President Donald Trump appointed Erika Kirk to fill a seat on the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors — the same seat briefly held by her late husband and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who raised questions about DEI and race at the Aug. 7 meeting before he was killed Sept. 10.
A White House spokesperson hailed the appointment of Erika Kirk as “the perfect choice” and praised her late husband’s role in “inspiring not only the next generation of service members, but millions around the world with his bold Christian faith, defense of the truth and deep love of country.”
USAFA’s 16-member Board of Visitors makes recommendations to Congress and the Secretary of Defense about morale, discipline and academics at the Colorado Springs academy.
Trump appointed Charlie Kirk to the board last summer as part of his efforts to reverse alleged liberalism in military institutions Trump claimed had become “infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues.”
President Donald Trump embraces Erika Kirk after he posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 14 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
His appointment was controversial because Kirk never graduated from college nor served in the military and was known for political activism. The military and its academies seek to be apolitical.
Erika Kirk, a former model, has no military experience but does have two college degrees: a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from Arizona State University and a juris master degree in American legal studies from Liberty University.
Her appointment comes as military academies are replacing “woke” civilian instructors with military instructors who may lack civilians’ higher degrees, removing books from library shelves and waging a relentless campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion and Critical Race Theory.
In January, USAFA revised its mission statement, deleting the word “education” without informing faculty. Fifty civilian professors have resigned.
An article in a military news outlet questioned Erika Kirk’s qualifications for the post, saying her “credentials place her squarely in the world of political organization and public messaging” while “the board’s mission of reviewing officer education, discipline systems and institutional operations often leads observers to look for members with backgrounds tied directly to defense policy, military leadership or university administration.”
“When a new member’s résumé diverges from that typical background, the contrast naturally raises questions about how the board balances political representation with subject-matter familiarity,” the article says.
Charlie Kirk’s service on USAFA’s Board of Visitors was brief and narrowly focused. He attended August’s virtual meeting. Minutes show he raised questions about race, diversity, physical fitness standards for female cadets and the slow progress in repairing USAFA’s iconic chapel, which is designed to resemble the wings of airplanes.
Charlie Kirk
“Mr. Kirk asked for the USAFA staff to explain how they are following the president and SECDEF’s directives on Critical Race Theory and diversity, equity and inclusion when it comes to curriculum and how the academy is ensuring compliance with the faculty to ensure USAFA doesn’t push the worldview of oppression, oppressor/oppressed dynamics, anti-Western, anti-American, and gender ideology,” said the minutes. He was told USAFA was compliant with all executive orders.
Kirk complained that slowdowns in the chapel project, which was scheduled to take a few years and now may take nine, “has had a depressing effect on the psyche of the cadets that must be acknowledged. … He wants to rally around the chapel and make it a top priority of the SECDEF or the White House,” the minutes state.
Kirk also “asked the academy to confirm that throughout the application process for admissions that it is the policy that the individuals making the admissions decision will not know the race of the applicant and that there is no formula to weigh towards a specific outcome.”
Further, “Kirk told the board that cadets can articulate and feel American exceptionalism,” saying, “the academy is not Harvard or Dartmouth, where students can ‘spread anti-American ideas.’”
Last fall after Kirk’s death, members of the U.S. Air Force Academy Association of Graduates aroused further controversy by seeking to honor him with an honorary degree. The effort was quickly withdrawn among an outpouring of complaints about his lack of qualifications, political divisiveness and possible racism.
Hundreds of alumni complained about the move, and one turned in his class ring.
Hundreds of alumni complained about the move, and one turned in his class ring. One Black USAFA graduate called Kirk “an unapologetic racist” known for “sowing seeds of hatred.”
“It’s the ultimate slap in the face to me because you’re celebrating a person who’s actively trying to oppress people that look like me with his racist attitudes,” 1981 graduate Eric Garven told the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Another Black graduate called efforts to honor Kirk “repulsive” and called him a variationon DEI: “Didn’t Earn It.”
Michael Weinstein is a USAFA graduate who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation two decades ago amid a rise in evangelical outreach at the academy.
“I am ashamed of my alma mater that this ever happened,” he said, calling Kirk “a hateful divider” and charging the Association of Graduates with embracing “extreme right-wing ideology.”
As BNG previously reported, Erika Kirk is under attack from conspiracist Candace Owens whose “Bride of Charlie” podcast calls Kirk “a young woman with absolutely zero qualifications” to run TPUSA.