NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
At a White Home ceremony within the Rose Backyard on Tuesday on what would have been her husband’s thirty second birthday, Erika Kirk accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of Charlie Kirk and delivered a strong, deeply private tribute to his life and legacy.
“Thanks, Mr. President, for honoring my husband in such a profound manner,” she started. “Charlie all the time admired your dedication to freedom.”
She provided due to the primary woman, the vp, and family and friends “watching from all around the globe,” together with Turning Level USA workers and chapters nationwide. “You’re the heartbeat of this future and of this motion,” she stated. “The whole lot Charlie constructed lives via you.”
Erika added that the Presidential Medal of Freedom itself is rooted in America’s Founding. “The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the nationwide curiosity of the USA has all the time been freedom,” she stated.
CHARLIE KIRK POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED MEDAL OF FREEDOM ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS 32ND BIRTHDAY
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, participates in a Medal of Freedom Ceremony for late US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk within the Rose Backyard of the White Home in Washington, DC, on Oct. 14, 2025. Kirk was shot useless on a Utah faculty campus on Sept. 10, 2025, sparking a wave of grief amongst conservatives, and threats of a clampdown on the “radical left” from President Donald Trump. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photos)
“Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Structure, and people phrases usually are not relics on parchment. They’re a residing covenant. The blessings of liberty usually are not man’s invention. They’re God’s endowment.”
She recalled how Charlie wrote about freedom typically. “He believed that liberty was each a proper and a accountability. And he used to say that freedom is the power to do what is correct with out concern. And that’s how he lived,” Erika stated.
“His title, Charles, actually means ‘free man.’ And that’s precisely who my husband was,” she continued. “From the time I met him, sitting throughout from him being interviewed about politics, philosophy and theology, I noticed the hearth in his soul. There was this divine restlessness inside him that got here from realizing God positioned him on this earth to guard one thing very sacred. He by no means stopped combating for individuals to expertise freedom.”
CHARLIE KIRK’S CLOSE FRIEND PRAISES ERIKA KIRK’S ‘RESILIENCE’ AHEAD OF EMOTIONAL WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY
Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of her husband on the White Home on Oct. 14. (Fox Information )
Erika recalled Charlie typically saying that “with out God, freedom turns into chaos” and that liberty can solely survive “when anchored to reality.” She remembered him telling an viewers: “The alternative of liberty isn’t regulation. It’s captivity. And the freest individuals on the planet are these whose hearts belong to Christ.”
Wanting again at his years constructing Turning Level USA, she stated, “Whereas he was constructing a corporation, he was additionally constructing a motion: one which known as individuals again to God, again to reality, and a motion that was crammed with braveness.”
She described him as a person who beloved life’s easiest pleasures: quiet walks, cabinets filled with books and Saturday mornings within the solar with decaf espresso and his cellphone turned off for the Sabbath. His birthday custom, she recalled, was mint chocolate chip ice cream, loved solely on July 4 and his birthday.
“Final 12 months, his one birthday want was to see the Oregon Geese play Ohio State — they usually gained,” she stated. “Mr. President, I can say with confidence that you’ve got given him the perfect birthday reward he might ever have.”
CHARLIE KIRK’S COLLEAGUES AND PASTORS PRAISE HIS PATRIOTISM AS TRUMP READIES HIGHEST CIVILIAN HONOR
U.S. President Donald Trump posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to late conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he presents the Medal to his spouse Erika Kirk (L) throughout a ceremony within the Rose Backyard of the White Home on Oct. 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos)
Turning to his remaining moments, Erika shared: “It was written throughout his chest in these remaining moments on one in all his easy T-shirts that all the time carried a message — this one bearing a single phrase: freedom. That was the banner over his life.”
She stated her husband by no means informed anybody what to say however all the time inspired them “to suppose exterior of conventional political labels, anchored in knowledge and reality.”
“Charlie wasn’t content material to easily admire freedom. He needed to multiply it,” Erika stated. “He needed younger individuals to style it, perceive it and defend it. He needed them to see that liberty isn’t egocentric indulgence — it’s self-governance underneath God.”
Day by day, she recalled, he lived with fearless conviction. “He didn’t concern being slandered. He didn’t concern dropping associates. He stood for reality and stood for freedom. The whole lot else was simply noise to him. And it’s as a result of his confidence in Christ was absolute.”
Erika stated Charlie lived “solely 31 brief years on this aspect of heaven,” however crammed every single day with goal. “He fought for reality when it was unpopular. He stood for God when it was pricey. He prayed for his enemies. He beloved individuals when it was inconvenient. He ran his race with endurance, and he saved the religion. And now he wears the crown of a righteous martyr.”
She informed the viewers, “Heaven gained what earth might now not comprise — a free synthetic absolutely free. To all watching, this isn’t a ceremony. This can be a commissioning. I need you to be the embodiment of this medal. I need you to free your self from concern. I need you to face courageously within the reality. And do not forget that whereas freedom is inherited on this nation, every of us have to be intentional stewards of it.”
Earlier than closing, Erika shared her daughter Gigi’s birthday message: “Pleased birthday, daddy. I need to provide you with a stuffed animal. I need you to eat a cupcake with ice cream. And I need you to go have a birthday shock. I really like you.”
Her younger son additionally gave his personal reward, “deciding to change into the person of the home and be absolutely potty-trained at 16 months.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“I do know that you simply’re celebrating in heaven at present, however gosh, I miss you,” she stated via tears. “We miss you and we love you. And we promise we’ll make you proud. Charlie’s life was proof that freedom will not be a principle. It’s a sworn statement. He confirmed us that liberty begins not within the halls of energy, however within the coronary heart of a person surrendered to God.”
She ended with a remaining tribute: “To reside free is the best reward, however to die free is the best victory. Pleased birthday, Charlie. Pleased freedom day.”
