A Closer Look at Charlie Kirk’s Complex Relationship With Celebrities

Conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk caused no shortage of controversy throughout his lifetime for his criticism of celebrities.

Kirk died after he was shot during a speech at Utah Valley University in September 2025.

While Kirk was a frequent critic of Hollywood culture, he did ally with conservative celebrities such as Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker and even defended Sydney Sweeney over her American Eagle controversy. (Sweeney and American Eagle were accused of using an ad about “great jeans” as a double entendre for the discredited theory of eugenics, a racially biased study that was notoriously adopted with the Nazi party and has been often associated with white supremacy.)

“We don’t know how conservative [Sweeney] is, to be clear, but she doesn’t have to default to being a lib[eral] just to survive as a celebrity,” Kirk told podcast listeners.

Keep scrolling for Kirk’s criticism and rare praise for celebrities below:

Sydney Sweeney

Kirk addressed the scandal over Sweeney’s American Eagle advertisement on his podcast in August 2025. He also mentioned that some of Sweeney’s fans were confused and upset that she was reportedly a registered Republican in the state of Florida.

“Sydney Sweeney is a right-winger and this has people very confused and surprised,” he told listeners in August 2025. “If this has people surprised, you haven’t been paying attention to how young people have been moving to the right.”

Kirk suggested that there was a “very simple explanation” for both Sweeney’s advertisement and her party affiliation.

“Sydney Sweeney, she knows her audience,” he insisted. “Her audience is a bunch of young, Gen Z males who have been moving dramatically to the right … You have to imagine [this controversy] is only going to further radicalize her to the right. She’s an All-American girl. She grew up near Spokane, right near the Idaho border. We don’t know how conservative she is, to be clear, but she doesn’t have to default to being a lib[eral] just to survive as a celebrity.”

Taylor Swift

On an August 2025 podcast episode, Kirk reacted to Swift’s engagement to Kelce by suggesting that one of the reasons she was “annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years” was because she was “not yet married and she doesn’t have children,” according to Media Matters.

“I say this non-sarcastically,” he added. “I say this as a husband and a father. Having children changes you. Getting married changes you, and I hope that America’s biggest pop star marrying the pharmaceutical spokesperson ends up conservatizing them. Taylor Swift might deradicalize herself. She might come back down to reality.”

Kirk went one step further by suggesting that Swift could “become more conservative” once she got “married and [had] a ton of children.”

“Engage in reality more and get outside of the abstract clouds. Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge,” he insisted. “And most importantly, I can’t wait to go to a Taylor Kelce concert. I can’t say it without laughing. You’ve got to change your name. If not, you don’t really mean it.”

Many Swifites condemned Kirk for ordering Swift — who endorsed Kamala Harris for President in 2024 — to “submit” to Kelce, with one fan simply replying via Facebook: “F that asshat.”

“Like anyone listens to Charlie,” another Swiftie responded.

Russell Brand

Kirk had former comedian-turned-right wing commentator Brand on his podcast in August 2025 to discuss the latter’s conversion to evangelical Christianity. While discussing the way Brand’s formerly wild lifestyle led him to seek answers from a higher power, Kirk wished his guest well on his spiritual journey.

“You have millions of people praying for you,” he told Brand. “The Christian journey is not necessarily easy, but you can rest [knowing] that Jesus is with you throughout every step of it. Your whole thing is freedom, where the spirit of the lord is, there is liberty.”

Following Kirk’s death, Brand referred to Kirk as a “good, strange Christian man,” adding: “Dear God please comfort his family.”

Miley Cyrus

Kirk weighed in on Cyrus’ iconic performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2013 by accusing her of contributing to the moral “decline” of the U.S. with her skimpy wardrobe and raunchy stage banter.

“Miley Cyrus embodies the decline of our moral fabric in this country. Absolutely disgusting,” he wrote on Twitter (now X) at the time.

Cyrus never directly responded to Kirk, though her manager Larry Rudolph told Us Weekly exclusively at the time that the performance “could not have gone better.”

“The fans got it. The rest eventually will,” he predicted.

Cyrus later said in an MTV documentary that she completely shut out the backlash over her VMAs appearance.

“I don’t pay attention to the negative,” Cyrus said in the film. “What’s amazing is I think now, we’re three days later and people are still talking about it. They’re over-thinking it. You’re thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. I didn’t even think about it. Because that’s just me.”

Harrison Butker

Kirk was one of the Kansas City Chiefs star’s most ardent public defenders amid the fallout over Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College in May 2024. In particular, Butker was widely rebuked for suggesting that women should “get married and start a family” rather than focus on their careers.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” he told students. “How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

While Butker’s commencement speech was condemned by Benedictine College’s nuns, Kirk publicly stood with the Chiefs placekicker.

“Harrison Butker went to a Catholic college and delivered a speech to Catholic graduates affirming Catholic doctrine,” Kirk wrote via X in May 2024. “He was literally moved to tears when describing how much his wife means to him. He called out and attacked the lies that millions of young women have been told, lies which leave many of them lonely and miserable rather than fulfilled and happy.”

Kirk went on, “Professional sports is full of criminals, domestic abusers, and men with a half-dozen children they don’t raise. For the press to smear a brave, devout family man as an antisemitic, sexist pig is disgusting. I stand with Harrison Butker.”

Butker referred to Kirk as “a strong witness for Christ” following the latter’s shooting death and shared that Kirk’s final text message to him was a quote from the Bible verse Philippians 3:14.

South Park

Trey Parker and Matt Stone brutally mocked Kirk’s viral debate videos in the August 2025 South Park episode “Got a Nut,” where Eric Cartman became a right-wing podcaster. Among the gags in the episode was Cartman’s friend Clyde receiving the 2025 Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.

“I think we have a good spirit about this, and laugh, and have a good attitude,” Kirk responded on his podcast in August 2025.

He went on, “This is going to be professional comedians. They know what they’re doing. They’re going to probably roast me. But it’s about time we don’t take ourselves so seriously.”

Parker and Stone reportedly postponed an episode of South Park about MAGA influencers following Kirk’s death in September 2025.