President Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk to fill her late husband Charlie Kirk’s position as a member of the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors.
Colorado Springs NBC affiliate KOAA-TV reported that the appointment appeared to happen quietly over the weekend.
The 16-member board “inquires into the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters relating to the Academy,” according to the school’s website.
Other members of the board include prominent Republicans and Democrats, either appointed specifically by Trump or by congressional leaders. Some of the board members include Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, as well as Meta president and former Trump administration official Dina Powell.
Kirk is CEO of the conservative political organization Turning Point USA, which reports it has chapters on over 3,500 high school and college campuses throughout the U.S.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said regarding Kirk’s appointment, “President Trump made the perfect choice in appointing Erika Kirk to the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors,” according to Fox News.
“Charlie Kirk served proudly on the Board, inspiring not only the next generation of servicemembers, but millions around the world with his bold Christian faith, defense of the truth, and deep love of country. Erika Kirk will continue his legacy, and will be a fearless advocate for the most elite airpower force in the history of the world whose warriors keep our Nation safe, strong, and free,” Wales added.
NEW MISSION: President Trump appoints Erika Kirk to serve on the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors — taking the position her late husband, Charlie, was slated to hold before he was assassinated in September.
Now Erika joins the panel that oversees morale, discipline,… pic.twitter.com/4m4o3j1Xia
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 10, 2026
Air Force Academy graduate and current chairman of the Board of Visitors, GOP Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, said of Kirk’s new role, “I encouraged this appointment as Erika is the right person to fill Charlie’s place on the Board and continue his work of inspiring the next generation of service members and advancing the Academy. I look forward to working alongside her to carry on Charlie’s legacy,” according to Fox News.
USA Today reported that Trump appointed Charlie Kirk to the Academy’s Board of Visitors in March 2025, and the-then Turning Point CEO attended a board meeting in August 2025 at the Colorado Springs, Colorado, campus, just weeks before his assassination in Utah.
According to the notes from the Aug. 7 meeting, he asked “for the USAFA [United States Air Force Academy] staff to explain how they are following the President and SECDEF’s directives on critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) 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.”
Kirk also asked about the ongoing years-long Academy chapel renovation project, noting it only took two years to construct in the early 1960s, but is slated to take nine years to fix.
“Cadets have expressed a visible disappointment at not being able to step foot in the chapel during their time at the Academy, and this has had a depressing effect on the psyche of the cadets that must be acknowledged,” Kirk argued.
President Donald Trump has escalated his criticism of the Air Force Academy’s Cadet Chapel renovation, demanding an investigation into what he called a “construction disaster” as costs soar past $300 million. https://t.co/a9xDttaIAf
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 18, 2025
He also requested that a checklist be sent to the Board on what is slowing the project down.
Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have made the removal of “woke” teachings from all the service academies a top priority.
In July 2025, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll announced that he directed the United States Military Academy at West Point to rescind its offer for former Biden administration Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly to become a professor in the school’s Social Sciences Department.
In 2022, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Republican from New York, wrote Easterly regarding the establishment of the Disinformation Governance Board. The Biden administration ultimately shuttered the proposal under public pressure.
Pentagon Chief Spokesman Sean Parnell posted on social media regarding the decision to fire Easterly, “We’re not turning cadets into censorship activists. We’re turning them into warriors & leaders.”
Politico reported in March 2025 that Trump appointed former national security adviser and retired Army three-star general Michael Flynn to West Point’s Board of Visitors, along with Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, Maureen Bannon, a West Point alum and daughter of conservative commentator Steve Bannon, Medal of Honor recipient David Bellavia, and retired Maj. Gen. Dan Walrath.
And to the Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors, Trump picked Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, a former Navy SEAL; former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, a Navy Reserve veteran; former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, a retired Navy rear admiral; and the president’s personal aide Walt Nauta, also a Navy veteran.
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