A (34:00)
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're loving it like they've not loved a lot of things. We have the Presidential Walk of Fame, which you just saw, and it just opened, and we wanted to get it open for this occasion. We're hoping we were able to get. Get outside, and the weather allowed us to. It was supposed to be terrible rainy day. I was telling Eric, 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, 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 Erica and say, erica, 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 has 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 by the time the year. More than $20 trillion. There's 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 0, 0, 0 and 0. 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 okay. 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, Erica. And I just want to thank you, Erica. He loved you so much. I was with him. Please. Thank you, darling. Thank you. I was with him before I met Erica, 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 like 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. He was in love with you. He was deeply in love with you. It's great. Erica, 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 friends. Very powerful friends, actually, and some not so powerful. And they're actually better people. Okay, I know. 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 Erica's father. Where is Erica'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 J.D. 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 who. 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. Senator, Majority Whip John Barrasso. John, thank you very much. 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. Watched him this morning and he was out there pounding him 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, so. 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. Okay, I'm not going to do any more. 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 has 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. Enthusiastic. 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, he 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 talk to him sometimes. I'd 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, 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. 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 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 Los Angeles. I have a feeling that if the vote were 100%, 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 to really together. We came up with that phrase, we 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. He said, we're going to make it, Susie. Right? Too big to rig. So if you think we're going to win by that doesn't matter. Pretend we're losing. You 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, a few minutes. 902. 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 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 St. 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 college as well. He's smarter than the guys at. Harry was so smart. But he almost, I guess, didn't have the time. It was. He knew what he wanted to do. It wasn't like, I want to sit in the 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 try 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. This is an Iheart podcast.
