EMOTIONAL MOMENT: 13-year-old DJ Daniel — who inspired President Trump and was sworn in by the Secret Service while bravely battling brain cancer — shares a powerful backstage embrace with Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards.
Erika Kirk was at FOX Nation’s 2025 Patriot Awards to accept one on behalf of her husband, but ended up hugging a 13-year-old winner of the “Young Patriot of the Year” Award.
FOX Nation 2025 Patriot Awards to honor First Lady Melania Trump, Erika Kirk in New York
The 2025 Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York, will honor national heroes. Melania Trump will be named ‘Patriot of the Year,’ and Erika Kirk will receive the inaugural ‘Charlie Kirk Legacy Award.’ Hosted by Sean Hannity, the Patriot Awards will stream live on FOX Nation at 8 PM ET.
Backstage hug between DJ Daniel and Erika Kirk becomes viral caught on camera moment
Erika Kirk hugs DJ Daniel backstage at the 2025 Patriot Awards on Nov. 6, 2025. (Fox News)
Two 2025 Patriot Award winners, 13-year-old DJ Daniel and widow Erika Kirk, hugged backstage in a sweet moment caught on camera.
The hug was between two people carrying very different kinds of grief and courage meeting in the same place.
The gesture of a kid fighting terminal cancer offering comfort to a widow who had just accepted an award in her late husband’s name moved the internet, with the photo quickly going viral on social media.
DJ has spent years traveling the country being sworn into law-enforcement agencies, more than 1,350 so far, on a mission inspired by three Houston police officers who helped his family during Hurricane Harvey.
Those same officers surprised him onstage, prompting an emotional tribute from his father, who said their kindness “literally saved my son’s life.”
DJ brought the house down with humor: “I might look 13, but I’m really a 50-year-old stuck in a 13-year-old’s body,” and even “arrested” Sean Hannity for laughs.
But the moment backstage between Kirk and Daniel without lights or microphones lingered.
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