Two days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, his signature podcast was back on the air. To honor Kirk’s memory, four of his closest colleagues hosted an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show. They gathered inside his old studio at Turning Point USA’s headquarters, keeping an empty chair for Kirk. Directly to the right sat Jack Posobiec, a conservative influencer. “I know the seat looks empty, but it’s not,” Posobiec said. “Because in a way, Charlie is the only thing we’re all thinking about right now.”

Unlike the other three co-hosts, Posobiec’s primary job wasn’t working for Kirk. Nonetheless, he has become one of the most prominent faces of TPUSA since Kirk’s death. He has regularly spoken at the influential right-wing organization’s events, appeared on various TPUSA podcasts, and occasionally filled in as a guest host for Kirk’s show. He has done high-profile media hits with CNN and CBS News to talk about his late friend, and he delivered remarks at Kirk’s funeral—joining a list of speakers that included President Donald Trump, Vice President J. D. Vance, and several Cabinet members.

Posobiec, who declined to comment for this story, has long been a star in the world of MAGA. He has 3.2 million followers on X, where his podcast, Human Events Daily, regularly accrues more than 100,000 views. In a 2023 Semafor poll, dozens of Republican strategists most commonly named Posobiec as the influencer with the biggest pull among the party base.

Posobiec and Kirk have many differences, Posobiec’s friends and colleagues emphasized to me. “Nobody can replace Charlie,” Raheem Kassam, the founder of The National Pulse, a right-wing media site, told me.