Charlie Kirk’s body will be flown on Air Force Two to his home in Arizona, officials say

Charlie Kirk’s body will be flown on Air Force Two — the vice president’s plane — from Utah to Arizona, where he lived with his family, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Vice President JD Vance flew to Salt Lake City to retrieve Kirk’s body on Thursday, a day after the 31-year-old conservative activist was shot and killed at an event at a Utah university, the officials said. The vice presidential aircraft will transport Kirk’s body to Phoenix, according to the officials.

Vance and second lady Usha Vance will travel with Kirk’s family and some of his friends to Arizona. Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and two young children.

“We will continue to facilitate movements to get him home today and with his family,” Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, told reporters in a press conference Thursday morning in Utah.

Spokespeople for the vice president declined to comment. 

Kirk, Turning Point USA’s co-founder, was killed as he was speaking to a crowd at an outdoor “Prove Me Wrong” debate at Utah Valley University. A suspect has not yet been identified.

Kirk’s body was transferred from the hospital to a medical examiner’s office on Wednesday night, according to Mason.

Vance noted on Wednesday that he and Kirk were friends and said Kirk advocated “in public and private” for President Trump to pick him as his running mate last year. Vance praised Turning Point USA’s role in organizing pro-Trump events last year and credited Kirk with some of the Trump administration’s personnel decisions.

“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”

Joe Walsh and

Melissa Quinn

contributed to this report.