Donald Trump orders flags at half-staff in honor of Charlie Kirk

President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, March 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Less than an hour after announcing that Charlie Kirk had died after being shot at a university campus event, President Donald Trump ordered all American flags throughout the U.S. to be lowered in the conservative activist’s honor.

The order applies to all flags at the White House, public buildings and grounds, military posts, naval stations and naval vessels.

It also applies to all U.S. embassies, legations, consular offices and other facilities abroad.

Trump directed the flags to remain lowered until sunset Sunday, Sept. 14, as “a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk.”

Kirk, a stalwart ally of Trump’s whose Turning Point USA organization has amassed millions of followers, was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when a shooter fired a single bullet that entered his neck.

For a period of time afterward, he was being treated and in critical condition, but ultimately succumbed to his wound.

The Utah event, like many that Kirk and Turning Point USA have hosted over the years, drew split opinions. According to The Associated Press, an online petition calling for Kirk to be blocked from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures.

The school went forward with the event, with officials citing Utah Valley’s “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

Scores of notable politicians in Florida, across the nation and around the globe of all political persuasions shared messages of grief and condolences, condemning the rising political violence seen in recent years.

That included Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said he and others were praying for Kirk and his family before his death.

“We also have to reflect on the fact that the way to resolve political disputes is not through violence,” DeSantis said during a stop in Miami. “And we see increasing levels of political violence in this country.”

It remains to be seen whether DeSantis will issue an order to lower flags across Florida in Kirk’s memory as he has for other conservative political figures like Rush Limbaugh, who lived for years in Palm Beach, where Trump now resides.

Kirk owned a home in Longboat Key, a Gulf Coast town of roughly 7,500 residents that straddles Manatee and Sarasota counties.