Flau'jae Johnson condemns La. Gov. Jeff Landry's request for LSU to erect Charlie Kirk statue on campus

Since taking office last year, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has taken a more active role into the internal machinations taking place on LSU‘s campus. That began a year ago when he fasciliated the presence of a live tiger at LSU’s 2024 football game vs. Alabama, and recently evolved to spearheading the university’s decision to part ways with fourth-year head football coach Brian Kelly on Sunday.

Now, the state’s top official has called on the LSU Board of Supervisors to erect a statue to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Louisiana’s top university “to defend the freedom of speech on college campuses” in a video posted to X/Twitter on Monday.

That request immediately caught the attention of LSU women’s basketball superstar Flau’jae Johnson, who questioned the proposal with a quote tweet featuring four question marks before providing additional “clarity” into her reasoning for rejecting Landry’s request for a statue honoring Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated Sept. 10 on the campus of Utah Valley University.

“For the sake of clarity, if you align yourself with or endorse his racist rhetoric and discriminatory views toward people of color, I respectfully ask that you utilize the unfollow option at the top right of my profile,” Johnson added in response to a self-identified “Kirk fan” suggesting Landry “needs to stay out of LSU business.”

Landry’s request for a Charlie Kirk statue came just one day after Landry inserted himself into the decision to fire Kelly following Saturday night’s 49-25 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M.

Following Saturday night’s loss inside Death Valley, Landry publicly called out the program and its Board of Supervisors for its planned ticket price increase beginning in 2026. The proposed increases to LSU season ticket prices range depending on the seating location, but they are slated to go up by as much as $125 in some areas. The program is projecting that the higher prices will generate an additional $4.5 million in revenue, according to a report from Nola.com.

“I think [LSU] and the LSU Board of Supervisors needs to rethink their actions to raise ticket prices for next year after tonight’s showing!” Landry wrote on Twitter.

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward formally announced the decision to part ways with Kelly later Sunday despite a hefty $53 million buyout that would rank second-highest all-time behind only Jimbo Fisher‘s $77 million buyout at Texas A&M, where Woodward worked before arriving at LSU in 2019.