A brief embrace between former U.S. president Donald Trump and Erika Kirk at the public memorial for her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, ignited debate on Monday as video clips of the moment drew strong reactions online, with some viewers calling Trump’s facial expressions and gestures during the hug “weird” and “uncomfortable.” The encounter occurred near the close of Sunday’s five-hour service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where tens of thousands gathered to remember the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder, who was shot dead on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. Photographs and live coverage captured Trump stepping toward Kirk’s widow, placing his arms around her and standing with her at center stage as music played in the stadium. An Associated Press photo taken on the field shows Trump with his left arm around Erika Kirk during the exchange. Fox News’ live coverage described the two “embracing” on stage as “America the Beautiful” played.
Clips of the interaction provoked an unusually emotional wave of commentary, centering on the former president’s expression while he tightened the hug and his brief crowd-facing gestures amid the solemn scene. OK! Magazine, which compiled reactions from videos of the moment, said the president “gave Erika a kiss on both cheeks and a long hug,” then “hug[ged] the widow tighter” as he made “a weird face toward the crowd.” One comment highlighted by the outlet read: “This is one of the weirdest interactions I’ve ever seen I think,” while another said, “I’m VERY uncomfortable.” Other reactions quoted by the magazine described it as “one of the weirdest embraces,” even as Trump supporters defended the exchange as an attempt to console a grieving friend.
The embrace followed separate speeches by Erika Kirk and the former president that had already become a focal point of an event blending religious tribute and political messaging. In her remarks, delivered through tears, Erika Kirk said she forgave the accused gunman. “Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him,” she told the stadium, adding, “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.” Moments later, Trump praised Charlie Kirk’s “noble spirit” and drew a pointed contrast between the activist’s approach and his own. “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said, before adding, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” and, turning toward the widow on stage, “I am sorry, Erika.”
The exchange at center stage unfolded during those closing minutes, after Trump called Erika Kirk forward and the two stood together before the crowd. Fox News posted video labeled “Trump embraces Erika Kirk at memorial,” showing the pair facing the audience while the patriotic song continued over the speakers. The AP’s photo gallery from inside State Farm Stadium includes multiple images of the former president and Kirk’s widow standing shoulder to shoulder, underlining the public nature of the moment that later ricocheted across social media platforms.
Beyond Trump’s expression, a second element of the viral discussion involved Erika Kirk’s hand sign after the hug. Still images circulating online show her raising her hand with thumb, index finger and little finger extended while the middle and ring fingers rest against the palm—the American Sign Language “I love you” handshape known as “ILY.” ASL references describe ILY as a combination of the letters I, L and Y used to informally express affection or esteem. The similar-looking “horns” gesture differs because the thumb is tucked over the closed fingers. As the images spread, some viewers misread the moment, but linguists and ASL resources have long distinguished the two.
People magazine’s account of the service set the wider context in which the hug occurred, describing an arena-sized memorial attended by national political figures and supporters from across the country. The magazine reported that after Erika Kirk’s remarks about forgiveness, Trump “offered a different perspective” in his speech and later added that Charlie Kirk—“looking down”—might be “angry at me now” for the comment about opponents, a line that drew a mix of applause and uneasy laughter in the crowd.
As the clips of the embrace spread, debate sharpened around whether Trump’s crowd-facing gestures—which, according to OK! Magazine’s write-up, included a brief thumbs-up—were appropriate on a stage shared with a newly widowed mother of two. The magazine noted that some users praised the former president as “a father figure” trying to steady a grieving spouse, while others said the moment felt awkward. The same article embedded an NBC News TikTok post summarizing the scene: “President Trump wrapped up his speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial by calling Kirk’s wife, Erika, back up to the stage and the two shared a hug.” While reactions diverged, the basic sequence—two cheek kisses, a long hug and the pair standing together through the end of the song—was visible across multiple camera angles shared by national outlets and local affiliates.
For the widow, the embrace came at the end of a weekend in which she stepped into a more public role amid deep personal grief. People reported that Erika Kirk told mourners she will assume the CEO role at Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization her husband founded, and that she and the couple’s two young children would seek to carry on his work. The service drew an audience from across the conservative movement, along with a number of current and former administration officials and tech and business figures who crossed the stage to offer memories of Charlie Kirk.
After the memorial, Trump told reporters traveling with him that he had known Erika Kirk “over the years” and praised her as “great” with “a good heart,” according to a Fox News live blog that transcribed brief remarks the former president made aboard Marine One. “She’s gonna do a good job,” he added, referring to her new leadership responsibilities at Turning Point USA. Neither Trump nor the Kirk family addressed the online commentary about the hug directly, and there were no indications by Monday night that anyone on stage viewed the encounter as controversial at the time it happened.
The stadium farewell capped nearly two weeks of tributes across conservative media and church networks after Charlie Kirk’s killing, which Utah authorities are prosecuting with the possibility of capital punishment. The service’s scale ensured that its quieter human moments—Kirk’s widow bowing her head on Trump’s shoulder, Trump patting her arm before turning back toward the audience, and the “ILY” handshape directed toward a towering photo of the couple—would be seen by a vast audience in real time and then replayed in short, looping clips. The AP image set, which includes a photograph of Trump and Erika Kirk in profile as they listen to the closing hymn, underscored how the embrace became one of the most shared images from the day.
The online split over the optics of the hug tracked a broader divide evident inside the stadium. On stage, Erika Kirk’s vow of forgiveness—“I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do”—sat alongside speeches that framed the killing as a summons to intensify political engagement. Trump’s own tribute, in which he praised Kirk as a “missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose” before admitting “I hate my opponent,” captured the tension between the widow’s appeal to grace and the movement’s combative tone. The hug that followed, magnified by arena cameras and phones held aloft in the stands, landed in the same cross-current when it arrived on social feeds: to some, a consoling gesture from a longtime ally; to others, an off-key performance in the spotlight.
Even amid the argument over optics, the contours of the moment are not in dispute: Trump beckoned Kirk’s widow back to center stage, kissed her cheeks and pulled her in close; she rested her head against his face for several seconds; the two stood together as the song concluded; and her raised hand formed the ASL “I love you” handshape toward the giant image of her husband above the stage. The AP photographs and Fox News video confirm the sequence seen by those in the stadium. What followed—an outpouring of comments from both detractors and supporters—was shaped less by new facts than by the lens through which viewers judged them.
By Monday evening, the viral attention surrounding the hug had become another chapter in the memorial’s aftermath, which also featured the circulation of separate clips of Trump’s speech and of Erika Kirk’s statement of forgiveness. People’s reporting, which carried verbatim excerpts from both, drew heavy readership as national outlets continued to frame the event through the widow’s decision to publicly forgive and Trump’s declaration that he does not share his late ally’s view of political opponents. Against that backdrop, the brief embrace—amplified by the stylized intimacy of a stadium jumbotron—remained the service’s most replayed image, yielding sharply different interpretations from viewers who watched the same few seconds and saw either an awkward flourish or a leader trying to comfort a friend.
Some outlets noted that the pair appeared to sway slightly during the song, a motion described as “gently” moving in time with the music, which supporters cast as an attempt to steady a grieving spouse. The Times of India’s entertainment site labeled the moment “HUGS And DANCES,” a headline that itself drew scrutiny from readers who viewed the swaying as commonplace in settings where music is still playing and a crowd is singing. The underlying facts—that they stood together and moved minimally in place as the hymn continued—matched what was visible in U.S. network clips from the floor.
If the crowd disagreed about the optics, it was unified about the shock of the killing that brought mourners together. The AP image set shows men and women weeping in their seats and raising hands in worship during the musical numbers; the Fox News live blog recorded the crowd estimates and the roster of speakers, which included Vice President JD Vance and other political figures. In that tableau, the Trump-Erika Kirk embrace occupied just a few seconds. Online, it is likely to endure longer, less for what was said than for the question it prompted: in a moment of public grief, how should a political leader act on a stage watched by millions? The dispute over whether a grimace, a thumbs-up or a brief sway crossed a line will persist among those who already disagree about the man making them. The footage, and the photographs that corroborate it, are unequivocal.