The day before Halloween 2019, President Donald Trump welcomed Master Sgt. Matthew Williams to the White House. Williams was being awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan on April 6, 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of rocket-propelled grenade, sniper, and machine gun fire, Sergeant Williams led an Afghan Commando element across a fast-moving, ice cold, and waist-deep river to fight its way up a terraced mountain to the besieged lead element of the assault force,\u201d the announcement from the White House read. It noted that \u201cwhen his Team Sergeant was wounded by sniper fire, Sergeant Williams exposed himself to enemy fire to come to his aid and to move him down the sheer mountainside to the casualty collection point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams helped save the lives of four critically injured American soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis afternoon,\u201d Trump said on at the event on Oct. 30, 2019, \u201cit\u2019s my privilege to present our nation\u2019s highest and most revered military distinction. It\u2019s called the \u2018Congressional Medal of Honor.\u2019 There\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re nitpicking, the award is not actually called that. It\u2019s just called the Medal of Honor, and during his presidency, Trump had the opportunity to award it to nearly a dozen American heroes. Garlin M. Conner, who risked his own safety to direct artillery fire in World War II. Gary M. Rose, who risked his life as a combat medic in Vietnam to provide first aid to wounded soldiers. And Williams and a half-dozen others who served in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n
Ronald J. Shurer, for example, helped stabilize five wounded soldiers in April 2008. He \u201cbegan evacuating them, carrying and lowering the casualties down the mountainside, using his body to shield them from enemy fire and debris,\u201d according to the White House statement. \u201cAfter he loaded the wounded in the evacuation helicopter, he retook control of his commando squad and rejoined the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
A noble act \u2014 one deserving of recognition equivalent to, say, making big contributions to Donald Trump\u2019s political campaigns.<\/p>\n
At an event on Thursday, Trump drew just such a comparison.<\/p>\n
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, he said at an event at his golf club in New Jersey, is \u201cthe highest award you can get as a civilian. It\u2019s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually much better,\u201d Trump continued, \u201cbecause everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal, they\u2019re soldiers. They\u2019re either in very bad shape because they\u2019ve been hit so many times by bullets or they\u2019re dead.\u201d A moment later, he declared that the two awards are \u201crated equal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments came as Trump was recognizing Miriam Adelson, widow of Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. In November 2018, he awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor. The White House announcement about that award noted Adelson\u2019s philanthropy, particularly toward Jewish causes and \u201cresearch to prevent, reduce, or eliminate disabling and life-threatening illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even at the time, though, it was clear that the Adelsons\u2019 generosity to Republican causes and Trump specifically was what placed them on the president\u2019s radar screen. It was later revealed that the Adelsons had contributed half a million dollars to a legal fund set up to aid Trump allies swept up in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election \u2014 a contribution made less than two months before the award ceremony.<\/p>\n
To some extent, Trump\u2019s diminishment of the Medal of Honor \u2014 which, again, he said there was \u201cnothing like\u201d in 2018 \u2014 was a function of his habit of presenting the subject at hand in hyperbolic terms. He was showering Adelson with praise and, as such, hyping the medal that he\u2019d awarded her.<\/p>\n
But it was also reflective of Trump\u2019s long-standing diminishment of military service. Trump avoided the Vietnam draft with a dubious claim about bone spurs. In 1998, he told radio host Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while a bachelor was his Vietnam, for which he deserved the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
On the campaign trail in 2016, he insulted Sen. John S. McCain\u2019s (R-Ariz.) Vietnam service and tenure as a prisoner of war. He insulted the parents of a service member killed in action in Iraq. As president, he reportedly declined to visit a World War II cemetery in France in part because it was filled with \u201closers\u201d who had been killed in action \u2014 similar disparagement as that offered to McCain.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a significant commendation. But it is also worth comparing the achievements of those who received the award under Trump with the soldiers who were given the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
As president, Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to:<\/p>\n
Basketball great Bob Cousy.<\/span> and, of course, Adelson.<\/p>\n That\u2019s more than a dozen figures from the sports world, seven from the world of conservative politics, one general, one Elvis and Penske (who, like Adelson, is a big Republican donor). Only Adelson was described as deserving the award solely because of her philanthropy; no other philanthropist was ever similarly recognized by Trump.<\/p>\n All of them, though, received a recognition that Trump on Thursday equated to the highest honor America can give to soldiers who risk their lives in combat. Mariano Rivera and Matthew Williams, Roger Staubach and Ronald J. Shurer, Miriam Adelson and Travis Atkins: all deserving of the same praise from the nation.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t discuss Atkins above. Here\u2019s why he received the Medal of Honor, according to the White House:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile serving in Iraq with Company D, 2d Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Staff Sergeant Atkins engaged in hand-to hand combat with a suspected insurgent. As he attempted to subdue the man, Staff Sergeant Atkins realized the insurgent was attempting to detonate a bomb strapped to his body. When he noticed the insurgent was about to trigger the suicide vest, Staff Sergeant Atkins tackled him, selflessly using his own body to shield his fellow soldiers from the imminent explosion. Staff Sergeant Atkins\u2019 heroic actions, at the cost of his life, saved the lives of three of his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n Atkins is one of the recipients who, as Trump casually mentioned on Thursday, earned the medal at the cost of his life. The cost to Adelson, it seems, was pecuniary.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The day before Halloween 2019, President Donald Trump welcomed Master Sgt. Matthew Williams to the White House. Williams was being awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan on April 6, 2008. \u201cIn the face of rocket-propelled grenade, sniper, and machine gun fire, Sergeant Williams led an Afghan Commando element across a fast-moving, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWrestler Dan Gable.<\/span>
\nSen. Orrin G. Hatch.<\/span>
\nFootball coach Lou Holtz.<\/span>
\nRep. Jim Jordan.<\/span>
\nGen. Jack Keane.<\/span>
\nEconomist Art Laffer.<\/span>
\nRadio host Rush Limbaugh.<\/span>
\nRonald Reagan adviser Edwin Meese.<\/span>
\nRep. Devin Nunes.<\/span>
\nNFL player and judge Alan Page.<\/span>
\nBusinessman Roger Penske.<\/span>
\nGolfer Gary Player.<\/span>
\nSinger Elvis Presley.<\/span>
\nYankees pitcher Mariano Rivera.<\/span>
\nBaseball great Babe Ruth.<\/span>
\nCongressman and runner Jim Ryun.<\/span>
\nJustice Antonin Scalia.<\/span>
\nGolfer Annika S\u00f6renstam.<\/span>
\nFootball great Roger Staubach.<\/span>
\nBasketball great Jerry West.<\/span>
\nGolfer Tiger Woods.<\/span>
\nOlympian and golfer Babe Didrikson Zaharias.<\/span><\/p>\n