President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will posthumously award Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom after the conservative leader was fatally shot the day before.
“Let me express the horror and grief so many Americans at the heinous assassination Charlie Kirk have felt,” Trump said during solemn remarks at the Pentagon in observance of Sept. 11. “Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the U.S.
Trump’s speech comes less than 24 hours after Kirk, a conservative activist and ally of the president, was shot at one of his signature campus events in Utah. His death left White House staff deeply shaken — both Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mentioned Kirk in their remarks.
Trump also honored the victims of the 2001 terrorist attack that claimed nearly 3,000 lives, along with their family members and first responders.
“We watched unbelievable courage suddenly take form and out of the darkness,” he said. “We saw the timeless truth of American character shine for the world to see. In America, we take blows, but we never buckle. We bleed, but we do not bow, and we defy the fear. Endure the flames and emerge from the crucible of every hardship stronger, prouder and greater than ever before.”
It was the first observation of Sept. 11 since the Trump administration renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War.
“We must teach our children that the price of the freedom we love is eternal vigilance,” Hegseth said.
In addition to remarks at the Pentagon, the president will travel later Wednesday to New York City for a Yankees game that will recognize the victims and heroes of Sept. 11. Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to join him in New York for a Sept. 11 ceremony at ground zero, but instead will be traveling to Utah to visit Kirk’s family.