President Trump once told conservative activist Charlie Kirk he had “a good chance of being president” because of the Turning Point US co-founder’s skill at capturing the attention and imagination of young voters.
“I actually said, ‘Charlie, someday I think you have a good chance at being president, I think you will be president maybe,’ and I think he would’ve had a great chance. He was very compelling,” Trump told Fox News host Martha MacCallum in an interview that aired Thursday.
“I’ve never seen anybody capture a group of people like he captured youth. He captured youth, it was incredible,” the president said of the slain conservative icon.
“You know when I say he was a young guy, but I’m talking about the 20-year-olds and the 18-year-olds, it was like he had a following that was incredible.”
Kirk, a strong supporter of the president, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Lefty gay-rights trade-school student Tyler Robinson, 22, is charged with his murder, and Utah prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
The president had called Kirk a “great American” during a press conference in the UK on Thursday.
