United States President Donald Trump says he will award Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and close ally who participated in efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trump said on Monday that he would grant the country’s highest civilian honour to Giuliani, calling him a “great patriot” in a post on his social media website, Truth Social.

“As President of the United States of America, I am pleased to announce that Rudy Giuliani, the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot, will receive THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM, our Country’s highest civilian honor,” Trump wrote.

Giuliani rose to prominence in US politics for leading New York City during the September 11, 2001, attacks and their aftermath. He later became a lawyer for Trump, taking part in an effort to keep him in office, despite his loss in the 2020 election, by spreading Trump’s false claims of significant fraud.

The disgraced former mayor was later disbarred for those actions, and a pair of Georgia election workers who said they received death threats after Giuliani falsely accused them of helping to rig the voting process won a $148m defamation judgement against him.

The 81-year-old Giuliani was hospitalised on Saturday after a car crash in the state of New Hampshire.

He suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra, along with multiple lacerations, contusions and injuries to his left arm and leg, according to his security chief, Michael Ragusa, who said on Monday that he would be released “soon”.

The Medal of Freedom, first introduced in 1963, is typically awarded to people who have made substantial contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the US, world peace, or other significant social, public, or private endeavours.