https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4831770-trump-medal-of-honor-controversy/Former President Trump has once again found himself at the center of a firestorm over his comments about veterans after he compared a civilian award favorably to the Medal of Honor.
Trump on Thursday spoke at an event at his Bedminster, N.J., property focused on combating antisemitism, which was also attended by GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson. During his remarks, Trump spoke about giving Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2018.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” Trump told attendees.
“It’s actually much better, because everyone who 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. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman,” Trump said with a chuckle, eliciting applause from the crowd. “And they’re rated equal.”
A clip of Trump’s comments quickly ricocheted around social media, with Democrats and Harris quickly seizing on the remarks to attack the former president’s views on veterans and wounded Americans.
“For 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 ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’ 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’s commander in chief again,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who served as a captain in the Navy, posted on social media that Trump “has no idea how to put others before himself.”
