Trump says civilian award he gave to donor is “far better” than Medal of Honor

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, is “far better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, because soldiers who receive the latter must be seriously injured or killed to receive it.

Trump made the remarks at a campaign rally titled “Fighting Anti-Semitism” in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was introduced by Republican major donor Miriam Adelson. Shortly after taking the stage, the former president effusively praised Adelson for her work and described the moment he bestowed the honor on her in 2018.

“I saw Sheldon sitting so proudly in the White House when we awarded Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said of Sheldon Adelson. “It's the highest award a civilian can receive, it's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but in a civilian version.”

“It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, so soldiers are either in very bad shape because they've been hit by bullets so many times, or they're dead,” he continued.

“She understands it and is a healthy, beautiful woman. And they are judged equally. But she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

Miriam Adelson is likely to be one of the biggest donors in the election campaign and plans to support the former president's candidacy with almost $100 million.

The Trump team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his comments on Thursday.

In a statement shared with HuffPost on Friday, the Harris campaign said Trump's words showed that he “knows nothing about serving anyone or anything but himself.”

“His insulting of Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked families of Gold Star recipients, mocked prisoners of war, and called those who lost their lives serving our country 'suckers' and 'losers,' should remind all Americans that we owe it to our soldiers, our country, and our future to ensure that Donald Trump never again becomes our nation's commander in chief,” said Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Trump has made controversial remarks about soldiers and veterans in the past. In 2020, The Atlantic reported that the then-president referred to American soldiers who died in World War I as “losers” and “suckers” in conversations with his aides. He also sparked a firestorm in 2015 when he said the late Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) was not a war hero because he was taken prisoner.

“I like people who were not captured,” Trump said at the time.

He has denied allegations that he referred to military personnel as “losers,” but his former chief of staff, John Kelly, said last year that Trump did indeed make all of those remarks.

Trump has tried to appeal to Jewish voters in the run-up to November, repeatedly saying that Jews who vote Democratic “hate Israel” and should get “investigated.”

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