Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to murdered far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at the White House on Tuesday.
Kirk, who was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University in September, was one of the most important right-wing activists of the modern political era, inspiring a younger generation of conservatives to get involved in politics and support Trump’s candidacy ahead of the 2024 election.
But Kirk was also polarizing through his rhetoric, which often criticized gay and transgender rights. He suggested that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a “mistake.” Some critics said the tributes to him reinforced extremist views that fueled division.
“So a month after Charlie’s death, we still feel the terrible shock and pain of his loss like no one I can think of. Charlie Kirk was one of a kind and he was unstoppable,” Trump said from the Rose Garden, where Kirk’s widow, Erika, accepted the award on behalf of her late husband.
“As I said the day he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk was a martyr for truth and freedom,” Trump said.
The ceremony for Kirk took place on what would have been his 32nd birthday. Trump returned to the United States early Tuesday morning, in time for the event, after an impromptu trip to Israel and Egypt to score a victory after Israel and Hamas agreed to a first ceasefire deal last week.
In sometimes emotional and religiously tinged remarks, Erika Kirk expressed her loss and recounted their children’s birthday messages to her late husband. “Now he wears the crown of a righteous martyr,” she added.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was first awarded in 1963. Previous recipients include Audrey Hepburn, Milton Friedman, Walter Cronkite and Edward Kennedy. Trump has often awarded it to supporters, such as Rush Limbaugh, and said last month he would award it to Rudy Giuliani, his former personal attorney.
Trump also used Kirk’s killing as an opportunity to justify deploying National Guard troops to major Democratic-led cities, over their objections. At one point, Trump digressed to talk about the “beautiful” sounds of sirens that could be heard from the Rose Garden.
“We’ve seen legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know their ideas and their arguments won’t convince anyone. They know they fail. They have the ideology of the devil and they fail. And they know it. They sense it and they become violent,” Trump said.
Kirk became a key Trump ally through his organization Turning Point USA and its various offshoots, including Turning Point Action, which actually ran ground game operations for the Trump campaign in the key battleground state of Arizona, which Trump won.
In recognition of Kirk’s close ties to the Trump orbit, guests included JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sat in the front row.
Also present were some of Kirk’s closest political associates, including lobbyists Arthur Schwartz and Jeff Miller, former Trump deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, Trump strategist Alex Bruesewitz, Turning Point adviser Andrew Kolvet and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Kirk’s introduction to Trumpworld took place about a decade earlier. Early in the 2016 Trump campaign, Kirk hosted a meeting at Trump Tower and offered advice to Don Jr on how to appeal to young voters.
That meeting resulted in Kirk being hired on the spot as Don Jr’s personal campaign aide, but Kirk’s closeness to Trump grew following the 2020 election when he became one of the leading voices pushing baseless claims that the election was stolen.
Kirk was also one of the few political operatives to stay by Trump’s side when he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, which Trump remembered as a notable display of personal loyalty at one of the lowest moments for the president.
During the 2022 midterm cycle, Kirk encouraged Trump to support Vance’s Senate campaign – then, two years later, urged Trump and Don Jr to select Vance as their running mate before the 2024 Republican National Convention. After his death, Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.
