A left-leaning political podcaster has drawn a wave of condemnation after posting a Halloween-style meme that labelled Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a “fake grieving widow grifter,” igniting a broader argument about public mourning, political rhetoric and the boundaries of online satire. The image, shared on X in the familiar “Spirit Halloween costume” format, portrayed a photoshopped version of Kirk with mascara streaked down her face and a prop overflowing with cash, alongside copy that suggested her widowhood was performative and financially motivated. The post was attributed to Kyle Kulinski, host of the Secular Talk show and a prominent online commentator, whose following on X numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Within hours, his upload was being denounced across the platform by critics from different political camps, including figures who rarely agree on anything else, as users circulated screenshots and demanded an apology.
Descriptions of the image consistent across multiple reposts said it borrowed the orange packaging and mock-spec text typical of the meme, substituting costume details that were designed to sting: “fake tear drops,” “skin-tight black leather mourning pants,” and a bag or hat stuffed with cash. The aesthetic was deliberate—part of a long-running internet gag that rebrands public figures as novelty costumes—but the target in this instance was a woman who has spent the last seven weeks in the public eye after her husband was shot and killed during a campus appearance in Utah on 10 September. The juxtaposition of a jaunty Halloween motif with a recent assassination produced immediate recoil in the replies, where users debated whether grief expressed at rallies and media interviews is inherently fair game for ridicule or whether the meme crossed a line that should be obvious regardless of ideology.
Some of the strongest reactions came in the form of on-platform quotations that were quickly screenshotted and recirculated. “God some of you are awful. Idk how you negotiate your love for your family and friends with your nihilistic contempt for your ideological enemies,” podcaster Anna Khachiyan wrote, a sentiment amplified widely by accounts that do not typically engage with right-wing causes. Charles C. W. Cooke, a conservative columnist, posted, “This is extremely ugly behavior, and you should feel ashamed of yourself.” Other critics accused the poster of dehumanising a bereaved mother and turning widowhood into a punchline for partisan sport. The range of voices condemning the upload became part of the story: an unusual moment in which familiar antagonists converged on the same judgment that the joke was not just tasteless but gratuitous.
The meme’s circulation coincided with separate social-media chatter about Erika Kirk’s recent appearance with Vice President JD Vance at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi—an appearance that generated speculative posts about body language and a widely shared photograph of a hug. In that parallel thread, Vance addressed questions about his interfaith marriage in a statement posted to X, describing his wife as “the most amazing blessing” and noting she “is not a Christian and has no plans to convert,” while adding that he hopes “one day” she may see things as he does. Those comments were not directly related to the widow meme but formed part of the wider environment in which her public presence is being parsed, with supporters arguing that images of consolation have been misread and critics arguing that her stagecraft invites scrutiny.