Trump Posthumously Awards Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Charlie Kirk. Here’s Why No One Should Care

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the MAGA world’s slain sweetheart, Charlie Kirk.

Now, we can get angry at such an honor being bestowed on a bigot who dedicated his platform to anti-Black fearmongering and exemplifying the expression, “There’s no hate like Christian love.” We can be outraged over a racist giving another racist an award that should go to people who are, at the very least, not racist. We can get mad at this white nationalist circle jerk masquerading as an honoring of the virtuous.

Or we can all just acknowledge that, under Trump, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is more useful as a paperweight than it is an award that actually means anything.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is considered to be the nation’s highest civilian honor, but when it’s being handed out by a president who has no honor, or ethics, or morals, or a general concept of reality, anyone of equal deplorable character can be a recipient.

Hell, just last month, Trump announced he would give the award to Rudy Giuliani, as if the ex-New York City mayor has done anything to deserve it besides serve as Trump’s attorney, public propagandist, and chief harasser of Black women whose only crime was being election workers during the election Trump lost. Trump wants to award Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom when he can just help the man pay his bills now that he’s drowning in debt and legal woes as a direct result of him decision to help the MAGA messiah spread his election fraud nonsense, both in the media and in the courtroom.

I mean, if we’re just doling out prestigious awards to Trump loyalists and any old right-wing podcaster whose death made him trending news for a relatively short while, then, baby, that thing is just a shiny, flat object to prop up an uneven table with.

Trump sure thinks a lot of the award, though.

In fact, last year, Trump bragged about awarding the medal to the widow of a rich Republican who, apparently, earned it by donating a bunch of money to his campaign. He also bragged that the award is a “better” award than the Medal of Honor because that medal is only received by “soldiers” who are either “dead” or in “bad shape” because they’ve been shot so many times.

“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump said, mistaking the Congressional Medal of Honor for the Medal of Honor, which is the highest military honor awarded for valor in combat. “But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”

Of course, the MAGA-fied “we support the troops” crowd was curiously silent after that speech.

Trump’s speech for Kirk was certainly less disrespectful to soldiers who fought and bled for this country, but it was just as superficial and full of pseudo-patriotic platitudes that would indicate he didn’t actually know Kirk at all.

From the Washington Post:

“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,” Mr. Trump said during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, which was attended by most of the cabinet.

The president presented the medal to Mr. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, on what would have been Mr. Kirk’s 32nd birthday, a tribute that Mr. Trump joked had stopped him from asking Mrs. Kirk to reschedule the event.

“I raced back halfway around the globe,” Mr. Trump said, referring to his trip to Israel and Egypt that he returned from early Tuesday morning. “I was going to call Erika and say, ‘Erika, 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.”

Trump didn’t even know it was Kirk’s birthday? Republican legislators are out here trying to make Oct. 14 a holiday to honor Kirk, and the president was out here trying to reschedule the ceremony because he had no idea?

Or, you know, maybe Trump is just making sh*t up, much like he’s imagining that Kirk is a “beloved leader who galvanized the next generation” when he was actually only beloved by fellow right-wing bigots. The only members of the “next generation” that Kirk “galvanized” were the kind of young white people who trespass on HBCU campuses to antagonize Black people and call it a debate challenge.

The kind of young people Trump would award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to.

It’s a virtually worthless award under this ghettoized White House, y’all. At this point, it’s probably a bigger honor not to receive it.

SEE ALSO:

Is Anyone Still Talking About Charlie Kirk?

Charlie Kirk’s Death Spurs Newfound Unity Among Republicans