Trump appoints Erika Kirk to influential Air Force board
Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk to serve on an influential board which oversees the US Air Force Academy.
Erika fills the seat her husband Charlie Kirk held on the Board of Visitors before he was assassinated in September.
The body, which functions like a board of trustees, is charged under federal law with scrutinizing morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment and fiscal affairs at the Colorado Springs academy.
Six members are appointed by the President; the remaining nine are designated by Congressional leaders from both parties, including the chairmen and ranking members of both Armed Services Committees.
Members include Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Meta vice-chairman Dina Powell and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, all appointed by Trump.
At the board's last meeting in December, a public submission praised Kirk's championing of a long-delayed renovation of the Air Force Academy's chapel, urging members to make the project a priority in his memory.
The board convenes several times a year to scrutinize conditions at the academy, with its December session covering everything from a superintendent's briefing to a classified discussion on Flexible Warfare Center concepts, reflecting its role in shaping how America's next generation of Air Force officers are trained.
The session also heard a formal complaint alleging that nine seniors on the men's soccer team were wrongly punished with 100 hours of marching tours after academy leadership sat on misconduct allegations for six months before acting.
Erika Kirk has been appointed by Donald Trump to fill the seat her husband Charlie Kirk held on the Board of Visitors before he was assassinated in September
The 37-year-old took over as chief executive officer of Turning Point USA, the conservative student advocacy organization her late husband founded, after his death
Representative August Pfluger of Texas, a veteran combat aviator and academy graduate, who chairs the board, said: 'I applaud President Trump for appointing Erika Kirk to the US Air Force Academy Board of Visitors.
'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.'
The mother-of-three was recently honored at Trump's State of the Union address in Washington DC, and is a frequent fixture at the White House.
