Tea at Trianon: Trump Awards Charlie Kirk Presidential Medal of Freedom

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Trump Awards Charlie Kirk Presidential Medal of Freedom

From Overton News:

Trump began by speaking from the heart about the man who had changed the landscape of American politics.
The president offered some of the kindest words ever uttered about Kirk and his impact on the nation.
“Today we are here to honor and remember a fearless warrior for liberty, a beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I have ever seen before.”
“An American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality, and the highest caliber—the late, great Charlie Kirk.”
He recounted the tragedy of Kirk’s assassination with a gravity that silenced the crowd.
“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.”
When Trump announced the award, the Rose Garden erupted in applause.
“And that’s why this afternoon, it is my privilege to posthumously award Charlie James Kirk, our nation’s highest civilian honor—the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
(Read more.)