By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump says Charlie Kirk asked him to save Chicago.

The president addressed tens of thousands of people at the Turning Point USA’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona Sunday, with millions more watching online.

Trump noted that Kirk was raised in the suburbs of Chicago.

“He was an All-American in everything he did, and one of the last things he said to me was, ‘Please sir, save Chicago.’ We’re going to do that. We’re going to save Chicago from horrible crime,” Trump said.

Kirk was born in Arlington Heights, attended Wheeling High School and started Turning Point USA from a garage in Lemont.

Trump said Kirk was a martyr for American freedom.

“Because while Charlie has been reunited with his creator in heaven, his voice on Earth will echo through the generations, and his name will live forever in the eternal chronicle of American’s greatest patriots,” Trump said.

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University.

Before the president took the stage Sunday, Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, delivered an emotional speech dedicated to her late husband.

“He wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life,” Erika Kirk said.

Erika referred to words spoken by Jesus of Nazareth on the cross and then referred to her husband’s killer.

“On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him,” Kirk said.

The crowd responded with a standing ovation while Kirk wiped tears from her eyes.

“I forgive him because it is what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love,” she said.

In the wake of since Charlie’s death, Erika Kirk said the country has not seen violence but revival.