(CNN) — Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was killed Wednesday after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He was 31.

As Trump remade the Republican Party, Kirk embodied the party’s newfound populist conservatism in the social media age. Trump has credited Kirk with galvanizing and mobilizing the youth vote for him.

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” the president wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”

Kirk, himself a college dropout, was influential with college students and young voters — not only in helping to elect Trump to the presidency but a

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