Watch Donald Trump demonstrate inflation with Tic Tacs
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held up two packs of Tic Tacs, suggesting that inflation is leading to smaller packages.
WASHINGTON: Veterans over the weekend criticized former President Donald Trump for saying the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the military Medal of Honor because recipients of the latter were often seriously wounded or dead.
“These moronic comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also starkly portray the sacrifices of those who risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,” said a statement from Al Lipphardt, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Trump made the remarks Thursday at a campaign rally at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he discussed awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Miriam Adelson, a physician, philanthropist and prominent Republican donor.
“It’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, so soldiers – they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit by bullets so many times, or they’re dead,” Trump said.
Adelson is the widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, also a major Republican donor.
Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said the former president was “simply expressing that it can be an emotionally difficult experience to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to veterans who were wounded or tragically killed defending our country, just as he proudly did when he was commander in chief.”
Others pointed out that Trump allegedly referred to veterans as “suckers” and “losers,” which Trump has vehemently denied. During the 2016 campaign, Trump denigrated the imprisonment of 2008 Republican presidential candidate and former Vietnam prisoner of war John McCain.
Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s “repeated pattern of disgraceful insults to wounded soldiers and their families is outrageous and a national disgrace. Someone who repeatedly demeans our troops and mocks wounded soldiers is not fit to be commander in chief.”
A statement from Reed’s office said the Medal of Honor is “awarded to service members who demonstrate ‘outstanding gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty.’ The process often takes years of thorough, in-depth review at the highest levels. There are currently 60 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.”
The Kamala Harris campaign team also criticized Trump’s comments on the Medal of Honor. Spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said Trump “knows nothing about serving anyone or anything but himself.”
Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to Trump, said Trump has done more for veterans than the current administration, and Harris “bragged about being the last person in the room with Biden when they initiated our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
