Trump awards conservative influencer Charlie Kirk posthumous presidential medalbr br US President Donald Trump awards a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, who was killed in an attack last month as he addressed students on a campus in Utah. Trump hailed Kirk as a "martyr for truth and freedom". "I can say with confidence, Mr. President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have," Kirk's widow Erika Kirk says, as the ceremony was held on his birthday.