President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the late Turning Point USA founder, calling him “a true American hero” whose name would be “entered forever into the eternal roster of American heroes” on what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Addressing Kirk’s widow Erika, who accepted the award on her late husband’s behalf, Trump said she had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength” and said her “love and courage” in the weeks since her husband’s killing had been “an inspiration to all of us.”
The ceremony, held on the patio which replaced much of the White House Rose Garden this past summer, was something akin to an officially-sanctioned memorial for the slain activist, with much of Trump’s cabinet and other high-ranking officials from across the administration, plus a who’s who of Republican politics and right-wing media in attendance.
But while the president focused his prepared remarks on Kirk and the slain conservative operative’s legacy, his speech often drifted away from its script to “weave” through a topic more interesting to the president: his own administration.
In moments that were jarring and surreal, the president would pivot from solemn remarks about Kirk and his family to brag about his work in office on seemingly mundane issues, including a frequent point of bragging: his insistence that D.C. restaurants were booming and dinner reservations were hard to find in the wake of his deployment of National Guard troops across the District of Columbia.
Among those in attendance Trump shouted out during his remarks were Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso and Majority Leader John Thune. Others at the ceremony included a wide range of big-name conservatives including Fox News hosts past and present — Bill O’Reilly, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters and others were all spotted.
Trump also noted that Argentine President Javier Milei was in attendance.
“We have everybody,” he said. “Wow.”
Trump remarked that “people are loving” the polarizing renovation and suggested that the temperate weather was due to God not wanting bad weather for the ceremony to honor “the late, great Charlie Kirk.”
He called the late activist “a fearless warrior for liberty” and “a beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I’ve ever seen before” as well as “an American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest caliber.”
“Five weeks ago, our nation was robbed of this extraordinary champion. He was a champion in every way,” Trump said before recalling how Kirk’s assassination at a Utah college campus last month cut him down “in the prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth” and “loving his faith and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America.”
“It was a horrible, heinous, demonic act of murder,” Trump said, adding that it was a “privilege” to award Kirk the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Trump continued eulogizing Kirk, calling him “a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation” as well as “an amazing figure” who “knew that the fight to preserve our heritage is waged not only on the battlefield and in the halls of power.”
He recalled how Kirk had founded Turning Point at age 18 and remarked how the organization has become “bigger in the last few weeks than Charlie ever thought.”
“With hard work and joyful spirit and endless enthusiasm and determination … Charlie grew Turning Point into the largest conservative youth organization in the entire country. He fought for free speech, religious liberty, strong borders and a very strong and proud America … everything he did was historic,” Trump said.
He described how Kirk had helped him in his 2016 and 2024 presidential campaign wins, enabling him to win what he claimed was “more young people than any Republican by far in the history of our country” during the latter contest last year.
After another aside bragging about his 2024 win, he shifted gears to Kirk’s spirituality, telling attendees that he “never missed an opportunity to remind us of the Judeo Christian principles of our nation’s founding or to share his deep Christian faith.”
“In his final moments, Charlie testified to the greatness of America and to the glory of our Savior with whom he now rests in heaven,” Trump said.
“So today, like those martyrs before him Charlie’s voice, his message and his legacy, are stronger and greater than ever before.”
He added that Kirk’s death had “brought out the greatness of Charlie” with “great love” before pivoting to attacking “far-left radicals” who “resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one.”
“They have the devil’s ideology, and they’re failing. And they know it, they feel it, and they become violent,” he said.
The president singled out Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general set to face a Republican opponent in next month’s election. Controversial texts wherein the candidate joked about violence against Republicans have hounded Jones’s campaign and pushed the race into winnable territory for the GOP, and Trump and others have used Jones as an example of a Democrat supposedly endorsing the kind of violent rhetoric they blame for Kirk’s murder.
“Let’s see how that turns out,” Trump said of Jones’s race. He has endorsed Jason Miyares, Jones’s Republican opponent for the position, but has avoided endorsing Winsome Sears — the party’s candidate for governor.
“ Especially in the wake of Charlie’s assassination, our country must have absolutely no tolerance for this radical Left violence, extremism, and terror,” Trump added.
Kirk is the first person to be awarded the Medal of Freedom under Trump’s second presidency. During his first term, he awarded it to other conservative allies including Rep. Jim Jordan, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, and former Sen. Orrin Hatch.
In his second term, Trump has announced plans to award the Medal of Freedom to his disbarred former attorney Rudy Giuliani, and Ben Carson.
