Former president Donald Trump has sparked a sharp backlash among veterans and Democrats by saying that an award recognizing civilian contributions to society is \u201cmuch better\u201d than one bestowed on members of the military because many of those who receive that award are wounded or killed in combat.<\/p>\n
Trump made the remark during a pro-Israel event in New Jersey where he was introduced by Miriam Adelson, a top Republican donor whom Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom when he was president in 2018. Trump said it was the \u201cequivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor but civilian version.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Medal of Honor is reserved for only the most outstanding acts of valor on a battlefield by military members. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is considered the highest U.S. civilian award, has historically gone to people for their significant contributions to society, with no specific criteria required.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor,\u2019 Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019re soldiers. They\u2019re either in very bad shape because they\u2019ve been hit so many times by bullets or they\u2019re dead. [Adelson] gets it, and she\u2019s a healthy beautiful woman. They\u2019re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom and she got it through committees and everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
VoteVets, a group that supports Democratic veterans running for office, said Trump\u2019s remark Thursday was not a \u201cone-off insult of our Troops and our Veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t just that Donald Trump doesn\u2019t respect Veterans and their sacrifice,\u201d the group said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s that Donald Trump hates Veterans and their sacrifice, because he looks so small in comparison to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has previously made comments denigrating military members. His former chief of chief, John Kelly, confirmed last year that Trump privately disparaged dead service members as \u201csuckers\u201d and \u201closers\u201d when Kelly worked for Trump. Trump has denied the account, which was first written about in a 2020 Atlantic story.<\/p>\n
Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s campaign denounced Trump\u2019s latest comment, saying in a statement Friday that he \u201cknows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to insult Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked Gold Star families, mocked prisoners of war, and referred to those who lost their lives in service to our country as \u2018suckers\u2019 and \u2018losers,\u2019 should remind all Americans that we owe it to our service members, our country, and our future to make sure Donald Trump is never our nation\u2019s commander in chief again,\u201d Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Democratic criticism of his comment.<\/p>\n
Trump has long stirred outrage with comments denigrating military service. Early in his first presidential campaign, in 2015, Trump said the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was not a war hero \u201cbecause he was captured.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like people who weren\u2019t captured,\u2019 Trump said.<\/p>\n
The latest Trump comment also comes as his campaign criticizes how Harris\u2019s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), has characterized his own military service over the years. Trump\u2019s running mate \u2014 JD Vance, an Ohio senator and Marine veteran \u2014 campaigned Thursday in Pennsylvania with fellow veterans in Congress who took issue with how Walz has described his service.<\/p>\n
Walz served for more than two decades in the Army National Guard but did not serve in combat, according to the Minnesota Army National Guard. Republicans have called out comments he made in 2018 suggesting he served in war; a campaign spokesperson has acknowledged he \u201cmisspoke.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Harris\u2019s campaign on Thursday appeared to reject Vance\u2019s proposal for a second debate with Walz, Vance responded with a dig at Walz\u2019s service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalz refuses to deploy!\u201d Vance said on X.<\/p>\n
The Presidential Medal of Freedom has long gone to prominent cultural figures and political allies of the president. Trump awarded it to icons that included NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West and musician Elvis Presley, but also several political allies, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio) and then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif.), who is now chief executive officer of the Trump Media and Technology Group.<\/p>\n
During his 2020 State of the Union address, Trump announced he was giving the award to Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio commentator who attended the speech after a diagnosis with lung cancer. Limbaugh died in 2021.<\/p>\n
Modern standards, adopted in 1963 during the Vietnam War, require that Medal of Honor recipients distinguish themselves \u201cconspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty,\u201d with actions that often inspire awe in those who witness them.<\/p>\n
The Medal of Honor is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the \u201cCongressional Medal of Honor,\u201d as Trump did Thursday.<\/p>\n
Many acts of valor, including those earned under enemy gunfire, do not qualify, and can instead receive other awards that are considered a step or two lower but still prestigious. Among those are the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star with V device, denoting valor. Service members and veterans have voiced frustration on numerous occasions that military officials have determined that acts of valor that they witnessed did not meet the criteria for the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
By law, a nomination for a Medal of Honor must be submitted within three years of an act of valor, and the approval process must be complete within five years. But that requirement can be waived with congressional approval, typically when new information emerges.<\/p>\n
Each Medal of Honor case requires evidence, typically witness statements and corroborating information such as video, recorded radio transmissions, maps and even autopsy results. Nominations are typically submitted by a commanding officer and must work their way through a multi-tier approval process through a U.S. troop\u2019s branch of service, to a service secretary, the defense secretary, and ultimately the president.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Former president Donald Trump has sparked a sharp backlash among veterans and Democrats by saying that an award recognizing civilian contributions to society is \u201cmuch better\u201d than one bestowed on members of the military because many of those who receive that award are wounded or killed in combat. Trump made the remark during a pro-Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8018","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\/8018","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=8018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}