Former President Donald Trump said Thursday the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, was “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, because soldiers who receive the latter had to be severely injured or killed to receive it.
Trump made the comments in a campaign event titled “Fighting Antisemitism” in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was introduced by Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson. Shortly after he took the stage, the former president lavished praise on Adelson for her work and described the moment he bestowed the honor in 2018.
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said, speaking about Sheldon Adelson. “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 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,” he went on.
“She gets it, and she’s a healthy beautiful woman. And they’re rated equal. But she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Miriam Adelson is set to become one of the biggest donors during the election cycle, with plans to spend nearly $100 million to support the former president’s bid.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his remarks Thursday. The Harris campaign also did not reply to a request, but shared Trump’s remarks on its rapid response X account.
Trump has made controversial remarks about soldiers and veterans in the past. In 2020, The Atlantic reported the then-president referred to American service members who died in World War I as “losers” and “suckers” in conversations with his staff. He also sparked a firestorm in 2015 when he said the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was not a war hero because he was captured.
“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.
Julia Nikhinson via Associated Press
He has disavowed claims he called service members “losers.” But his former chief of staff, John Kelly, said last year Trump had, in fact, made all of those remarks.
Trump has worked to appeal to Jewish voters in the lead-up to November. He has repeatedly said that Jews who vote Democrat “hate Israel” and should have their heads “examined.”
