Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, to the assassinated far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at the White House on Tuesday.

Kirk, who was shot at an event at Utah Valley University in September, was among the most significant rightwing activists in the modern political era, galvanizing a younger generation of conservatives to engage 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 made suggestions that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a “mistake”. Some critics have argued tributes to him elevated extremist views that stoked division.

The ceremony for Kirk was held on what would have been his 32nd birthday. Kirk’s widow, Erika, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf.

Trump returned to the US early Tuesday morning in time for the event after an impromptu trip to Israel and Egypt to take a victory lap after Israel and Hamas agreed to an initial ceasefire deal last week.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was first awarded in 1963. Previous recipients have included Audrey Hepburn, Milton Friedman, Walter Cronkite and Edward Kennedy. Trump has often conferred it to his supporters, like Rush Limbaugh, and last month said he would award it to Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer.

Kirk became a key ally to Trump through his organization Turning Point USA and its various offshoots, including Turning Point Action, which in effect ran the ground game operation for the Trump campaign in the key battleground state of Arizona, which Trump won.

His introduction to Trumpworld came around a decade earlier. In the early days of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Kirk scored a meeting at Trump Tower and offered advice to Don Jr on how to attract young voters.

That meeting got Kirk hired on the spot as Don Jr’s personal campaign assistant, but Kirk’s closeness with Trump grew in the wake of the 2020 election when he became a leading voice in pushing baseless claims that the election had been stolen.

Kirk was also one of the few political operatives who stuck by Trump when he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago after the January 6 Capitol riot, which Trump remembered as a notable display of personal loyalty at one of the lowest points for the president.

During the 2022 midterms cycle, Kirk encouraged Trump to endorse JD Vance’s Senate campaign – and then two years later urged Trump and Don Jr to select Vance as running mate before the 2024 Republican national convention. After his death, Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket to Arizona on Air Force Two.