After announcing he will be honoring a man who died pulling strangers out of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, President Donald Trump stood before supporters at a Republican rally in suburban New York last week and casually explained why he believes America’s highest civilian distinction is “much better” than the nation’s top military honor.
The audience in the Rockland Community College Fieldhouse in Suffern, New York, on May 22 initially laughed along as Trump compared the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Congressional Medal of Honor.
But the mood shifted when he described Medal of Honor recipients as soldiers who are often “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead,” while recipients of the civilian award, he said, are “healthy, beautiful” people.
The crass remarks immediately reignited criticism over the way Trump talks about wounded veterans, fallen troops, and national service. Critics argued Trump had reduced battlefield sacrifice to an uncomfortable punchline while elevating political donors and celebrity-style honorees as more desirable symbols of achievement.
Trump made the comments while discussing the differences between the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor in combat. The Congressional Medal of Honor is traditionally awarded to service members who risk their lives above and beyond the call of duty, with many recipients suffering catastrophic injuries or receiving the award posthumously.
The President contrasted that with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a civilian award handed out by the White House to people viewed as having made major contributions to American society, culture, politics, philanthropy, or national interests.
Among those Trump previously selected for the Medal of Freedom was Miriam Adelson, whom Trump pointed out in the audience. She is the billionaire Republican megadonor and widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Adelson was one of seven individuals awarded the medal during Trump’s first term, with the White House praising her as a “committed doctor, philanthropist, and humanitarian.”
But the selection generated backlash long before Trump’s latest comments. Critics pointed to the Adelsons’ enormous financial support for Republican causes and Trump himself. The couple donated more than $20 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign and contributed another $5 million toward his inauguration festivities. Sheldon Adelson was also viewed as influential in Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
NBC commentator Robert Schlesinger wrote at the time that the decision “perfectly captures the crassly transactional nature of Donald Trump and his presidency.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the award “an insult to people who received the medal for genuine service.”
The Adelsons were among the Republican Party’s biggest financial backers for years, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to GOP causes between 2012 and 2018. Their foundation also donated more than $110 million toward medical research and charitable efforts during part of that period.
Trump’s comments about military honors surfaced Friday in his recognition of Welles Crowther, the former equities trader who died during the Sept. 11 attacks after helping others escape the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Crowther became known as “the man in the red bandana” because of the bandana he wore while guiding survivors to safety through smoke-filled stairwells.
Trump announced Crowther will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and invited his mother, Alison Crowther, onstage to talk about her son. Crowther is believed to have saved at least 18 lives before he died when the tower collapsed.
At another event tied to Memorial Day commemorations, Michigan state lawmakers recognized retired Army medic James “Doc” McCloughan, a Vietnam War veteran who received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2017 for rescuing fellow soldiers during intense combat in May 1969 despite suffering his own wounds.
After Trump’s latest comparison between the two awards spread online, critics accused him of diminishing military sacrifice.
“A soulless evil husk of a ‘man,’” wrote former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger.
Another user wrote: “He just came right out and said the medal he gave someone for being a major donor is so much better than a medal to a soldier dying valorously in the field. MAGA is a moral, corrupt disease. Don’t EVER tell me they respect our troops and are pro-veteran.”
Another reacted by writing: “The way Trump talks about wounded and fallen soldiers always reveals who he really is. To most Americans, those scars represent sacrifice, courage, and duty. To Trump, they apparently represent bad shape. That says far more about his character than it does theirs.”
A third person posted: “Trump just needs to shut up. Every time he opens his mouth it’s something stupider than the last time he opened his mouth.”
The controversy adds to a long-running pattern of scrutiny over Trump’s comments involving military service members and war dead. Over the years, he has faced backlash for publicly attacking late Sen. John McCain’s military record, criticizing decorated veterans, and making remarks that opponents viewed as dismissive toward soldiers killed or wounded in combat.
