Republican vice presidential candidate and Senator JD Vance on Friday defended former President Donald Trump’s praise for one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors, in which he also downplayed the importance of the Medal of Honor.
“I don’t think he’s in any way disparaging the person who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by complimenting her and saying a nice word about her,” Vance, an Ohio Republican, told reporters during a campaign appearance in Milwaukee. “They’re two different awards. And remember, the president said some nice things about a person he liked, and that’s perfectly reasonable.”
Vance stressed he had not seen Trump’s comments in full, but added that the former president “loves our veterans.”
Trump praised Miriam Adelson, a major Republican donor and wife of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, while exaggerating the importance of one of the nation’s highest civilian awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, over the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.
“I have to say, Miriam, I saw Sheldon sitting so proudly in the White House when we awarded Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest award you can get as a civilian,” Trump said Thursday night during a pro-Israel event attended by Miriam Adelson. “It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the civilian version — it’s actually much better, because everybody gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers, even if they’re in very bad shape because they’ve been hit by bullets so many times or they’re dead.”
Adelson, Trump added, was not hurt when she received the award in 2018.
“She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman,” Trump said to applause. “They are equal.”
Trump likely wanted to curry favor with Adelson after he reportedly berated her in private conversations. According to the New York Times, Trump’s adviser sent a series of “angry text messages” last month about the advisers Adelson had chosen to run a pro-Trump super PAC.
Democrats pointed to Trump’s longstanding criticism of veterans.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team and Democratic veterans sharply criticized Trump, pointing to his longstanding criticism of military personnel. Most notable was his claim that Vietnam veteran Senator John McCain was not a war hero “because he was captured.”
“Every Republican on the ballot must immediately and unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting comments toward Medal of Honor recipients,” VoteVets, an organization that supports Democratic veterans for public office, said in a statement. “If you don’t, you show that you share his absolute contempt for our military and our veterans.”
Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Harris’ campaign, said Trump “knows nothing about serving anyone or anything but himself.”
“His insulting of Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked families of Gold Star recipients, mocked prisoners of war, and called those who lost their lives in service to our country ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’ should remind all Americans that we owe it to our soldiers, our country, and our future to ensure that Donald Trump never again becomes our nation’s commander in chief,” Chitika said in a statement.
Trump and his campaign team have repeatedly denied a 2020 Atlantic article based on anonymous sources, which claimed that the then-president refused to visit a cemetery near Paris where Americans killed in World War I are buried because it was full of “losers.”
The report goes on to say that during the trip, Trump referred to U.S. Marines killed in combat as “suckers” for dying. Since the report was released, some White House officials, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a veteran, have publicly confirmed The Atlantic’s reporting.
In November, for the first time in years, two veterans will be on the presidential ballots of both major parties: Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who served in the Army National Guard. Vance has attacked Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, for making false statements about his service history.
What is actually the difference between the two awards?
President Kennedy first established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Since then, it has been awarded to actors, activists, athletes, artists, and other celebrities. Its true equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress. The Gold Medal actually predates the Medal of Honor, dating back to the American Revolution, when the Continental Congress awarded the first award to General George Washington. Congress initially awarded it to veterans, but later expanded its scope.
The Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1894. A soldier does not have to be killed or wounded in combat to receive this highest military award. In total, there are fewer than 4,000 recipients of the Medal of Honor. According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, only 60 of them are still alive.
