In a long-standing practice of expressing contempt for the military and its heroes, on Thursday Donald Trump described the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, as being “much better” than the military Medal of Honor, because service members who receive the nation’s highest military honor are often severely wounded or dead. Donald Trump’s horror of the weak and vulnerable—those that he calls “losers,” is a well-known trait.
Trump stated that the civilian award is “actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”
A Youtube poster corrected that, “The Medal of Honor is awarded to recognize soldiers, airmen, etc. who have distinguished themselves BY ACTS of VALOR, not because they were wounded or killed.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is a civilian award that is considered the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government upon civilians. It recognizes individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
The Medal of Honor, on the other hand, is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government and is bestowed upon members of the armed forces who distinguish themselves through acts of valor at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.
Donald Trump, who has never served in the military due to repeated deferrals that he received for “bone spurs,” seems to have an aversion to those who have not only served their country but paid a high price for it. In the media he is frequently mocked as “Cadet Bone Spurs.”
His remark about the two Medals has sparked outrage. Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, rebutted, “Donald Trump knows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself.”
In the most notorious incident in the denigration and mockery of military heroes, while campaigning for president in 2016, he vilified the record of Senator John McCain, a former naval aviator who was held prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War, stating, “He’s not a war hero. I like people who weren’t captured.”
During that same campaign he engaged in a long and protracted feud with Gold Star father Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala Khan, after they spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Khan said in his speech that Trump had “sacrificed nothing and no one,” for his country. The Khans’ son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004.
In 2020 The Atlantic reported that when Trump canceled a planned visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris in 2018, he said: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” The article also claims that Trump called the 1,800 U.S. Marines who died at a nearby battlefield in World War I “suckers.”
However, when in 2018 he bestowed the Congressional Medal of Freedom on Miriam Adelson, the widow of his long-time supporter, who had donated millions to his campaign, he declared, “She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman.”
Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have been prominent donors to the Republican Party. Their contributions have had a considerable impact on political campaigns and candidates, particularly within the GOP. The Adelsons’ support was pivotal in the 2016 election of Donald Trump to the White House. Even after the death of her husband Miriam Adelson’s role as a donor has continued to shape the political landscape.
In his comparison of the value of the two medals, he referred back to Miriam Adelson, extolling her superior contributions to the country. This did not go down well with some members of the public. One social media user wrote: “Adelson got this award simply because she donated a lot of money to Trump, which in his eyes is much more important than any sacrifice made by a member of the military. It still boggles the mind that any of my fellow veterans support this guy.”
