Trump made the disparaging comment during an event at his New Jersey golf club — his latest in a documented pattern of insulting service members and veterans
While addressing Jewish supporters gathered at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday — an event meant to center on fighting antisemitism — Donald Trump said that a civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor because soldiers who are recognized are “in very bad shape … or they’re dead.”
The insulting remark was made as the former president lauded Miriam Adelson, a billionaire and widow of longtime Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. Miriam has continued to to dump millions into Trump’s campaign following Sheldon’s death in 2021. The former president awarded Miriam with the Medal of Freedom in 2018, for work her as a doctor and her donations to facilities treating drug addiction.
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said on Thursday evening. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump added, referring to the highest military honor given for valor in combat.
“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,” Trump continued. “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.”
Trump: When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many… pic.twitter.com/a766KxAC2e
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2024
In 2020, The Atlantic reported that Trump privately disparaged U.S. service members and veterans during a trip to France in 2018 for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I and reportedly called Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” and soldiers who were buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery “losers.”
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The former president also drew backlash from both Republicans and Democrats in 2015 after he disparaged U.S. Senator John McCain, one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics. At the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa that year, Trump claimed McCain was “not a war hero” and said, “I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain, a Vietnam veteran, was not only shot down and a prisoner of war from 1967-1973, but refused early release because other American soldiers had been imprisoned longer.
Trump, who avoided the military draft multiple times (as was common for men from wealthy families), has long resented the late senator. McCain criticized him during the 2016 presidential campaign and voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, foiling Trump’s plan to sink President Barack Obama’s legislative achievement.