Mrs. Erika Kirk Accepts Charlie's Presidential Medal of Freedom on His 32nd Birthday

My name is Charlie Kirk.

I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful.

College is a scam, everybody.

You got to stop sending your kids to college.

You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.

Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter.

Go find out how your church can get involved.

Sign up and become an activist.

I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

Most important decision I ever made in my life.

And I encourage you to do the same.

Here I am.

Lord, use me.

Buckle up, everybody.

Here we go.

The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States accompanied by Erica Kirk.

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.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to Charles James Kirk.

Accepting on behalf of Charlie is his wife, Mrs.

Erica 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.

Thank you, Mr.

President, for honoring my husband in such a profound and meaningful way.

And thank you for making this event a priority with

amid the peace process in the Middle East.

Thank you.

Very grateful.

Charlie always admired your commitment to freedom and that's something that both of you shared.

So thank you.

Your support of our family and the work that

Charlie devoted his life to will be something I cherish forever.

So thank you.

Thank you.

To our gracious First Lady in her office for making this event possible, thank you as well.

It's beautiful.

To Vice President and the lovely Usha fans, your friendship has been an unbelievable encouragement.

Thank you.

And to all our friends and family that are here

watching from all around the world.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for praying for us and for believing in what Charlie believed in.

And to our Turning Point USA staff and the Charlie Kirk show staff, we love you more than you could ever know.

And to the Turning Point USA chapters that are watching all across America right now,

you are the heartbeat.

of this future and of this movement.

Everything that Charlie built,

you guys are the legacy holders of that.

You are living proof that his mission did not die with him.

It lives through you.

And Charlie always said the next generation will decide whether freedom endures.

And because of you, I know that freedom will endure.

It will.

And today we're gathered not only to celebrate Charlie's birthday, but to honor a truth that he gave his entire life to defend, and that's freedom.

The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the national interest of the United States has always been freedom.

Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Constitution, and those words are not relics on parchment.

They are a living covenant.

The blessings of liberty are not man's invention.

they are God's endowment.

Charlie lived for those blessings, not as abstract words, but as sacred promises.

He used to love to journal about this topic all the time, and with such a

heart postured of gratitude.

And he believed that liberty was both a right and a responsibility.

And he used to say, freedom is the ability to do what is right

without fear

and that's how he lived he was free from fear

he was free from compromise

free from anything that could enslave his soul

his name Charles literally means free man

and that's exactly who my husband was he was a free man

And from the time I met him, sitting across from him,

being interviewed

on politics and philosophy and theology, anything that Charlie loved, any topic he loved.

And

I just saw the fire in his soul.

And there was this

divine restlessness within him that came from knowing God placed him on this earth to protect something.

very, very sacred

for all of us.

And he never stopped fighting for people to experience freedom.

He didn't.

Charlie often said that without God, freedom becomes chaos.

And he believed liberty could only survive when anchored to truth.

And I remember in one of his speeches,

he told the audience that the opposite of liberty

isn't law.

He said it's captivity.

And that the freest people in the world are those those whose hearts belong to Christ.

But what's so powerful is that Charlie had the ability

to communicate so brilliantly across all generations.

And he reminded us that in a world that tells us freedom is

doing whatever you want to do, the real freedom is the power to live freely and to do what is right.

And in one of his journal entries, he wrote that he wanted everyone to know that you can't have liberty without moral responsibility.

Freedom divorced from faith eventually just destroys itself.

And what's so fascinating about all of this is looking back these past 12 years of Turning Point USA and his mission,

there's almost this veil of sacredness.

Because what I realized is that while he was building an organization, he was also building a movement.

One that called people back to God,

back to truth, and a movement that was filled with courage.

And ironically, for a man who impacted millions,

Charlie never desired to be the center of attention.

He just wasn't.

My husband was not a man of extravagance.

He loved simple but deeply meaningful things, truly.

He loved his late-night walks.

He loved buying more books than he could ever read because he felt there was no such thing as a book budget.

And

he loved being able to read to our kids the same bedtime story on repeat because he knew it was their favorite.

But to him, that was special.

And he loved to sit in the sun on a Saturday morning with his cup of decaf coffee And his phone was off because he was honoring the Sabbath.

And for him, it was that moment to catch his breath and just

be in peace

because he was unreachable at the moment.

And he preferred quiet birthdays.

But that never stopped me from telling him.

I told him every single year.

I said, baby, I love your birthday.

I said, because it's the day that God knew the world couldn't go another day without you.

And so the rhythm of our usual birthday celebration for him was

mint chocolate chip ice cream.

He only had it twice a year on his birthday and 4th of July.

And then after that, he was back to work as usual.

Last year, his one birthday wish was to see the Oregon Ducks play the Ohio State.

and they won.

Oregon won that night.

And it was by far one of the most memorable nights of his birthday experience of his life until today.

And so honestly, President Trump, I have spent seven and a half years trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Charlie.

And it's so difficult.

And those of you that have spouses or loved ones, you know how difficult it is sometimes to buy a gift for someone that you love because he wasn't a materialistic man, so that also did not help.

But now I can say with confidence, Mr.

President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.

It's such an honor and the recognition of

a life lived for defending freedom.

And that's what Charlie fought for until his last breath.

And it was written across his chest in those final moments on one of his simple t-shirts that always carried a message and this one

bearing a single word freedom.

That was the banner over his life and that shirt was a declaration.

The same declaration he made in every speech.

every campus visit, every time he shared the gospel at a church, every sleepless night that he would spend praying for the youth of this nation and planning for the future of our country and just oppressing upon them that when we defend liberty, we defend the soul of our nation.

My husband never told anyone what to say.

He never did.

He never told anyone what to say.

He would just encourage them to think.

He would encourage them to think outside of the traditional political labels.

He would want them to think in a way that was anchored in wisdom and truth, but he would never tell anyone what to say.

Charlie wasn't content to simply admire freedom.

He wanted to multiply it.

He wanted to multiply freedom.

He wanted young people to taste it and to understand it

and defend it.

He wanted them to see that liberty isn't self-indulgence, it's self-governance under God.

He wanted them to see that.

And every day I'd see him getting ready for work.

He'd put on his cross necklace.

He'd put his ring on his finger.

And

the boldness in his demeanor was always fearlessness.

He wasn't afraid.

He was never afraid.

And his daily actions, whether in office or on campus or at a church,

it was always without fear.

That was his creed.

That is how he lived out every single day.

He didn't fear being slandered.

He did not.

He didn't fear losing friends.

I can tell you that.

He didn't.

He didn't care.

He stood for truth and stood for freedom and he did not,

everything else was just a noise to him.

And it's because his confidence in Christ was absolute.

That's why.

There was no limit.

No limit to what he would have sacrificed to defend freedom for all.

And if the moment had come, he probably would have run run for president but not out of ambition.

He would only have done it if that was something that he believed that his country needed from a servant's heart standpoint.

And Charlie lived only 31 short years.

Now he's 32 but on this side of heaven but

he lived.

He lived every single second he lived.

He filled every single day with purpose and he fought for truth when it was unpopular.

And he stood for God when it was costly, but that's what we're called to do.

Surprisingly enough, he did pray for his enemies, which is very hard, but he did.

He did.

He did.

No one else, I mean, I saw him do it.

No, he never did it in front of anyone else, but I can attest to that.

But he also loved people when it was inconvenient.

And he ran his race with endurance and he kept the faith.

And now he wears the crown of a righteous martyr.

And for me and for our children,

the truth really studies our grief because

heaven gained what earth could no longer contain.

A free man made fully free.

To all watching,

this is not a ceremony.

This is a commissioning.

And my message is simple.

I want you to be the embodiment of this medal.

I do.

I want you to free yourself from fear.

I want you to stand courageously in the truth.

Listen for the still small voice of God.

And remember that while freedom is inherited in this country, each of us must be intentional stewards every single day.

God began a mighty work through my husband, and I intend to see it through.

And the torch is in our hands now, it's in mine, it's in yours, it's in all of yours, it's in all the students with Turning Point USA.

And before I close, I'll share with you that I asked our daughter

what she would like to say to Daddy for his birthday.

Excuse me.

She said,

Happy birthday, Daddy.

I want to give you a stuffed animal.

I want you to eat a cupcake with ice cream

and I want you to go have a birthday surprise.

I love you, is what she said.

And while our son

is precious, he can't yet speak

in classic Kirk family fashion, his actions spoke louder than his words.

And his gift to you, Charlie, and myself for that matter, was deciding to become the man of the house and be fully potty trained at 16 months.

But Charlie, baby, I know that you're celebrating in heaven today, but gosh, I miss you.

We miss you.

And we love you, and we promise we'll

make you proud.

And

Charlie's life was proof that freedom is not a theory, it's a testimony.

He showed us that liberty begins not in the halls of power, but in the man of a heart surrendered to God.

And so today, as we honor Charlie with this

incredible Presidential Medal of Freedom on his birthday.

I stand here with tears and just a humbled heart and spirit because

his story reminds us all that

to live free is the greatest gift,

but to die free is the greatest victory.

Happy birthday, my Charlie.

Happy Freedom Day.