Washington: When US President Donald Trump spoke of his “grief and anger” from the Oval Office only hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination , it was a striking moment that showed how important the 31-year-old conservative activist had been to the president personally, and how seamlessly he had woven himself into the Trump family fabric.

“I love you brother,” the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, wrote on Wednesday on social platform X.

It was the president himself – not local law enforcement, Kirk’s spokesperson or his family – who announced Kirk’s death on Wednesday in what was, for him, a rare show of lament. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Kirk was particularly tight with Trump Jr, a close

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