President Donald Trump said his youngest son, 19-year-old Barron, was "very hurt" by conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s killing.

"He was very hurt when he saw this, but I mean, everybody was," said Trump on Sept. 12 during an interview with Fox & Friends.

Kirk, 31, a close Trump ally who held sway with young Republican voters, was fatally shot as he engaged with college students at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Days later, authorities took Tyler Robinson into custody and accused him of fatally shooting Kirk in Orem, Utah.

Trump recalled Barron wanting to meet the conservative activist who co-founded the student organization Turning Point USA.

"Barron came to me and he said, 'Dad, I'd like to meet somebody that you know — Charlie Kirk,'" said Trump. "I thought he was going to say, I want to meet King Charles or something."

Trump said he set up a lunch meeting for the duo.

"He came back. He said, 'That guy's great, dad,'" said Trump. "Charlie had a magic over the kids, and large numbers of them, and very diverse, Black, white. I mean, everybody, the young women and boys, and I’ve never seen anything like it."

Barron, who completed his freshman year at New York University's Stern School of Business in Manhattan, has now moved to the White House and is enrolled at NYU’s Washington, D.C., campus, the New York Post and People reported. The White House declined to comment on the subject.

The president and first lady, Melania Trump, have credited Barron for helping Donald Trump connect to the young voters who helped him win back the White House.

Trump has said his youngest son encouraged him to talk to popular bro-centric podcasters like Joe Rogan and Adin Ross and amp up his digital presence on social media platforms such as TikTok, leading his father to declare him the "king of the internet."

"He was very vocal. He brought in so many young people," Melania Trump told Fox & Friends, a month after Trump's victory. "He knows his generation because nowadays the young generation, they don’t sit in front of TV anymore."

Will Donahue, the president of the College Republicans of America, earlier this year called Barron Trump the "future of the conservative movement."

Contributing: Kinsey Crowley and Jennifer Sangalang, USA TODAY NETWORK

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Barron Trump 'very hurt' by Charlie Kirk's killing, President Trump says

Reporting by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect