TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Gives Charlie Kirk a Posthumous Medal of Freedom, 10.14.25
[Video]
President Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Please. This is such an honor. This is the -- please, be seated. This is the first time we've been at the new and improved Rose Garden, and people are loving it. They are loving it like they've not loved a lot of things. We have the Presidential Walk of Fame, which you just saw and just opened, and we wanted to get it open for this occasion. We were hoping we were able to get outside and the weather allowed us to. It was supposed to be terrible, rainy day. I was telling Erika. And God was watching and he didn't want that for Charlie. He just didn't want that. So it's really beautiful. Couldn't -- couldn't be more beautiful. Today, 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, the finest quality and the highest caliber, the late, great Charlie Kirk.
Five weeks ago, our nation was robbed of this extraordinary champion. He was a champion in every way. I got to know him so well. He didn't like losing and he was able to fight people that were enemies, and he didn't necessarily love those enemies so much. You know, I heard -- I heard he loved his enemies and I said, wait a minute, is that the same Charlie that I know, I'm not sure, but I didn't want to get into it. But it was a horrible, heinous, demonic act of murder. He was assassinated in the prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth for living his faith and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America. He loved this country. And that's why this afternoon it's my privilege to posthumously award Charles James Kirk, our nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Thank you. As you know, only hours ago, I returned from a very historic trip to secure peace in the Middle East. People said that couldn't be done. Charlie felt it could be done. Charlie felt it could be done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. But I raced back halfway around the globe. I was going to call Erika and say, Erika, could you maybe move it to Friday? And I didn't have the courage to call, but you know why I didn't call, because I heard today was Charlie's birthday and I said, you know, now we -- that was a definite and I said we're going to have to forget about some of those very big, very rich countries that expected me to be there. And I can tell you, based on the length of that flight, I wouldn't want to go back tomorrow, but I would not have missed this moment for anything in the world, nothing.
And it's a very important time for our country and our country is doing so well. It's never done better. We are a country with almost now $18 trillion of investment coming in. Nobody's ever seen anything like that. Previous administration had less than a trillion for four years. We have more than $18 -- it will be much more than $20 trillion, by the time the year -- more than $20 trillion. Has never been a country in the world that had anything like that. What's happened to our country is incredible in a short period of time. Charlie was a big person for, sir, can we close up those borders, please, a little bit? You know they're really leaking badly. I said, Charlie, I haven't gotten there yet.
But, you know, it came out last four months, literally, nobody was allowed into our country and the only people that were allowed in were people that came in legally. The borders are absolutely stone-cold closed and they reported zero, zero, zero and zero, so that's pretty good. But he was a big believer. He wanted people in the country more than I did, frankly. He wanted them to come in legally and he got his wish. October 14th is Charlie's birthday and he should have been turning 32 years old. I tell you, I never -- when I first met him, he was like 22 and I said, boy, he's awfully young. But I thought he was older than that, you know?
He looked a little bit older than his age. That's OK. You know, that's not good when you're old, but when you're young, it's great. He had the best of all things, but he was special. But instead, Charlie is attaining a far more important milestone. We're entering his name forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes. He's a true American hero, an amazing person, way, way beyond his years and I'm honored to be joined by a woman who has endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength, and that's Charlie's widow, Erika. And I just want to thank you, Erika. He loved you so much. I was with him -- oh, please. Thank you, darling.
I was with him before I met Erika and he told me he was going to get married. He said, you won't believe how beautiful she is. I said, well, then now that I meet her, he's right. But then he also said and you know what, she's the smartest person I know. See, they do go together on occasion, not often, not often, but on occasion, they go together. But he was in love with you. He was deeply in love with you. It's great. Erika, your love and courage have been an inspiration to all of us and we will always be here for you and we're always going to be here for your gorgeous, beautiful children, and we'll never forget what your family has sacrificed for our country.
Man loved our country. When things were going badly for our country, he was so, as you know, angry. He would get angry because he said, it doesn't have to be that way. We're also pleased to be joined by an incredible group of Charlie's -- actually, better people, OK? I know them all, the less powerful ones. I have to tell you that, all of you power guys down here, the best ones in the group are the ones that are less successful, but that happens too. No, they're all great and they're here. And let's start with Erika's father. Where is Erika's father? Where are you? Where are you, Dad? Oh, look at him. Wow. I want to get a hat like that too.
I like that. How are you? Nice to see you again. Thanks as well to Vice President JD Vance, who's been fantastic. JD, thank you very much. Great, doing a great job. Did a great job on Sunday with George Slopadopoulos. Put him away pretty good. Second lady, who's a phenomenal woman, Usha Vance. Thank you very much, Usha. Thank you very much. Great woman. President of Argentina, he wanted to be here. That's -- Argentina's a serious flight, right? And he's become a superstar. And he's doing amazing things. It's -- he's a MAGA person, but it's make Argentina great again. That's what he does, right? And I want you to stand, please, Javier, Javier Milei, doing a great job.
Thank you very much. Many members of my cabinet are here, just about all of them are here. I won't go into every single one of them, but I'll announce a few of the people that have really turned this country around and helped me -- incredible people. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Where is Mike? Mike? What a job you're doing, Mike. What a job you're doing. And I watched you this morning and you're in there trying to say, look, just let the country open, everything will be fine. We're dealing with some radical left lunatics, and I just wish Charlie was here to fight us. I think the fight would have been over already.
He would have had a march on the Capitol by people whose average age is about 21 because there's nobody that had that relationship with young people, right, Mike? So, thank you, Mike, for being here. House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise. Steve, thank you very much. Brave -- a brave guy and a friend. House majority whip, another terrific man, Tom Emmer. Tom, thank you, Tom. Senate Majority Whip, John Barrasso. John, thank you very much. You have all these Senators, I'm going to get in trouble. I'm not going to read all their names. I'll be reading all day. We'll be talking about Charlie in about 45 minutes from now. We can't do that. So, all of the Senators, there's so many of you, thank you very much.
I do want to thank Senator Thune for doing a terrific job. He's really been leading properly. Do you agree, Mike? The team, the two of these guys have been fantastic. So, to Senator Thune, I want to thank you very much. Incredible job. I watched him this morning and he was out there pounding them this morning on television too. And John Barrasso, thank you for the work you've done and congratulations on your success. But I want to thank you all and all of the Congress people that are here. And I see we have our attorney general here, and you are doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much, Pam. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have everybody.
Wow, that's incredible. OK, I'm not going to do anymore; I'm going to be here too long. But I just want to thank -- you have given him such support, but he always gave you such support. That's why you're here and very unusual. Charles James Kirk was a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation. He was truly an amazing figure and growing leaps and bounds. He knew that the fight to preserve our heritage is waged not only on the battlefield and in the halls of power, of which we have tremendous power here, including the head of a place called War. We call it now War, we had Defense, we had our Secretary of Defense; now we have a Secretary of War.
And somehow I think it's more emblematic and hopefully we'll never have to use war. But the fact that we're ready is very good. Peace through strength is very important. But also in the hearts of our nation's youth; that's where Charlie rode strongest. At age 18, that insight inspired Charlie to found the organization that ultimately touched the lives of millions and millions of people and so many young people that nobody's ever seen anything like it frankly. Turning Point USA, It's amazing and it's actually bigger now. It's become bigger in the last few weeks than Charlie ever thought. I think his end vision in many years from now would have been just a fraction of what it turned out to be in a couple of weeks, right? It's amazing. With hard work and joyful spirit and endless enthusiasm and determination -- and he did have great enthusiasm.
You know, I always say you need enthusiasm to be successful. He had great enthusiasm. Charlie grew Turning Point into the largest conservative youth organization in the entire country. He forged a personal bond with countless young conservatives. He fought for free speech, religious liberty, strong borders and a very strong and proud America. In everything he did he put America first, he really put America first. And ultimately Charlie became more than a leader of an important organization; he became the leader of historic movements -- all over the country there were movements, individual movements, one movement, but it was historic. Everything he did was historic and a true evangelist for the cause of freedom and the Word of Almighty God.
God was very important to Charlie. He would say, you know, if you don't have religion, you're not going to have a strong country. It's true. He was so wise beyond his years. You know, I'd talk to him sometimes and say this guy is like a young guy. He was really a wise man. From the time Charlie worked on my presidential campaign in 2016 and he was there right from the beginning. He liked me, I don't know. I have no idea why. What the hell was he thinking. He said you're going to win, sir. I said, you know, I'm running against 17 Senators and a lot of tough people and governors. We have all these people, and he said no, you're going to win, sir. He said it's not going to be close.
And he made it happen, he helped make it happen, I'll tell you that. Without him who knows what would be, maybe you'd have Kamala standing here today. That would not be good. I will tell you, Javier. You don't know who Kamala is; promise, it would not be good. Do you agree with that, Howard? He also mobilized countless citizens to go vote. It's called Go Vote, very simple. And with his help in 2024, we won more young people than any Republican by far in the history of our country and we won the popular vote. We won the swing states, all seven of them. Remember, they said, oh, well, if Trump could win four, that would be nice. I win seven by a lot, by a landslide.
But the popular vote was massive, and we won the Electoral College. Remember they said, well, it's going to be very hard. I'd say 270. Well, we got 312 to 226. And then we won something called districts and councils and different things. But in one case, we won 2,750 to 525. That's the one where you see the map is almost entirely red, except they have a little blue line on one side and a little blue line, meaning New York and a little bit in Los Angeles. I have a feeling that if the vote were 100 percent, we would have won that too, you want to know the truth. But he knew and he knew very well, and he also understood honesty, and he was always concerned with honesty. He said the only way we can lose is if the cheating gets so bad and that's where we came up with a little phrase, too big to rig.
We said go out and vote, just go out and vote and we had that. Remember, we used to say that all the time because people would say, oh, they're going to win. We don't have to vote. Let's go to a movie. We'll come home and watch later. And he wasn't about that. So, we had -- we come up with -- really together, we came up with that phrase, we've got to make it too big. I never made a speech where I didn't say at the end now look, the polls are showing good. Don't believe the polls. I said we're going to make it, Susie, right? Too big to rig. So, if you think we're going to win by a lot, doesn't matter. Pretend we're losing, you've got to go out and vote. They voted and at 9:02, the whole thing was over, right, 9:02. Remember, they said, oh, this could go a few days.
Well, it went a few minutes, 9:02. And he knew that and I felt it. But he knew it. He knew it. I think he knew it more than anybody. But Charlie never missed an opportunity to remind us of the Judeo-Christian principles of our nation's founding or to share his deep Christian faith. In his final moments, Charlie testified to the greatness of America and to the glory of our Savior with whom he now rests in heaven. And he is going to make heaven. I said, I'm not sure I can make it, but he's going to make it. He's there. He's looking down on us right now. It's so incredible. Look at this, how this turned out. This was supposed to be so dark and cloudy. Not dark and cloudy is it? Look at that, how beautiful that is? There's no artist that can an capture it as beautiful as it is today.
Wow, it's amazing. As I said on the day that he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk was a martyr for truth and for freedom. And from Socrates to think, and to Saint Peter, from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, those who change history the most, and he really did, have always risked their lives for causes they were put on earth to defend. He was put on Earth to do exactly what he was doing. He didn't want to waste time. He would have been a top student at any college in the country. I know the colleges well. He's smarter than the guys there. He was so smart, but he almost I guess didn't half the time, it was, he knew what he wanted to do. It wasn't like, gee, I want to sit in a classroom for four years, listening to people teach me liberal principles, because they were never going to teach him that anyway.
But he didn't have the time. He really didn't have the time. But every time the enemies of goodness and virtue tried to silence the voice of righteous and noble leaders like Charlie, they failed. They seem to fail, ultimately. They look like they're doing well and then they end up failing because the truth has been unrelenting over the years over history. And people like Charlie, it's just they've got a power that others don't have and very few people will ever have. So today, like those martyrs before him, Charlie's voice, his message and his legacy are stronger and greater than ever before. They are greater than ever before. Look, this is a horrible event, but it brought out the greatness of Charlie.
Nothing could have ever supplanted this. It's incredible, the way people are talking about him and -- and with great love. I mean, I read so many stories about some of the enemies, but I watched the enemies and it's hard for them to speak badly about him because they just don't. And then you do have people, in the days since Charlie's killing, we've seen exactly why our country so dearly needed his example. We've watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one. They know that they're failing. They have the devil's ideology and they're failing and they know it. They feel it and they become violent. They seem to become very violent on the left.
They've rammed vehicles into federal law enforcement, fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me, you know, but I was -- I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. I turned to the right. Charlie, couldn't believe it, actually. He said, how the hell did you make that turn? I said, I don't know. But fired rifles and threatened the lives of our Supreme Court justices, our great justices. They have to be protected. We just issued a lot of money, $60 million to protect the Supreme Court justices, very important. We can't let anything happen. In places of worship, we're protecting our people. We've seen that a candidate for attorney general in Virginia boasted that he would want to see the Republican legislature -- a legislator in Virginia shot in the head and to see his children murdered.
He actually said this. And now he continues to run for office and most people continue to back him. But he said he wants his man shot, said shot in the head and to see his children murdered. And they keep running. Pretty amazing, right? That's a bad one. Let's see how that turns out, but that's a really bad one. Nobody's heard that one before. Especially in the wake of Charlie's assassination, our country must have absolutely no tolerance for this radical left violence, extremism and terror. We're done with the angry mobs and we're not -- we're not going to let our cities be unsafe. We're going to make sure our cities are safe.
When you have Chicago where they had 4,000 people murdered over a very short period of time, 4,000 people. And then we have a governor stand up and say, oh, things are going swimmingly. No, they're not. We're going to make Chicago safe just like we're going to make -- look what we did in DC. It's so nice that we started here because this was one of the most violent places in the United States. It would be dangerous to be right out here, but you couldn't go to a restaurant, the restaurants were all dying. The whole place was dying. You'd have these gorgeous -- look at the Washington Monument over there. You'd have these gorgeous buildings and monuments and structures and people were afraid to leave their apartment.
They were afraid to go to work. They'd get into an Uber and they'd feel safe, and then the Uber would be attacked. They thought they made it to safety and then the Uber was attacked on the trip in. But we've done a great job and now it's considered a totally safe city. We haven't had problems. It took us 12 days to make it great. We took out [Inaudible] but these are hardened criminals, many of them came in through the Biden open borders. We brought them back to the countries. And a couple were so violent that we put them in jail. We don't want to take the chance that they could get back in. Because no matter how good we do, somebody can sneak in. We didn't -- they were so violent and so -- so bad, one arrested 28 times.
Every time he left prison, he'd get into a violent incident 28 times. And we put him away for a long time, but we're done with the angry mobs. We're done with it. This is such an unbelievable place right now. You take a look, we're -- alone, it doesn't matter. They can walk anywhere in Washington and they're safe now. If this were a year and a half ago, a year ago, they'd have a serious chance of being badly hurt, even killed, even killed. They'd come in from Indiana. They'd come in from Iowa. They come from Florida to see their nation's capital and somebody would have to call the parents, I'm sorry, but your son or your daughter has been killed.
Not anymore. You hear those sirens going off, [Inaudible] the bad guy. You didn't hear that sound because nobody wanted to do anything, nobody. Listen to the beauty of that sound, seriously. And that's the real deal sirens. They're not politically correct sirens. You hear them. They're about three miles away. That's great, what a beautiful sound. They're stopping crime. That's what they're doing. So we're done with the voices of fools. They're fools. And death threats, and we're going to make our cities -- Chicago is going to be a great city again. We've already -- you know, we send people in there six months ago and this governor said, well, crime is down.
Yeah, that's because we had the FBI in there for six months just preparing it for the bigger surge. And they've done a great job, Kash and the FBI, they've done a great job and they love doing it. You know, they love being able to do it. They were restricted from doing it. They couldn't do anything and now they're totally unrestricted. All they have to do is stop crime and they're doing it. By the way, Memphis, as you know, you heard they -- well, it's not just the country. They have very few cities that would compare to some of these cities. You go to Afghanistan, you say, oh, that's unsafe. Well, the crime numbers are much better than the crime numbers in places that we have.
So Memphis, I understand, is doing unbelievably. In one week it's like a different place and this took 12 days. And then after that, we just perfected it. But after 12 days, we had good safety here. After one month, it's like -- it's really amazing. You can't get into a restaurant in DC anymore. So they're opening up. It's a beautiful thing to see. It's called safety. It's called law enforcement and letting them do their job. And that's why I said last month that I have directed the attorney general and the Department of Homeland Security to confront the very real threat of left-wing terrorism in our country. It's a real threat, not when you confront it, it's not because they're not brave people.
In fact, they're cowards. You have to see them crying. They fold. But it includes dismantling the networks that fund them and finance them and we're finding out who those networks are. We already know quite a few of them. When you see these violent incidents and then you see people holding this gorgeous sign with beautiful wood, beautiful cardboard, wood -- everything, everything's perfect, perfect paint job and they're all the same. There are thousands of them. You know, anarchists and in some cases wealthy. I'll probably find some of my nice friends that are up there being so nice to me, especially lately, they're being very nice. But it surprises you who they may be and you almost wonder why, why, why would they do it. But they're hurting our country and we're really taking it back one by one.
The commissioner, the Chief of Police of Los Angeles said if they didn't go in, we would have lost our city. Now they already lost 25,000 houses to fire because they wouldn't let the water come in from the Pacific Northwest, which they should have done. I said you'd better do it. They didn't do it and we had 25,000 homes where they had no water in their sprinklers, they had no water in their fire hydrants. It would have been a different kind of a thing if they did what they were supposed to do. We had to break in, we broke in and had the water come down. They actually -- they said for the environment, great. They lost 25,000 houses, it's incredible. But the commissioner said without the federal government and President Trump's intervention, we would have lost the entire city.
And we have the Olympics going there soon. I got the Olympics, we have the Olympics, we have the World Cup, and we have -- most importantly, we have the 250th anniversary of our country, that's going to be most important. And all of these things are happening and we're going to have safe cities, we're going to have very, very safe cities. So, one month after Charlie's death, we still feel the terrible shock and the pain of his loss like just about nobody I can think of. Charlie Kirk was one of a kind. He was unstoppable. And he really was, boy, when he had an idea in his head -- oh, he was, he would call me, sir, please you haven't done it yet.
I said, Charlie, relax, just relax. He didn't relax. He'd call me the next day again, it got it done. But he was like indomitable and always will be. He's really irreplaceable. Nobody can replace him, but they're going to do great. But you can't replace that kind of person and that kind of talent, frankly. The word talent is an important word, but that kind of talent. So, we hold his memory in our hearts forever. Every single day of this administration, we will continue to carry out the mission for which he lived, and he really did. He lived for this country, he lived for his wife and his family, but he lived for this country too.
In Charlie's honor, we will continue, like we have been, to fight, fight, fight and to win, win, win. We're going to win so much. So, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a big deal. You have the Congressional Medal of Honor, military, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is civilian. And the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a really big deal, very few people get it. Very few people frankly qualify. It's a decision of the president, but it's a qualification that's a very hard one to get. And I would like to ask, if I might, the military aide to read Charles James Kirk's citation for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Military Aide: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to Charles James Kirk. Accepting on behalf of Charlie is his wife, Mrs. Erika Kirk. Charlie Kirk was one of the most influential American political figures of his generation. At just 18 years old, he founded Turning Point USA and grew it into the largest conservative youth organization in the nation. For over a decade, he tirelessly traveled the country leading a movement to restore respect for our founding principles, reawaken our national identity and inspire a renewed spirit of religious devotion. He was one of the great debaters and communicators of his time. Despite receiving repeated threats, he remained undeterred and modeled courage, logic, humor and grace to the next generation. On September 10th, 2025, at age 31, Charlie Kirk was assassinated while addressing a group of students. The United States honors him as a martyr for truth and freedom.
Note: [The award is presented to Erika Kirk.]