https://www.rawstory.com/trump-medal-of-honor/Donald Trump sparked an outcry from military veterans and many others by proclaiming that the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom as "better" than the Medal of Honor for military valor.
The Republican presidential nominee praised Miriam Adelson, the widow of the late GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, during a speech Thursday evening at his golf resort, where he recalled awarding her the civilian honor after the couple had poured millions into his first campaign.
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Trump said. "That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor."
The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor bestowed for valor in combat, and it's often mistakenly called, as Trump did, 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," Trump continued. "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, 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 had been feuding with Adelson, who introduced him at this speech, up into this week, when he reportedly ordered one of his aides to bombard the eighth-richest woman in the world with abusive texts accusing her of hiring insufficiently loyal Republicans at the super PAC she funds, but he met privately with her before the event.
The Republican presidential nominee has previously slurred service members killed in combat as "suckers" and "losers," according to reports, and questioned what anyone got out of serving their country in the military, and many observers found his remarks about the Medal of Honor just as offensive.
