Kristi Noem reveals last text Charlie Kirk sent her on ‘Pod Force One’: ‘Will always feel bad that I didn’t respond’

One day before his assassination, conservative activist Charlie Kirk texted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about cracking down on state and local officials who were defying the Trump administration on immigration, Noem revealed on the latest episode of The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast.

Noem, 53, told columnist Miranda Devine that she didn’t see Kirk’s message until after he was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University Sept. 10.

“Charlie, he was incredible. It still makes me so sad that it’s hard to talk about,” the former South Dakota governor said.

“The last message he had texted me was the day before he passed away, and it said, ‘We have to hold these mayors and local officials accountable for what they’re doing.’”

“I think he was watching across this country as people were continuing to be victimized by illegal, criminal activity, and he wanted someone to be held accountable.”

Kirk, 31, was gunned down while taking questions from students during the first event of his fall “American Comeback” tour.

Authorities say Tyler Robinson, 22, hit the Turning Point USA co-founder with a fatal shot to the neck from approximately 200 yards away.

On Tuesday, authorities in Utah County formally charged Robinson with seven counts — including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and obstruction of justice.

“I don’t know why it feels like such a heavy grief, but I think everybody’s feeling that,” Noem told Devine of the response to Kirk’s death.

Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here!

“I was traveling and in meetings in a different time zone and I didn’t see it and missed it,” Noem said of Kirk’s last message. “I will always feel bad that I didn’t respond because I would have said, ‘Absolutely, I’m on it,’ which I am, but I think he knew that.”

Last week, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller claimed that Kirk’s final exhortation to him was “that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence.”

“We are going to do that,” Miller vowed.

Noem explained to Devine that she and Kirk were introduced to each other by late longtime GOP donor and investment management tycoon Foster Friess, a key early backer of Turning Point USA.

“I think that what’s happened in this country is people quit talking to each other and then nobody listens anymore,” she said. “We get so busy being right and shouting at each other that we don’t listen and hear.”

“That’s why I was so impressed with Charlie,” she continued. “He went into places that disagreed with him, had no problem having conversations with people that didn’t think like he did. And we all got smarter and better and more knowledgeable because he did that.”