Former President Donald Trump lauded a wealthy donor on whom he bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom as having gotten the "better" award compared to the top military honor, the Medal of Honor, because those recipients are often deceased or injured.
Speaking at a campaign event intended to discuss antisemitism, Trump was introduced by Miriam Adelson, a wealthy Republican donor and widow of Sheldon Adelson, who pumped millions of dollars of his own money into electing Republican candidates. He died in 2021.
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Trump said at his New Jersey resort.
"That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor," Trump continued, referring to the highest military honor bestowed for valor in combat. The Medal of Honor is often mistakenly called the Congressional Medal of Honor. "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 concluded. “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 and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have criticized the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for his military record and have sought to make reverence for military service an issue in the election. Vance, who is also a veteran, has criticized Walz for opting to retire after more than 20 years in the National Guard but before his unit was set to be deployed to Iraq. Walz has defended his military service.
Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Medal of Freedom in 2018, commending her donations to anti-addiction facilities and her work as a doctor. The Trump White House described her as a “committed member of the American Jewish community" who "has supported Jewish schools, Holocaust memorial organizations, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and Birthright Israel, among other causes.”
President John F. Kennedy established the Medal of Freedom in 1963. Intended to recognize a wide variety of people, the award is created to honor civilians who have contributed to the "interests of the United States," "world peace" or other cultural or "significant public or private endeavors." A president may unilaterally issue the honor.
In the award's more than 60 years, over 600 civilians have been granted the honor.
The Medal of Honor, in an earlier iteration, was first established in 1861, and there have been 3,519 recipients, including more than 1,500 during the Civil War. There were 472 honored for acts of service during World War II. There are 60 living recipients.
The most recent requirements for the honor say a military member must distinguish "himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." To be honored, the military members must be engaged in active combat on behalf of the U.S. against a foreign foe, but there is no requirement that recipients be injured in war.
To be honored, military members must have their acts of valor documented with multiple witnesses and run up the chain of command, with approval from the president. The citations accompanying the honor often detail bravery under fire, such as saving fellow military members or civilians in the face of personal risk.
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