President Donald Trump awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, engraved with a cross, to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a Tuesday ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
The event commemorated what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Trump said he “raced back halfway around the globe” after signing a peace deal in Israel to attend the ceremony. The former president described the Turning Point USA founder as an irreplaceable leader whose influence reached far beyond politics into the spiritual life of the nation.
“Charles James Kirk was a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation,” Trump said. He added that Kirk “knew that the fight to preserve our heritage is waged not only on the battlefield, and in the halls of power […] but also in the hearts of our nation's youth.”
Trump went on to call Kirk a martyr who was “assassinated in the prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better, stronger America.” He emphasized that “God was very important to Charlie,” noting that the activist believed Christianity was central to America’s strength and identity.
“He would say, 'You know, if you don't have religion, you're not going to have a strong country.' It's true. He was so wise beyond his years,” Trump recalled.
“Charlie never missed an opportunity to remind us of the Judeo-Christian principles of our nation's founding, or to share his deep Christian faith,” Trump said. “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.”
“I said, 'I'm not sure I can make it,' but he's going to make it,” Trump added. “He's there. He's looking down on us right now. So incredible.”
“As I said on the day that he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk was a martyr for truth and for freedom.”
The president suggested that Kirk’s murder has only amplified his testimony, warning that the radical left continues to exhibit what he called a satanic ideology that grows increasingly violent and desperate.
“In the days since Charlie's killing, we've seen exactly why our country so dearly needed his example,” Trump said. “We've watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror, because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one.”
“They know that they're failing,” he continued. “They have the devil's ideology and they're failing, and they know it.”
Kirk, who co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 at age 18, was fatally shot in the neck on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, allegedly by Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old shooter. He left behind his wife, Erika, and their two young children.
Following Trump’s remarks, Erika Kirk accepted the medal on her husband’s behalf and delivered an emotional tribute.
“Charlie's life was proof that freedom is not a theory, it's a testimony,” she said. “He showed us that liberty begins not in the halls of power, but in the end, a heart surrendered to God.”
“And so today, as we honor Charlie with this incredible Presidential Medal of Freedom on his birthday, I stand here with tears and just a humbled heart and spirit, because his story reminds us all that to live free is the greatest gift, but to die free is the greatest victory.”
