Former President Donald Trump sparked outrage after claiming the Presidential Medal of Freedom he gave to billionaire donor Miriam Adelson is "much better" than the Congressional Medal of Honor given to wounded or dead members of the U.S. military.
Trump made the remarks during a campaign event at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was introduced by Adelson herself.
Adelson is estimated to be the fifth richest woman in America with a net worth of $27.7 billion. She and her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, were Trump’s most significant financial supporters during his presidency. They made the largest contributions to his 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund during the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and his 2020 campaign.
Trump, who awarded Adelson the Medal of Freedom in 2018 for her work as a doctor and her donations to facilities treating drug addiction, said:
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor."
“But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead."
“She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she got it for — and that’s through committees and everything else.”
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant public or private endeavors.
The Congressional Medal of Honor is the most prestigious military award, with three variants for each military branch. The Medal of Honor recognizes those who have shaped our nation’s history and "continue to inspire its future" through acts of "valor, humanity, patriotism, and sacrifice."
Notably, out of the 40 million Americans who have served in the Armed Forces since the Civil War, only 3,519 have received the Medal of Honor.
The Harris campaign issued a statement calling out Trump for "Dishonoring America's Greatest Heroes, Again":
"Donald Trump knows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself."
"For him to insult Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked Gold Star families, mocked prisoners of war, and referred to those who lost their lives in service to our country as 'suckers' and losers,' should remind all Americans that we owe it to our service members, our country, and our future to make sure Donald Trump is never our nation's commander in chief again."
You can see the statement below.
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Trump has been harshly criticized in response.
Trump has a history of disrespecting members of the military, particularly, as he put it, the "suckers and losers" who die in combat.
A 2020 report from The Atlantic revealed that Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018. At the time, four individuals with direct knowledge of the situation said that Trump declined the visit due to concerns about his hair being affected by the rain and a lack of importance placed on honoring American war dead.
During discussions with senior staff members on the morning of the planned visit, Trump questioned the necessity of visiting the cemetery, referring to it as "filled with losers." Additionally, on the same trip, he reportedly referred to the over 1,800 marines who perished at Belleau Wood as "suckers" for losing their lives.
Perhaps most notably, Trump mocked the late Arizona Senator John McCain's injuries that came from his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from 1967 to 1973 and resulted in his inability to move his arms above his head for the rest of his life.
In 2015, Trump, then a presidential candidate, infamously said that McCain was "not a war hero" because "he was captured" and "I like people who weren’t captured."
McCain, in response, mocked Trump's multiple draft deferments, pointing to wealthy Americans who were able to get out of being drafted into service. During his lifetime, McCain was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his military service.
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