President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded America’s highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the assassinated leader who inspired a generation of young conservatives and helped push the nation’s politics further to the right.

“I wouldn’t miss this for anything in the world,” Trump told attendees, referencing his global peacemaking schedule.

The ceremony coincides with what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. It comes just over a month after the Turning Point USA founder was fatally shot while speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University.

In a sign of Kirk’s close ties to the administration, he will be the first recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Trump’s second term. The president also spoke at at Kirk’s funeral in September, calling him a “great American hero” and “martyr” for freedom, while Vice President JD Vance accompanied his body home to Arizona on Air Force Two along with Kirk’s widow, Erika.

Trump wrote in a social media post hours before the event that he was moving the ceremony from the White House’s East Room to the Rose Garden to accommodate a crowd he said would be “so big and enthusiastic.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 for individuals making exceptional contributions to the country’s security or national interests or to world peace, or being responsible for significant cultural endeavors or public and private initiatives.

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