VIDEO - Trump pays tribute to Charlie Kirk on 9/11

President Donald Trump led US officials Thursday in combining tributes to the victims of the 9/11 attacks with those to murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot the day before.

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He was a "giant of his generation," and a "champion of liberty," Trump said at a ceremony at the Pentagon, which was one of the targets of the Al-Qaeda attacks 24 years ago that sparked two decades of deadly conflict.

The US president announced that he would soon posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the country's highest civilian honor.

Vice President JD Vance canceled a trip to New York for 9/11 commemorations at Ground Zero so he could travel to Utah to visit with Kirk's grieving family.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that "the life, example and even death of Christ follower and American patriot, Charlie Kirk, give me hope."

"Like those on 9/11, you will never be forgotten," Hegseth said of Kirk, who was fatally shot during an event at a university in Utah.