Trump honors Charlie Kirk with Presidential Medal of Freedom on what
would be his 32nd birthday
[October 15, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded
America's highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the assassinated
activist who inspired a generation of young conservatives and helped
push the nation's politics further to the right.
Receiving the award on Kirk's behalf was his widow, Erika. Her voice
cracking and often falling to a whisper as she wiped away tears, Erika
Kirk talked about her late husband's life, political beliefs and legacy.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for honoring my husband, in such a profound
and meaningful way. And thank you for making this event a priority," she
said. “Your support of our family and the work that Charlie devoted his
life to will be something I cherish forever.”
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
It came about a month after the Turning Point USA founder was fatally
shot while speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University.
In a sign of Kirk's close ties to the administration, he was the first
recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Trump’s second term.
The president also spoke at Kirk’s funeral in September, calling him a
“great American hero” and “martyr” for freedom, while Vice President JD
Vance accompanied his body home to Arizona on Air Force Two along with
Erika Kirk.
“We’re here to honor and remember a fearless warrior for liberty,
beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I’ve ever
seen before, and an American patriot of the deepest conviction, the
finest quality and the highest caliber," Trump said during the medal
ceremony.
Of Kirk's killing, the president said, “He was assassinated in the prime
of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith and
relentless fighting for a better and stronger America."
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established by President John F.
Kennedy in 1963 for individuals making exceptional contributions “to the
security or national interests of the United States, world peace,
cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Trump returned to the U.S. in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday after a
whirlwind trip to Israel and Egypt to celebrate a ceasefire agreement in
Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza that his administration was instrumental
in brokering. The president joked that he almost requested to reschedule
the ceremony because of the trip.
“I raced back halfway around the globe," Trump said. “I was going to
call Erika and say, ‘Erika, could you maybe move it to Friday?' And I
didn’t have the courage to call. But you know why I didn’t call? Because
I heard today was Charlie’s birthday.”
Argentine President Javier Milei, who had been visiting with the
president at the White House earlier, stayed on to attend the ceremony.
Trump has awarded a string of presidential medals going back to his
first term, including to golf legend Tiger Woods, ex-football coach Lou
Holtz and conservative economist Arthur Laffer as well as to Yankees
Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera and conservative radio host Rush
Limbaugh, the latter of which came during the 2020 State of the Union.
He awarded posthumous medals to Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley.
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Erika Kirk speaks after President Donald Trump posthumously awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk in the Rose Garden
of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
This term, Trump has also announced his intentions to award the
medals to Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a close
former adviser, and to Ben Carson, who served as Trump's first-term
secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and Trump praised him as one
of the key reasons he was reelected last year.
But Kirk's politics were also often divisive. He sharply criticized
gay and transgender rights while inflaming racial tensions. Kirk
also repeated Trump’s false claims that former Vice President Kamala
Harris was responsible for policies that encouraged immigrants to
come to the U.S. illegally and called George Floyd, a Black man
whose killing by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a national
debate over racial injustice, a “scumbag.”
As Tuesday's ceremony was underway, the Trump administration said it
had revoked the visas of six foreigners who U.S. officials deemed
had made derisive or mocking comments about Kirk’s assassination.
The six who had their visas revoked were from Argentina, Brazil,
Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa.
The move comes as the Trump administration and its supporters have
zeroed in on people who made critical comments about Kirk, leading
to firings and other discipline.
Trump wrote in a social media post hours before it started that he
was moving the ceremony from the White House’s East Room to the Rose
Garden to accommodate a crowd he said would be “so big and
enthusiastic.”
Trump paved over the grass there and put in a patio area, and talked
happily about the medal ceremony being one of the first major events
in the new space. He noted how the weather had cleared up after it
was expected to be raining, saying: “I was telling Erika, God was
watching. And he didn’t want that for Charlie.”
Kirk’s widow said she asked their 3-year-old daughter what she might
have given her father for his birthday, and she responded a stuffed
animal and a cupcake while saying he hoped he'd get a birthday
surprise. Erika Kirk said her husband was sometimes hard to buy
presents for, but the medal was the perfect gift.
Erika Kirk said her husband might one day have run for president
"but not out of ambition. He would only have done it if that was
something that he believed that his country needed from his
servant’s heart.”
She said God began a “mighty work” through her husband, and she
intends to see it through. She finished her remarks by saying
Charlie’s story reminds us that “to live free is the greatest gift
but to die free is the greatest victory.”
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