When America’s outrage is selective, it isn’t leadership — it’s performance.

The Catalyst Perspective

On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah—a predominantly white university in a predominantly white state. At the time of this writing, the shooter has been identified as a white male with MAGA ties. This is consistent with what we know: the overwhelming majority of mass shootings in this country, including those on school and university campuses, are carried out by White men.

President Trump quickly declared, “Charlie, we love you,” and ordered flags at half-staff.

Just months earlier, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated at home, and Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot. Trump offered only brief remarks before mocking Gov. Tim Walz as “whacked out” and “a mess.” That is not leadership—it is performative politics.

Let me be clear: I do not condone political violence. When I don’t align with someone, I simply do not engage. But I will not be gaslit into mourning the death of a man who demeaned Black people, Black women, LGBTQ+ people, and who said gun deaths were a price worth paying.

The Power Move: SCALE™

Receipts: In His Own Words

• “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” — 2024
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• “George Floyd was a scumbag.” — 2021
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• “It’s worth it to have a cost of… some gun deaths every single year so we can have the Second Amendment.” — 2023
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• On empathy: “Empathy is a weakness. Empathy leads to socialism.”
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• On Black women: claimed Michelle Obama and others lacked the “brain processing power” to succeed without affirmative action.
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• On LGBTQ+ people: called trans people “a throbbing middle finger to God” and “an abomination.”
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• On Paul Pelosi, after he was attacked with a hammer: mocked the incident, sneering, “Why would someone break into the house of the Speaker of the House and only hit her husband? Seems strange, doesn’t it?”
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Here is the undeniable irony: Charlie Kirk defended gun deaths as necessary for the Second Amendment - even as children were killed in schools. Yet he died by the very gunfire he normalized.

What his words reflect is White supremacy and dehumanization.

Side-by-Side: Performative Politics in Practice

Reckless Rhetoric & Gaslighting

Conservative leaders didn’t just mourn Kirk; they called Democrats the “party of murderers,” demanded the party be labeled “terrorists,” and invoked “annihilation of the left.” All before facts were even known.

At the same time, they demanded grief for Kirk while mocking or minimizing the grief of others. That is not empathy — that is gaslighting: manipulating people into questioning their reality and guilting them into emotions never afforded to them in return. I will not be held to a standard that even Charlie Kirk himself was never held to.

It is cruel to expect grief where there was only harm. To demand mourning for Charlie Kirk is like asking children abused by priests to weep when the abuser is reassigned, or asking Epstein’s survivors to mourn his death. It is manipulation dressed up as morality and it’s gaslighting at its most insidious.

And let’s be honest: to claim “there is no place for violence in politics” is not just performative; it is historically false. America was built on violence: the genocide of Indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans, lynchings, assassinations, and the silencing of dissent. Violence has always been a political tool in this country.

Violence is force intended to hurt, damage, or kill.

But violence is also poverty.
It’s stripping mental health funding while handing tax cuts to billionaires.
It’s mocking Paul Pelosi’s assault while lowering flags for Charlie Kirk.

This is not leadership. It is reckless incitement.

And what we are not changing, we are choosing.

Pause: Confront the Dissonance

George Floyd died on a Minneapolis street, his airway compressed until his heart and lungs gave out. He gasped “I can’t breathe” and cried for his mother while the officer stared into cameras, unmoved. Floyd had five children and grandchildren. America debated his past instead of honoring the grief of his family and loved ones.

Philando Castile calmly told an officer he had a legal concealed-carry permit. He was cooperative and respectful, yet shot seven times as his girlfriend live-streamed and his 4-year-old daughter sat in the back seat. The officer was acquitted. Another Black child lost her father.

Meanwhile, Trump said people in Baltimore were “born to be criminals.” When leaders criminalize children, their grief never counts. Their lives don’t matter.

This is the hypocrisy. This is the danger.

And what we are not changing, we are choosing.

Trump and Violence

• Told the Proud Boys: “Stand back and stand by.”
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• Incited a mob that stormed the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after pushing the lie of a stolen election.
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• Pardoned ~1,500+ January 6 rioters, including Proud Boys & Oath Keepers who had been tried and convicted in our courts.
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• Publicly declared he’s “coming after the people” who oppose him, language of vengeance, not governance.
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• Department of Homeland Security (DHS): has assessed that White supremacist violent extremists are the most lethal domestic threat.
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• Framed urban Black youth as “born criminals.”

The same president who pardoned insurrectionists now promises retribution. The same leader who incited supporters to target his own vice president is normalizing chaos at a national scale.

America is more violent than ever under a Trump administration and that is no coincidence.

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Ally in Action (For Men Reading This)

Stop excusing violence when the perpetrator is White or conservative while criminalizing Black boys and men.

Allyship means consistency, not convenience.

Support This Work

This work takes courage, time, and resources. If you believe leadership must be more than performance, I invite you to support Catalyst Coaching & Transformation.

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Work With Me: The Catalyst Power Retainer™

Every day, our political landscape shifts. Leaders face hostility, uncertainty, and attacks no one could have imagined a decade ago. You don’t have to navigate it alone.

The Catalyst Power Retainer™ is a private strategy partnership designed for women in government leadership. It’s not just about having a safe space to be vulnerable; it’s about moving from that vulnerability into strategy, resilience, and power.

Final Words

These newsletters exist to help leaders reflect, strategize, and act in real time; because history is not abstract. It is happening around us. And leaders are either perpetuating harm or building a safer, freer, more just future.

What we are not changing, we are choosing. Every choice reveals the country we are building.

And make no mistake: the leaders we choose matter. We must be intentional, not just about what we oppose, but about who we empower.

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In partnership and purpose,

Chasity Wells-Armstrong Founder, Catalyst Coaching & Transformation ​ Former Mayor | Village Manager | City Councilor | School Board Member Strategic Leadership Partner to Visionary Teams in Government ​Creator of the SCALE™ Framework for Public Sector Leadership

Everything I share, from assessments to workshops is grounded in the SCALE™ Framework I created for women in government leadership. It’s rooted in lived experiences and inspired by what is possible when women are supported.