US President Donald Trump will lead tributes to Charlie Kirk on Sunday at a huge stadium gathering to honor the young right-wing influencer slain in the country's latest spasm of political violence.
The service has drawn an extraordinary level of attention and security, with some US media likening it to a state funeral.
The highest echelons of the Trump administration and orbit, topped by the president himself, waited their turn to address the crowd as the memorial ceremony got underway in the early afternoon.
As he left the White House to fly out west and pay his respects, Trump said the service aimed "to celebrate the life of a great man."
Thousands of people had lined up in the pre-dawn dark, hoping to get into the 63,000-seat American football stadium hosting the service and honor the young Republican star -- a close ally of the president whose voter outreach is credited with helping Trump get reelected last year.
"I look at him as a Christ martyr, definitely," Monica Mirelez, a 44-year-old Texan who drove 12 hours to get there, said of Kirk.
Jeremy Schlotman, a 21-year-old biology student, said Kirk gave him the courage to express his beliefs on campus.
"For example, I think that biological men shouldn't be in women's sports. But I was too afraid to talk about stuff like that out loud," Schlotman said as Christian bands played on stage and the stadium steadily filled up.
'Hatred'
Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking at a Utah university as part of his popular public debate series.
Authorities arrested a suspect after a 33-hour manhunt and prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
The killing of the founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing youth action campaign, has inflamed often acrimonious and sometimes violent political divisions in the United States. AFP
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