Charlie Kirk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, after he was brutally assassinated this week.
Speaking at the Pentagon for a September 11 ceremony, President Donald Trump said he would give the honor to the conservative activist, describing him as a “giant of his generation, a champion of liberty, and an inspiration to millions.”
“We miss him greatly, yet I have no doubt that Charlie’s voice and the courage he put into the hearts of countless people, especially young people, will live on,” Trump said.
The president spoke in Washington as the search for Kirk’s killer remained at large following Wednesday’s heinous attack at Utah Valley University.
In an update on Thursday morning, FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls said the bureau still did not know who fired the rifle that murdered Kirk while he was speaking to a crowd of thousands as part of his “American Comeback Tour.”
The tour was the first stop on a multi-campus event in which attendees were invited to debate the outspoken 31-year-old at a “Prove Me Wrong” table in a public setting.
“We are exhausting every lead we have,” Bohls said.
However, authorities said they had found the suspected weapon used in the shooting, imprints of a forearm and a shoe, and video tracking the suspected shooter’s movements as he climbed onto a roof to carry out the attack.
Kirk’s assassination sent shockwaves across a country where politically motivated violence has become all too common.
Since Trump himself was almost assassinated last summer during a rally in Pennsylvania, there have been, among other incidents, the killing of health care executive Brian Thompson in New York; the firebombing of Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania; and the shooting of two Democratic state legislators and their spouses in Minnesota.
However, Kirk, a key Trump ally, popular podcaster, and the founder of Turning Point USA, was one of MAGA’s best-known identities.
His death has sparked outrage among those who believe the left is to blame, including some right-wing figures threatening “civil war.”
As tensions escalated, Trump fanned the flames on Wednesday night in a four-minute address from the Oval Office.
“Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” he said.
“Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died.”
Speaking on Thursday morning at the Pentagon, the president said the Medal of Freedom would be awarded to Kirk at a ceremonial date to be announced, “and I can only guarantee you one thing, that we will have a very big crowd. Very, very big.”
Pete Hegseth, the newly named Secretary of “War,” added: “Like those on 9/11, he will never be forgotten.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in America, given to recipients who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Over the years, this has included presidents such as Jimmy Carter and Lyndon B Johnson, as well as luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.
