When President 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.

查理·柯克遇刺仅数小时后，特朗普总统就在椭圆形办公室谈及自己的“悲痛与愤怒”。这一刻引人注目，它彰显了这位31岁保守派活动人士对总统个人而言何等重要，也体现出他已无缝融入了特朗普家族。

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

“我爱你，兄弟。”总统长子小唐纳德·特朗普周三在X平台上写道。

It was the president himself — not local law enforcement, Mr. Kirk’s spokesman or his family — who announced Mr. 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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

周三宣布柯克死讯的并非当地执法部门、柯克的发言人或家属，而是总统本人。对特朗普而言，这是罕见的哀悼之举。“他受到所有人的爱戴和敬仰，尤其是我，而现在，他已离我们而去。”特朗普在Truth Social上写道。

Mr. Kirk was particularly tight with Donald Trump Jr., a close friend drawn in by Mr. Kirk’s charisma but also his business and fund-raising skills.

柯克与小唐纳德·特朗普的关系尤为密切，后者被柯克的个人魅力及其商业和筹款能力所吸引，两人成了密友。

“I couldn’t have thought more highly of him,” Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview earlier this year. “He wasn’t just some young guy who knew how to be brash online. Charlie got things done, from organizing on campuses to building relationships with donors.”

“我对他的评价再高也不为过，”小唐纳德·特朗普今年早些时候在接受采访时说。“他不只是个会在网上高谈阔论的年轻人。查理能办成事——从校园组织活动到与捐赠者建立关系，他都游刃有余。”

It was the eldest Trump son who ushered the Turning Point USA founder into the family orbit in the summer of 2016. After Mr. Kirk, then 22, managed to score a meeting with the son at Trump Tower and offer advice about how his father the candidate could attract young voters, Donald Trump Jr. hired Mr. Kirk on the spot as his personal campaign assistant.

2016年夏天，正是特朗普长子将这位“美国转折点”创始人带入了家族圈子。当时22岁的柯克设法在特朗普大厦与他见了一面，就当时竞选总统的特朗普如何吸引年轻选民提出了建议，小唐纳德·特朗普当场聘柯克为个人竞选助理。

A year later, Mr. Kirk was attending Donald Trump Jr.’s birthday party at Mar-a-Lago when the president motioned for him to have a seat nearby. The two spoke privately for 40 minutes.

一年后，柯克出席小唐纳德·特朗普在马阿拉歌庄园举办的生日派对时，总统示意他坐到旁边，两人私下交谈了40分钟。

After that conversation, Mr. Kirk became a frequent presence in the White House, but was always careful not to abuse his privileges. “He was a professional, easy to deal with,” Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and former senior adviser, said in an interview earlier this year. “Nothing ever leaked to the press. He just got stuff done.”

那次谈话后，柯克成了白宫的常客，但他始终小心不滥用特权。“他很专业，很好打交道。”总统女婿、前高级顾问贾里德·库什纳今年早些时候在采访中说，“从未向媒体泄露过任何信息，只管把事情做好。”

Mr. Kirk’s closeness to Mr. Trump grew after the president was defeated in 2020. Mr. Kirk became a prominent voice spreading baseless claims that the election had been stolen from Mr. Trump, an assertion he never disavowed.

2020年特朗普竞选失利后，柯克与他的关系愈发亲近。柯克成了散布选举被窃取这一毫无根据说法的主要声音，且从未否认过这一断言。

In February 2021, just weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, Mr. Kirk visited the former president in exile at Mar-a-Lago. Afterward, Mr. Kirk showed a photo of them together at a donor presentation, saying, “That was the easiest meeting I ever scheduled with President Trump. Because, you know, all these wiseguys who now act like they’re his best friend didn’t want to be anywhere near him in early 2021.”

2021年2月，就在1月6日特朗普支持者冲击国会山事件发生数周后，柯克前往马阿拉歌庄园拜访这位蛰居于此的前总统。后来，柯克曾在一次捐赠者推介会上展示了两人的合影，称：“那是我跟特朗普总统最容易约到的一次会面。要知道，那些现在装作是他最好朋友的聪明人，在2021年初根本不想靠近他。”

As one measure of Mr. Trump’s affection for his young outside adviser, Mr. Kirk became the rare associate not to incur the president’s ire while profiting off their relationship. If anything, it was a point of pride to Mr. Trump that as the top draw at Turning Point USA events, he was helping to enrich Mr. Kirk, several people familiar with the dynamics said.

从一件事可以看出特朗普对这位年轻外部顾问的喜爱程度：柯克是少有的能从双方关系中获利却没惹总统生气的人物。几位知情人士称，事实上，看到自己成了“美国转折点”活动的最大卖点，助力柯克积累财富，特朗普反而颇感自豪。

When it came to advising the president, Mr. Kirk was careful to pick his spots. As an early supporter of JD Vance’s Senate candidacy, he encouraged Mr. Trump to endorse Mr. Vance in 2022 — and then, two years later, to select the Ohio senator as his running mate. During the 2024 transition, Mr. Kirk also sat in on high-level personnel discussions, including for secretary of state, but did not push strenuously for any personal favorites.

在给总统提供建议时，柯克会谨慎选择时机。作为JD·万斯参议员竞选的早期支持者，他2022年鼓励特朗普支持万斯，两年后又劝说特朗普选这位俄亥俄州参议员作为竞选搭档。2024年政权过渡期间，柯克还参与了包括国务卿人选在内的高层人事讨论，但并未极力推销自己偏好的人选。

He did, however, help ensure that one of his organization’s top donors, Stacey Feinberg, became Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg.

不过，他确实促成了其组织的顶级捐赠者之一斯泰西·范伯格成为特朗普政府驻卢森堡大使。

Occasionally, Mr. Kirk disagreed with Mr. Trump. When he did, Mr. Kirk’s posture was that of a faithful custodian of the MAGA base who feared that its leader was inadvertently straying from his own principles. Though he publicly supported the president’s decision in June to bomb nuclear sites in Iran, he spoke fretfully to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office that same month about the prospect of igniting another intractable war in the Middle East.

柯克偶尔也会与特朗普意见相左。这种时候，他总以“让美国再次伟大”票仓的忠实守护者姿态表示，他担心领袖会无意中偏离自己的原则。尽管他公开支持总统6月轰炸伊朗核设施的决定，但同月在椭圆形办公室与特朗普交谈时，他仍忧心忡忡地提到，这可能在中东引发另一场难以收场的战争。

A month later on his podcast, Mr. Kirk pushed for the Trump administration to release its files on the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had once been a friend of Mr. Trump’s. But then, after receiving a call from a plainly irritated president, he reversed himself, saying, “I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being.”

一个月后，柯克在自己的播客中敦促特朗普政府公开性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（曾是特朗普的朋友）的档案。但在接到总统明显不悦的电话后，他改口称：“我暂时不会再谈爱泼斯坦了。”

The flip-flop created a stir among Mr. Kirk’s followers, compelling his communications director, Andrew Kolvet, to issue a clarification: “Charlie is not done talking about it. The ball is in the administration’s court to find a solution.”

这一立场反复在柯克的追随者中引起哗然，迫使他的公关主管安德鲁·科尔维特出面澄清：“查理的意思不是不再谈，只是现在该由政府来想办法解决了。”

As a close ally of the vice president who spoke with relish to friends of an eventual Vance presidency, Mr. Kirk remained mindful of who the boss was. In one of his last posts on X, the day before he was killed at a university outside Salt Lake City, he applauded Mr. Trump’s decision to assume control over law enforcement in Washington.

作为副总统的亲密盟友，柯克曾兴致勃勃地跟朋友说，万斯终有一天会当总统，但他始终清楚谁是真正的老板。在盐湖城郊外一所大学遇刺前一天，他在X平台的最后一条帖子中为特朗普接管华盛顿执法权的决定叫好。

“We’re taking our country back,” Mr. Kirk wrote, adding two fire emojis.

“我们正在夺回我们的国家，”柯克写道，还加了两个火焰的表情符号。

Less than 24 hours later, he was dead. On Thursday, Mr. Vance arrived in Salt Lake City to take his body home to Phoenix on Air Force Two.

不到24小时后，他便离世了。周四，万斯抵达盐湖城，用“空军二号”将他的遗体送回菲尼克斯。