Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom a month after his killing

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump posthumously awarded conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump posthumously awarded conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Kirk, the co-founder of the organization Turning Point USA, was speaking at Utah Valley University during the first stop on a college campus tour when he was shot and killed on Sept. 10.

“We’re here to honor and remember a fearless warrior for liberty, a beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I’ve ever seen before, and an American patriot of the deepest conviction,” Trump said, calling Kirk "a visionary." "He was a champion in every way,” the president said.

Trump said he "raced back halfway around the globe" to present the medal after brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and admitted he “didn’t have the courage” to ask his widow, Erika, to move the date when he realized it would fall on Kirk’s birthday.

Trump announced he would present Presidential Medal of Freedom to the conservative activist the day after Kirk was fatally shot.