Trump Continues Disparaging Our Military Heroes
August 2024 - We don't know what Donald Trump has against members of our military but, even as he campaigns once again for the Presidency, he continues to try and diminish the service our military heroes gave to our country. (See our earlier article "Sorry, Trump Repeatedly Showed No Respect for Our Veterans", which details Mr. Trump's other derogatory comments about our service men and women.)
Earlier this month, in his latest snide comment directed against our military heroes, Mr. Trump declared that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a much better award to receive than our military's Medal of Honor.
First, for some background, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by the President and is considered the highest American civilian award. It was established by war hero and Democratic President John F. Kennedy to honor Americans for their significant contributions to society, people who have "made an especially meritorious contribution" to national security, world peace or "cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Our understanding is that the President may unilaterally bestow this award.
 (image from the Sun)
The Medal of Honor is the highest military medal any soldier, sailor, airman, marine, or coast guardsman can earn and is awarded very infrequently. Recipients must qualify for their award through an outstanding act of battlefield bravery, one that distinguishes themselves "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." A potential recipient's actions must pass through multiple layers of military approval before being sent to the Secretary of Defense and the President for final approval.
Prior to Mr. Trump's comments last week, we do not remember ever having heard anyone claim the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a "better" award to receive than the Medal of Honor. In fact, after bestowing the Medal of Honor to one military hero, WWI Army Captain and Democratic President Harry Truman said he would rather have the Medal of Honor hanging around his neck than to be President. Truman continued, "It is the greatest honor that can come to a man. It is an honor that all of us strive for, but very few of us ever achieve."
 (image from military.com)
Mr. Trump's recent comments were made when discussing the fact that he had awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson in 2018. Mrs. Adelson and her late husband were large campaign contributors to Mr. Trump. His comments included the following statements:
"It {the Presidential Medal of Freedom} is actually much better, because everyone 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 (the Presidential Medal of Freedom), and she's a healthy, beautiful woman."
Reaction to Mr. Trump's comments was swift and not favorable. We'll limit examples of these comments to those of Al Lipphardt, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), an organization that supports a strong U.S. military and typically has leaned toward the Republican Party in electoral politics. In a statement released by the VFW, Mr. Lipphardt said of Mr. Trump's comments:
"These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation's highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,"
Mr. Lipphardt's statement went on to question whether someone seeking the position of the nation's commander in chief "would discharge their responsibilities to our men and women in uniform with the seriousness and discernment necessary for such a powerful position."
With the notable exception of Mr. Trump's Vice Presidential running mate JD Vance, every comment we read from veterans of both major political parties disagreed with Mr. Trump's comments and most were in a similar vein to those of Mr. Lipphardt's.
We hope you keep these comments in mind as you prepare to vote this fall for our next commander in chief.
(Don't miss our original article dealing with Mr. Trump's disparagement of America's military service men and women, "Sorry, Trump Repeatedly Showed No Respect for Our Veterans", where we reported on various stories which stated how Mr. Trump referred to our military personnel as "suckers" and "losers", how he refused to join others at an overseas ceremony honoring our war dead, his disdain for Gold Star mothers and/or wives, and how he argued that dating in America during the 1980's was the equivalent of a soldier going to Vietnam.)
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