First Lady Melania Trump awards Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Anti-LGBT radio host Rush Limbaugh has been been bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.

Trump awarded the honour the right-wing Rush Limbaugh Show shock jock, who is known for his extreme views about minorities.

Addressing Limbaugh – who recently revealed a cancer diagnosis – during the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump said: “I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

First Lady Melania Trump then presented the medal to Limbaugh.

Shock jock Rush Limbaugh has called for discrimination against gay people

Rush Limbaugh has a long, long list of anti-LGBT beliefs, claiming in 2013 that gay weddings would help to normalise paedophilia.

He said: “There is a movement on to normalise paedophilia, and I guarantee you your reaction to that is probably much the same as your reaction when you first heard about gay marriage.

“What has happened to gay marriage? It’s become normal — and in fact, with certain people in certain demographics it’s the most important issue in terms of who they vote for.”

He added: “They want us to all think that paedophilia is just another sexual orientation. You know who’s gonna fall right in line is college kids, just like they have on gay marriage, just like they do on all other revolutionary social issues.”

The conservative radio personality has also previously called on his listeners to discriminate against gay people and blame Islam.

In 2015, he urged: “Instead of telling the gay couple that you refuse to bake the cake for their wedding because you disapprove of homosexuality, you should now say you are not going to bake a cake for the gay wedding because you fear Muslim backlash.

“Any of you small business owners who think you’re gonna get a visit from a gay couple asking you for your product or service at a gay wedding just say, ‘Nah, nah, nah, we refuse because of our respect of Islam. We can’t’.

“Don’t say anything about your religion. Don’t say anything about it’s your religion that prevents you from doing it. Say it’s Islam.”

Trump-honoured radio host claimed lesbian farmers are trying to conquer the South

In 2016, Limbaugh flipped out over Department of Agriculture work on LGBT+ issues, claiming Barack Obama was trying to conquer the South with a horde of lesbian farmers.

He said: “Here comes the Obama regime with a bunch of federal money and they’re waving it around, and all you gotta do to get it is be a lesbian and want to be a farmer and they’ll set you up … They are trying to bust up one of the last geographic conservative regions in the country, and that’s rural America.

“They’re going after every geographic region that is known to be largely conservative. They never stop, folks. They are constantly on the march.”

In 2017, Limbaugh attacked the Oscars after Moonlight was named Best Picture, claiming that the Academy was worried about “potential violence” if it didn’t pick a gay-themed film.

Limbaugh has more recently turned his fire on transgender people, insisting that “President Trump’s instincts in this transgender thing are right on the money” after trans people were banned from the armed forces.

He claimed: “Normalising psychosis is what the modern-day Democrat Party has been about. What is more fitting proof of what we have been saying about how the Democrat agenda is driven by people with mental disorders?”