House Speaker Mike Johnson mourned the shooting of Charlie Kirk and held a moment of silence for the esteemed conservative organizer and Turning Point USA founder after he was fatally shot in the neck at Utah Valley University.
“We ask everyone to pray for him and his family,” Johnson told reporters before the moment of silence. “This is detestable what’s happened. Political violence has become all too common in American society.”
“This is not who we are. It violates the core principles of our country.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s moment of silence for Kirk followed with nasty bickering from members of Congress.C-SPAN After the brief moment of silence in the House chamber, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) then rose and asked for a spoken prayer, arguing that “silent prayers get silent results.”
Democratic lawmakers nearby erupted in dismay. Some were heard grousing, “no.”
Johnson had to use his gavel to put an end to the unruly Congress members.C-SPAN
Kirk, 31, had been shot while speaking at UVU as part of his American Comeback Tour. The conservative star was doing a question-and-answer session with students on campus when he was struck by a single gunshot.
He was then rushed to the hospital before later being publicly pronounced dead.
Here's the latest on the Charlie Kirk shooting in Utah
The 31-year-old Turning Point USA creator was shot dead at Utah Valley University.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Trump mourned on Truth Social.
“He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Trump also ordered the US flag to be flown at half-staff through Sunday.
JD Vance posts on X with the caption “Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour,” after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot by an unknown assailant at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.X/@JDVance
Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was just 18 years old, and the group quickly grew into one of the largest and most influential conservative activist organizations in the country.
Many political analysts have credited him with playing a key role in helping Trump get reelected last November through his grassroots work in battleground states.
Chinese drug-related stocks stumbled after a report that the Trump administration has been discussing major restrictions on medicines from the Asian nation.
The Hang Seng Biotech Index dropped as much as 8.6%, the most in five months, before paring much of the loss. A draft executive order aims to boost US output of medicines that are currently mass-produced in China, and impose tough scrutiny on licensing deals for experimental drugs, according to the New York Times report.
The federal government’s move to take a 10 percent stake—and become the largest shareholder—in chip company Intel in August raised some eyebrows among investors and observers. California-based Intel, once the leading manufacturer of microchips, has for years struggled to keep up with its competitors in an industry critical to ensuring the United States’ continued technological and military dominance.
While the government’s ownership is passive, or nonvoting, it will still have some influence over the company.
Some have suggested that the deal amounts to government meddling in the private sector or even signals that the nation is moving away from a free market and toward state capitalism.
Trump administration officials have pushed back on characterizations likening the move to socialism, saying the agreement will boost U.S. leadership in semiconductors.
The deal forms part of a broader trend as Washington steps up its efforts to win the U.S.–China tech race, experts told The Epoch Times.
While they were split on how to characterize the trend—state capitalism or something else—the experts agreed it was a necessary move to compete against an economy directed by a regime that doesn’t play by established trade rules.
Washington cannot win the tech race by just controlling Beijing’s access to advanced U.S. technology, the experts said. It also needs to exert pressure on China’s economic model.
For years, the Chinese regime has been flooding the global market with inexpensive products by maintaining an excessive manufacturing capacity. That, in turn, makes money for tech development.
As China continues to rely on stolen technology and funding through exports, the United States has a short window of opportunity to gain a step ahead in the tech race, experts said.
Intel’s Strategic Value
Under the deal, the Department of Commerce converts the $11.1 billion grant it provided to Intel under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act into nonvoting shares. Additionally, within five years, the U.S. government has the right to acquire another 5 percent share if the company decides to reduce its ownership stake in its chip manufacturing, or foundry, business to below 51 percent. That’s the “foundry clause.”
The federal government has taken ownership of private companies before. However, that was typically done during an emergency, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic.
Intel’s current woes are not due to broader market conditions but poor management decisions.
Intel missed out on the mobile chip market by banking on chips for personal computers, and it was late in the game for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips. As a result, the company announced in July that it would slash its workforce by 24,000, or 25 percent of its core employee base, by the end of this year and it recorded a $2 billion restructuring charge, leading to a $3 billion loss in the second quarter.
James Lewis, a former diplomat specializing in technology and a distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, calls Washington’s new approach “state capitalism.”
Intel doesn’t get new money, he told The Epoch Times, and taking a stake in Intel without a board seat doesn’t really help solve the company’s problems.
William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute, however, said he thinks it’s too early to conclude it’s state capitalism because Intel is a unique case, and the government’s ownership is passive.
Lee describes the approach as a “national defense strategy that includes economic assets.”
“China’s attack on the U.S. is most likely going to be cyber, software-related, and tech-related,” Lee, who also leads the consultancy Global Economic Advisors, told The Epoch Times. “That’s why we want to have our own tech industry. Because that’s where the battleground is going to be.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an Aug. 27 interview on Fox Business, said that the fact that the vast majority of the world’s advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan posed a “national risk like we haven’t seen since the Arab oil embargo.” The 1973 crisis caused severe energy shortages in the United States and triggered a global recession.
From a national security perspective, Intel has unique value because it’s the only American shop with advanced chip design and manufacturing under one roof.
The chip supply chain consists of three main components: design, wafer production, and testing and packaging. Unlike Nvidia and AMD, which rely heavily on Taiwan for chip production, Intel owns all the steps and maintains facilities in the United States. It also has testing and assembly sites in China, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Washington’s move is “preemptive” in using state capital to prevent the talent and technology of a high-tech company from being transferred to other countries, Ethan Tu, founder of Taipei-based Taiwan AI Labs and a veteran practitioner in the AI field, told The Epoch Times.
