President Donald Trump said investigators are "making great strides" on finding conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassin.

Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House as he departed for New York, Trump said of law enforcement: “They’re very talented people, let’s see what happens. We hope they can do it soon.”

"What he did, what this man did, was disgraceful, so hopefully we'll have him and we will deal with him very appropriately," Trump said.

The Turning Point CEO and Trump ally was fatally shot at a Utah college where he was speaking on Wednesday.

Officials say the shooting that killed Kirk was a targeted attack.

The FBI released two photos of a "person of interest" in connection with the killing. The search for the shooter was continuing Thursday.

Trump told reporters he hopes people will not respond with violence to Kirk’s killing, saying he “was an advocate of nonviolence.”

“That’s the way I’d like to see people respond to his killing," the president added.

He also said he and Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, spoke at length on Thursday, but didn’t get into the specifics of what they discussed.

“She’s devastated, she’s absolutely devastated, as you can imagine,” he told reporters at the White House.

Charlie Kirk is also survived by two young children.