OREM, Utah — Vice President JD Vance made a brief stop in northern Utah on Thursday after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Air Force Two spent barely two hours on the ground before flying to Arizona with Kirk's casket.
Vance arrived at Salt Lake City International Airport at approximately 2:30 p.m.
Without Vance making a public appearance in the state, the plane departed Salt Lake City.
A source familiar to the Vice President's plans told Scripps News that the Vice President and Second Lady did meet with Kirk's family and a number of his close friends on the ground in Utah.
Following the shooting, Vance wrote a lengthy social media post, calling him a "true friend," A "good man," and sharing how the two met through a DM on the platform that was then called Twitter.
A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 11, 2025
"Charlie had an uncanny ability to know when to push the envelope and when to be more conventional," Vance wrote. "I've seen people attack him for years for being wrong on this or that issue publicly, never realizing that privately he was working to broaden the scope of acceptable debate."
The vice president ended his post by saying that "so much of the success" of the current Trump administration "traces directly" to Kirk.
"You ran a good race, my friend," the vice president concluded. "We've got it from here."
