Vice President JD Vance will visit Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday to pay respects to Charlie Kirk’s family. 

He will no longer be traveling to New York City to attend the September 11 service at Ground Zero, a source aware of the change in plans informed the Daily Mail.

Second Lady Usha Vance will join her husband for the somber trip out west.  

Kirk was assassinated while speaking at the first stop of his America Comeback Tour on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. 

Vance posted a lengthy tribute that night detailing their first meeting, which turned into a years-long friendship.

‘You ran a good race, my friend,’ Vance wrote on X. ‘We’ve got it from here.’

The father of two, notable for engaging in intense and viral debates with college students nationwide, collapsed after being hit in the neck by a single bullet from a distance of approximately 200 yards.

Kirk had been speaking for about 20 minutes and was in the midst of responding to a question about mass shootings moments before he was shot. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition but was pronounced dead two and a half hours later.

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance will visit Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday to pay respects to the family of Charlie Kirk

Conservative personality Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated while facilitating an open forum discussion on Utah Valley University’s campus on Wednesday, September 10, 2025.

The vice president’s relationship with Kirk dates back to 2017. In an extensive X post, Vance commented, ‘Charlie was there for me.’ Pictured: Vance and Kirk at the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

The killer is still on the loose, with the FBI and Utah police conducting a manhunt for the shooter. 

Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve Kirk, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. 

The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.

Although JD and Usha were scheduled to visit Ground Zero in New York City on Thursday to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, they are now redirecting to Utah.

The Vance’s will pay respects to Kirk and visit with his family as they mourn the loss of their husband and father.

President Donald Trump led the tributes for Kirk on Wednesday, releasing a four-minute video on the horrific assassination after confirming on Truth Social hours earlier the death of his friend. 

‘I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,’ Trump said in an address filmed in the Oval Office. 

‘His mission was to bring young people into the political process,’ Trump said as he called for Americans to ‘confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree.’ 

The president blamed Kirk’s death on Democrats calling him a ‘Nazi’ and said the rhetoric has led to ‘terrorism.’ 

The Turning Point USA founder and CEO hosted Vance on several occasions at his conferences and events. Pictured: Vance speaks at a town hall hosted by Kirk’s Turning Point Action PAC on October 31, 2024

Kirk was speaking for about 20 minutes and answering a question about mass shootings on September 10, 2025, just seconds before a single bullet struck his neck in front of a crowd of college students

On Wednesday night, Vance, 41, recalled how Kirk reached out to him over direct message in 2017 to praise him for speaking about God on Fox News.

‘[T]hat moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today,’ the vice president declared in his tribute to Kirk.

He detailed out Kirk was one of the first people he spoke with when thinking about running for U.S. Senate in 2021 and among the first to advocate for his vice presidential nomination.

‘Charlie was there for me,’ Vance wrote.

‘Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas,’ the X post goes on. ‘He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he’d encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak.’

‘He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas.’

Pictured: Donald Trump Jr., Vance, Kirk and musician Kid Rock attend the Turning Point Inaugural-Eve Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 19, 2025