Former President Donald Trump received immediate backlash Thursday when he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, is “equal to” and “better than” the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for bravery in combat.
Speaking from a golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, during an event against antisemitism, Trump praised the late Las Vegas casino owner as “one of the greatest businessmen in the world,” before speaking to Sheldon Adelson’s widow to draw comparisons between the Medalists. Presidential Honors and Medals of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian awards, usually given for significant achievements in the arts, public service and other fields.
“I watched Sheldon sit so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the same as the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the civilian version,” said Trump as he spoke from the podium in front of several American and Israeli flags.
He added, “It’s actually better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re also in really bad shape because they’ve been shot or killed so many times. They’ve got it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and he was rated the same, but he got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Miriam Adelson is a doctor who specializes in drug addiction and is known for her humanitarian work and donations to Jewish organizations. In 2018, Trump awarded he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House ceremony. The Trump administration at the time listed two research centers aimed at preventing substance abuse and the work of the Adelson Medical Research Foundation, which was established to fight life-threatening diseases.
GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was asked about his partner’s comments on Friday.
“These are people who love our veterans and respect our veterans,” Vance replied. “I don’t think that praising and saying nice things about people who receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in any way demeaning to people who receive military awards.”
But many veterans with prominent platforms on social media criticized Thursday’s comments from 2024. Republican presidential candidatelambasting the comments about the medal as “offensive” and “disrespectful.” Trump’s statement about the Medal of Honor and his characterization of service members receiving the award became the most popular topic of discussion on X, a social media platform.
Trump’s comments on Thursday evening recalled criticism of the former president for his disparaging comments about the late Republican Senator John McCain in 2015 when he said McCain “only a war hero because he got caught” during the Vietnam War, adding, “I like people who don’t get caught, OK?” There was also a backlash when he was accused called Americans who died in the war are “lost” and “suffocating” after a trip was canceled to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018. Trump denied he made derogatory comments about fallen US service members.
Many online critics noted the millions of dollars Adelsons have donated to Trump and other GOP candidates and causes, and contrasted with the extraordinary courage of Medal of Honor recipients who received awards for great courage in the face of extreme danger. Often, these service members, some of whom die in the process, ignore their own lives to save others or to deflect heavy bombs and enemy fire.
Adelson donated $20 million to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and $5 million to his inauguration. Another half million was given to a legal fund for Trump aides in 2018, according to Politico. That same year, the pair raised more than $100 million for conservative groups and GOP candidates during the election cycle. In 2020, the couple gave $75 million to Preserve America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC. Adelson’s total contributions to Republicans were more than $218 million between 2019 and 2020, according to Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics.
Contacted by CBS News on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder said it has long been the Defense Department’s policy not to comment on comments from political campaigns, due to the department’s apolitical nature.
“Separately, the Department of Defense is grateful for the service, sacrifice, and bravery of all those who have been awarded the Medal of Honor, which by law is the nation’s highest military award for valor given only to U.S. service members who have clearly distinguished themselves. . gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty,” Ryder said.
Matt Zeller, a former Army captain and CIA officer who served in Afghanistan and has since worked for years to reassure Afghan allies who have served with the US and coalition partners during America’s longest war, disputed the former president’s comments.
“People need to see who Trump is and how he views people who have served in the military. He’s been humiliating us for years,” Zeller told CBS News. “I can only hope this latest insult to military service is what finally makes other veterans see the light – the man is a con.”
The first Medal of Honor was awarded in 1863, according to the US Senate committee print on the medal. It is the nation’s highest military award for combat valor and is awarded by the president in the name of Congress — which is why the prestigious award is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Of the 41 million who have served in the U.S. military, only 3,517 service members have received the Medal of Honor — 19 of whom were awarded the medal twice — according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Conversely, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, created by President Harry S. Truman in 1945, is often awarded to recipients who reflect the president’s “political and personal interests,” according to the Congressional Research Service. In July, between 1963 and 2024, the medal has been awarded 653 times. Past recipients include great figures in the world of art and entertainment, the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team, and two double recipients: the late US Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and Colin Powell, former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who died in 2021.
On the day Miriam Adelson received her medal, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, former NFL football player turned Minnesota Supreme Court justice Alan Page, and Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, also received the honor. The award has also been given posthumously to Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth and conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Medal of Honor recipient and retired Army Captain Florent Groberg said in X that he has “great respect for the Medal of Freedom and what it symbolizes” and that “it is important to recognize the contribution of civilians” but added, “I think it cannot be compared to the Medal of Honor, because they are two very different awards with different criteria and meaning.”
Retired Army Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Ramos echoed Groberg’s assessment and drew a contrast between the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by Trump to Adelson and others and the former president’s Medal of Honor posthumously awarded to Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe before leaving the White House. His widow, Tamara, received the medal from President Biden in 2021.
During a mounted patrol on the night of October 17, 2005 in Iraq’s Salah Ad Din Province, Cashe and his soldiers encountered a difficult situation when their unit came under attack. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle attacked an improvised explosive device, bursting into flames during a barrage of fire from enemy forces.
After escaping the inferno, Cashe dove back into the vehicle to save his friends, first pulling over the driver. While Cashe was putting out the driver’s fire, the veteran soldier’s uniform, drenched in gasoline, burst into flames. Cashe suffered second- and third-degree burns over nearly 72% of his body, according to the US Army.
Despite his painful wounds, Cashe re-entered the vehicle under the threat of enemy fire and bullets, to retrieve six additional soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter from the burning vehicle. When reinforcements arrived, Cashe insisted that his soldiers request medical attention first and refused to be evacuated for medical treatment beforehand. Cashe died on November 8, 2005 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
“Cashe knew the dangers of trying to save his friends and couldn’t be placed in the same category of civilian honors,” Ramos told CBS News. “It dishonors his memory as a hero, but it also dishonors the Medal of Honor of a man who hopes to be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces again.”
James LaPorta
