WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously awarded to slain influencer Charlie Kirk on Tuesday featured a Christian cross engraved on the back, in a tribute to the activist’s professed faith.
Kirk, the head of campus outreach group Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was fatally shot on September 10 while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. Two days later, authorities apprehended and accused 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of the shooting and detailed how he was motivated by his idea of Kirk’s conservative views as “hateful.”
Robinson was in a relationship with his male roommate, who was in the process of “transitioning” to female. The Justice Department is currently investigating who else may have had advance knowledge of the assassination, such as the members of a pro-LGBT message board Robinson frequented.
President Donald Trump awarded Kirk the nation’s highest civilian honor at a White House ceremony on October 14, Kirk’s 32nd birthday, calling him a “visionary” dedicated to freedom who “turned Turning Point into the largest conservative youth organization in the country … in everything he did, he put America first.”
In a viral video clip, Kirk’s widow Erika, who accepted the medal, displayed it in detail, revealing that the back was specially engraved with a cross above Kirk’s full name.
INCREDIBLE: For the First Time in American History A Christian Cross has been Engraved onto the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of Charlie Kirk.
Erika Kirk wanted to share this with you as a testament of Charlie’s powerful work advancing The Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
✝️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/oOetxMzkqQ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 14, 2025
“Charlie always admired your commitment to freedom,” Erika told Trump at the event, adding that his support for their family and work was “something we’ll always cherish.” She also discussed freedom as Charlie’s life’s work, and inextricably linked to his faith in God as both a right and a responsibility to use in service of what is right.
In the wake of Kirk’s murder, the far-left Anti-Defamation League (ADF) took down its controversial “Glossary of Extremism and Hate,” which had described TPUSA as a “hate group,” but many leftists continued to express hatred of Kirk and even pleasure at his death, particularly among academia. Left-wing talk host Jimmy Kimmel was briefly suspended for falsely insinuating Kirk’s killer was a member of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base.
On the flip side, the tragedy has been met with an outpouring of sympathy for Charlie, Erika, and their two small children, an outpouring of new donations and memberships for Turning Point (including at least one proposal to mandate TPUSA chapters on school grounds), and numerous symbolic gestures, from a proposed commemorative silver dollar bearing Kirk’s likeness to a sculpture of Jesus Christ embracing Kirk at Ave Maria University.
