A visibly upset President Donald Trump announced Thursday morning at the 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon that he would be awarding the President Medal of Freedom to slain MAGA commentator Charlie Kirk.
‘We miss him greatly,’ Trump told the crowd. ‘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.’
The event at the Pentagon marked Trump’s first public event since Kirk’s assassination Wednesday. The 31-year-old conservative organizer was gunned down in broad daylight during one of his own events at Utah Valley University.
The president appeared stone-faced, holding his wife Melania’s hand, as the couple arrived to the Pentagon for a ceremony to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
‘I’m pleased to announce that I will soon be awarding Charlie Kirk posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom,’ Trump said. ‘The date of the ceremony will be announced and I can only guarantee one thing, that we will have a very big crowd.’
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Kirk was a close friend of the Trump family and founded the group Turning Point USA, which promoted conservative viewpoints on college campuses.
It was Trump who announced to the world that Kirk had perished, doing so on his Truth Social network.
President Donald Trump has been seen in public for the first time since he announced the tragic death of MAGA behemoth Charlie Kirk
Later, after scrapping plans for one of his Rose Garden Club dinners, Trump shared a video of himself addressing the nation from the Oval Office.
‘Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America. He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people,’ Trump said.
‘He’s a martyr for truth and freedom and there has never been anyone who was so respected by youth,’ the president also offered.
The president also pushed the ‘radical left’ was responsible for the attack on Kirk.
The shooter is still at-large.
‘For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now,’ Trump said.
Melania Trump posted her own tribute Wednesday night on social media.
‘Charlie’s children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter, and silence where their father’s voice should have echoed. Charlie Kirk’s life should serve as a symbolic reminder that compassionate awareness elevates family, love, and country,’ the first lady wrote.
President Donald Trump (right) and First Lady Melania Trump (left) appeared together at the Pentagon Thursday to mark the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks
Trump was the first to announce that Charlie Kirk was dead after the shooting on Wednesday
President Donald Trump (right) and First Lady Melania Trump (left) take in the 9/11 commemoration at the Pentagon Thursday
President Donald Trump (right) gives a salute alongside First Lady Melania Trump (left) at the Pentagon on Thursday morning, the day after MAGA ally Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a campus event in Utah
Vice President J.D. Vance was expected to fly to New York Thursday morning to commemorate 9/11 at the annual Ground Zero ceremony but he changed his plans and will fly to Salt Lake City to meet with Kirk’s family.
The White House’s daily guidance said that Trump will stick to his original plan of departing for New York City later Thursday.
He’s expected to attend a New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers game at Yankee Stadium Thursday night.
It will mark his first time watching a baseball game during his second term – and he grew up a Yankees fan.
