Lightning reportedly struck a tree just feet from where demonstrators were standing to protest Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk’s commencement address at Hillsdale College in Michigan on Saturday.
The Daily Caller reported that Hillsdale history professor Bradley J. Birzer flagged the strike with a picture on X taken near the demonstration site, writing, “Lightning hit this tree during the anti Erika Kirk protest. No joke. Just feet from the protesters.”
Conservative commentator Josiah Lippincott also posted on X in response, “Yeah, Charlie is keeping an eye out for us.”
Charlie Kirk was assassinated while participating in a Turning Point USA campus event in Orem, Utah, last September.
Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet also posted, “This weekend, Erika gave the commencement address at Hillsdale College, which of course drew some protesters… Then lightening struck a tree, literally feet away from where they gathered.”
This weekend, Erika gave the commencement address at Hillsdale College, which of course drew some protesters …
Then lightening struck a tree, literally feet away from where they gathered. pic.twitter.com/jL9BybJadj
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 11, 2026
WILX-TV reported that Saturday’s protest, which consisted of a few dozen people, was organized by a group called Hope in Action.
A post on the group’s Facebook page listed several reasons for their protest of Erika Kirk, including saying that Turning Point USA “is a national right-wing political machine organizing young people into MAGA politics, anti-trans rhetoric, anti-DEI backlash, and culture-war extremism.”
“We are protesting the normalization of extremism. Giving honorary degrees and commencement platforms to figures tied to this movement tells students and the public that hate, disinformation, and authoritarian politics deserve celebration,” the group said.
Hope in Action’s Allison Bader told WILX, “We are here to make sure it is clear that we are not going to accept blatant racism, homophobia, and sexism in our communities any longer, and they have been continuously perpetuating Turning Point USA and Project 2025, and we want to put an end to that.”
Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, told his boyfriend in a text message the day of the shooting that he took action against the conservative leader because, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
The New York Post reported that Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn presented Erika Kirk with two honorary degrees of public service, including one for her and another for her husband, posthumously.
Erika began her approximately 15-minute commencement address to the 400 graduates of Hillsdale College by lightheartedly recounting that Charlie was listening to one of Arnn’s lectures during their honeymoon, while they were in a hotel workout room.
“I’m almost done… I can’t skip them,” he explained, because he was trying to finish an online course.
“Baby, you do what you got to do. I’m here for you. But I enjoyed it because I was learning about Winston Churchill, too, when he was working out I was working out. It was a great little bonding moment,” Erika said.
Later in her address, she exhorted the graduates, “As you continue forward in life, I want you to kind of embrace the similar blueprint of my husband, where he loved to point out that God made us purposeful beings and continue forward in life with clarity and intention.”
.@MrsErikaKirk called on the graduating class of Hillsdale College to embrace her late husband Charlie Kirk’s “blueprint” for life.
“God made us purposeful beings… Life is not defined by the abundance of options, but by the weight of the choices that you make within them.” pic.twitter.com/AHFTJiPu9c
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 9, 2026
“And you will come to understand that life is not defined by the abundance of options, but by the weight of the choices that you make within them. And those choices, more often than not, are not dramatic or obvious, but quiet and compounding, forming the blueprint of your life long before anyone else can see what you are building.”
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