Donald Trump’s Medal Of Honor Remarks Spark Anger From Veterans

Donald Trump’s remark that the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom is “better” than the Medal of Honor for military valor has sparked backlash from veterans.
The Republican presidential nominee made the statement on Thursday evening when praising Miriam Adelson, the widow of one of the GOP’s former largest donors, Sheldon Adelson.
Miriam Adelson has continued to make substantial donations to Trump’s campaigns, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.
“It’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers,” Trump told supporters gathered at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday.
“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.” The Trump campaign has been contacted for comment via email.
Military veterans took to social media to criticize Trump over the remarks.
“Donald Trump insulting Medal of Honor recipients is just a continued trend of his disrespect towards our men and women in the military,” Travis Akers wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s disgusting. This is offensive on so many levels.”
Alexander Vindman, a former Army Lieutenant Colonel who testified in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, wrote that Trump “deserves nothing but disdain and disqualifies himself from public office.”
Peter Henlein, an Army veteran, wrote: “F*ck this guy. He says the presidential medal of freedom he gave to one of his billionaire donors is better than the Medal of Honor, which is a the highest military award, given for heroism in battle, often posthumously. Disgusting.”
Veterans for Responsible Leadership, a bipartisan super PAC, wrote that Trump thinks the Medal of Honor is “secondary to the medal he gives his billionaire funders. He doesn’t care about our military or their sacrifices.”
However, Joseph Lippincott, a Trump supporter and Marine, wrote that Trump was “exactly” right about the Medal of Honor.
“As a Marine, I can say that Trump is exactly right about the Medal of Honor,” Lippincott wrote. “Getting that award means that either you or your friends and comrades came back in body bags or f***** up for life. No one should want that award.”
The Medal of Honor is awarded to a military service member who “distinguishes himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” during combat, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Recommendations for the medal require “thorough reports on the act itself, the battlefield and its setting,” including at least two sworn eyewitness statements, and must be approved all the way up the military’s chain of command, ending with the president. There is no requirement that recipients be injured or killed.
Update 8/16/24, 5:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.