VP JD Vance accompanies Charlie Kirk’s body and family to Phoenix
Sep 11, 2025, 2:17 PM | Updated: 7:13 pm
UPDATE: JD Vance, Charlie Kirk’s family and his body have arrived in Phoenix, Arizona.
SALT LAKE CITY — Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance visited Salt Lake City Thursday to pay respects to Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at Utah Valley University a day earlier, according to a person familiar with the vice president’s plans.
Vance was on the ground for only about two hours, reportedly in meetings with Gov. Spencer Cox and Kirk’s family before taking off just before 4:30 p.m.
In a long post on social media, the vice president described a yearslong friendship with Kirk that began in 2017 and said he first began receiving text messages from people saying they were praying for Kirk after news that he had been shot.
“I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in,” Vance wrote. “God didn’t answer those prayers, and that’s OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I’ll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends and the country he loved so dearly. You ran a good race, my friend. We’ve got it from here.”
Vance described Kirk as “a true friend” and “the kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him.”
The vice president and second lady plan to meet with Kirk’s family and friends in Salt Lake City, before escorting Kirk’s casket to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two, according to NBC.
Vance’s trip to Salt Lake City comes in lieu of a previously planned visit to Ground Zero in New York City to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The exact timing of Vance’s arrival is unclear, but the Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice to Airmen restricting pilots from operating aircraft below 5,000 feet above the surface within a 5-mile radius near the Salt Lake City International Airport on Thursday afternoon “for VIP movement.” The notice is in place from 1:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he plans to posthumously award Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, according to the New York Times. The president said he will hold a ceremony in the coming days and predicts there will be a “very big crowd” on hand.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican and close friend of Kirk, introduced a Senate resolution to condemn the assassination and honor Kirk’s legacy.
The resolution describes Kirk as “a devoted husband, father and Christian,” and resolves that the Senate “condemns the assassination of Charlie Kirk in the strongest possible terms; extends its deepest condolences and sympathies to Charlie Kirk’s family, including his wife, Erika, and their two young children; and honors Charlie Kirk’s commitment to the constitutional principles of civil discussion and debate between all people of the United States, regardless of political affiliation.”
Contributing: Mary Culbertson, KSL TV
