Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk was the top trending Google search for 2025, the company announced.
Other top searches included the Netflix film “KPop Demon Hunters,” a plush figure called Labubu, the iPhone 15, and the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Kirk also topped the list for searches relating to those who passed away, followed by Gene Hackman, Ozzy Osbourne, Anne Burrell, and Diane Keaton. Furthermore, Kirk was listed in Google’s trending news searches. That list involved the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the government shutdown, Kirk’s assassination, tariffs, and the No Kings protests.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was listed in Google’s top trending people. This category included New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Kirk’s shooter Tyler Robinson, musician “D4vd,” Erika Kirk, and Pope Leo XIV.
Erika Kirk has been named Turning Point CEO following her husband’s assassination. “All of us at Turning Point USA have a special role in carrying Charlie Kirk’s mantle and completing his vision of bringing us all closer to our Lord and fostering a prosperous country for generations to come,” the organization’s board wrote at the time, adding they “will not surrender or kneel before evil,” but will “carry on.”
Kirk has also been listed as one of TIME Magazine’s “most influential rising stars.” Reporter Nik Popli wrote for TIME that Erika Kirk “offered something rare in today’s politics: forgiveness.”
“Her words may frame the future of the organization her husband launched as a teen and built into a political powerhouse mobilizing young conservatives across the country. Along the way, Erika Kirk emerged as an influential voice for that same audience. With his death, the Turning Point USA board named her CEO and chair,” Popli wrote, adding that “what Erika Kirk models to America’s political leadership is the strength of resilience and grace.”
During the memorial service for her husband, Erika Kirk said, “Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”
