President Donald Trump is said to be “moving heaven and earth” to wrap up his business in the Middle East and get back to Washington, D.C., in time to honor the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Tuesday.
Trump has arrived in Israel to celebrate the newly-agreed peace plan to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and will address the Knesset on Monday and meet with freed hostages before flying on to Egypt, where his fellow heads of state are meeting for a ceasefire summit in Sharm El-Sheik.
He will then race back to the White House to posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, on what would have been the Turning Point USA founder’s 32nd birthday.
Kirk was fatally shot by a sniper while debating students on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 10.
Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, confirmed the president’s plan to return for the Kirk ceremony on X, writing: “President Trump is moving heaven and earth to get back to D.C. to award Charlie the Presidential Medal of Freedom on what would be his 32nd birthday.
“Thank you, Mr President. We see what it took to pull this off, and we’re incredibly grateful.”
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump told the press: “I’m coming back, I believe it’s Tuesday night, for Charlie Kirk, a friend of mine, a friend of all of ours, a friend of a lot of the people right here.
“And we’re giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor you get outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor – one’s military, one’s civilian – but it’s… it’s the greatest honor. And Erika, his beautiful wife, is going to be here, and a lot of people are going to be here.
“So it’s not easy for me to get back. It’s a very quick trip, but I’ll be making two major stops, and then I’ll be on the plane trying to get back in time for Charlie. They’re going to have a great celebration at the White House, in the East Room of the White House.”
Kirk’s murder has rocked Trump’s MAGA movement and provoked his administration to pursue a clampdown on left-wing protest organizations it has accused of promoting domestic terrorism.
While Erik Kirk said at her husband’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, last month that she forgives his killer, Trump himself has continued to rebuke his political enemies in heated terms.
The president has not ruled out honoring Kirk with a national holiday. At the same time, Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has called for a statue to be erected in his memory at the U.S. Capitol in tribute.
One has already been commissioned at the New College of Florida. In the same state, lawmakers are currently considering a bill to rename roads to honor Kirk near its universities and colleges. This would punish any institution that refuses to comply by cutting off public funding.
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