Kirk as Power Broker

The author argues Charlie Kirk’s core impact was institution‑building and coalition management that knit together Trump‑era populism—far beyond online virality. He portrays Kirk as second only to Trump in shaping ideas, organizations, funding channels, and personnel pipelines on the right. — Seeing populism’s durability as a product of organizational capacity, not just rhetoric, changes how we interpret the assassination’s political stakes and the GOP’s future.