A 25-year-old wunderkind hand-picked by Donald Trump to organize America’s 250th birthday celebration has been fired after making an unauthorized post mourning Charlie Kirk.
Ariel Abergel has enjoyed a monumental rise within MAGA circles, after he was plucked from a producing role at Fox & Friends to help organize Trump’s huge military parade back in June.
He was also tasked with leading the upcoming celebration for America’s 250th birthday, but on Monday revealed he had been fired by America250, the group behind the extravagant event.
The group published a statement accusing Abergel of initiating ‘a security breach of a commission social-media account’, along with a list of other wrongdoings.
But Abergel rubbished the allegations, insisting he was instead fired because he publicly mourned the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
He said America250’s statement contained ‘malicious lies… meant to distract from the truth.’
After Kirk was assassinated on September 10, Abergel requested the commission organizing the birthday celebration release a statement condemning his murder.
He went on to post a photo of Kirk to the official America250 Instagram page without formal approval, writing: ‘America is in mourning. God bless Charlie Kirk.’
Ariel Abergel has enjoyed a monumental rise within MAGA circles, after he was plucked from a producing role at Fox & Friends to help organize Trump’s huge military parade back in June
Pictured: Trump attending an event hosted by America250 in Iowa in July, a month after the mammoth military parade
Abergel claims he was fired after posting an unauthorized memorial post for Charlie Kirk on the America250 Instagram page
Abergel, who finished college in 2021, was immediately suspended and said he was later asked to resign. When he chose not to, he was ultimately fired.
His termination was a decision made by a bipartisan group made up of civilians and elected officials who sit on the board of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is overseeing the celebration.
Trump’s nemesis, US Senator Alex Padilla, is one of just eight members of Congress who is on the commission board.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also on the commission.
Trump’s decision to parachute the young conservative into the role of executive director of America250 sparked concerns at the time that he was seeking to sway the committee into making celebrations an homage to himself rather than the nation.
The military parade coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
An America250 spokeswoman said Abergel ‘initiated a security breach of a commission social-media account, attempted to procure the resignations of multiple commissioners by misrepresenting himself as acting on behalf of Congressional leadership, and engaged in multiple other serious and repeated breaches of authority and trust.’
She accused Abergel of defying ‘directives from the Commission’s executive committee’ and ‘engaging in unauthorized actions related to Commission approved programming, finances, and communications, jeopardizing the Commission’s operations and reputation.’
Abergel was hand-picked by Trump, but the decision to fire him came from the bipartisan commission
Abergel helped to organize the enormous military parade which took place in June, coinciding with Trump’s 79th birthday
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly praised Abergel, who interned for the first Trump administration and briefly worked for Melania Trump, for the work he’d conducted.
She said the administration is ‘incredibly proud of all of Ari Abergel’s work at America250 – most notably during the Army250 parade, which boldly honored the bravery and strength of our military men and women.’
Kelly said the administration would continue to work ‘closely with America250 to ensure that all events heading into our nation’s 250th birthday are given the grand celebration our country deserves.’
The decision to dump Abergel coincided with news Jimmy Kimmel Live! was being brought back to air, a week after he was silenced for making insensitive remarks in the wake of Kirk’s death.
‘We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it,’ he said.
‘In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving on Friday. The White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.’
Kimmel then played a clip of Trump responding to a question about how he was coping with Kirk’s death, before poking fun at the president’s mourning process.
He was reprimanded just two days later for his comments by FCC boss Brendan Carr.
The decision to dump Abergel coincided with news Jimmy Kimmel Live! was being brought back to air, a week after he was silenced for making insensitive remarks in the wake of Kirk’s death
Trump’s decision to parachute the young conservative into the role of executive director of America250 sparked concerns at the time that he was seeking to sway the committee into making celebrations an homage to himself rather than the nation
Carr told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson he was considering an investigation into Kimmel and ABC over his remarks on Wednesday.
Within hours, more than a dozen ABC affiliates told the network and Disney it would not be airing Kimmel’s show until the remarks were addressed.
Kirk’s death sparked an ongoing debate between the left and the right over freedom of speech.
After years of decrying ‘cancel culture’, both Trump and a host of conservatives have since called for anyone who spoke negatively about Kirk’s death to be fired, or otherwise cancelled.
High profile right-wing social media accounts and commentators also spent the days following Kirk’s assassination scouring social media and publicly calling out users who had mocked his death, demanding they lose their jobs and face repercussions for their comments.
