Pentagon’s Charlie Kirk Recruitment Slant Bashed as a "Horrible Idea"

A proposal to use Charlie Kirk as a military recruitment figure, despite his never having served in the U.S. Armed Forces, has drawn backlash and sparked internal resistance within the Pentagon after the plan was leaked, Tom Boggioni reported for Raw Story.

The plan comes as the Trump administration works to elevate Kirk as a martyr-like figure while also suppressing dissent. (Image: Charlie Kirk Facebook)

MSNBC columnist Zeeshan Aleem, writing Saturday, called the idea deeply problematic.

NBC News had earlier reported that the proposal would frame the campaign as a “national call to service,” with Pentagon leaders even floating slogans such as “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors.”

“It’s a horrible idea: It would encourage right-wing activists to think of Kirk’s death as a reason to take up arms, and further politicize the armed forces at a time when the president is already using the military as a tool for domestic repression,” Aleem wrote.

He argued that such a move could never be viewed as politically neutral.

The plan comes as the Trump administration works to elevate Kirk as a martyr-like figure while also suppressing dissent.

Aleem warned the campaign would condition service members to equate military service with loyalty to political ideology rather than to the law, risking public faith in the military as an apolitical institution.

“Trump keeps taking steps to make the military an extension of his own personal ideological project and turn it against the laws and norms that have helped keep the U.S. remarkably stable as a democracy, by global standards,” Aleem concluded.

“Trump would not be honoring Kirk’s life by using his horrific killing as a tool for recruitment. He’d be exploiting it.”