Donald Trump shakes hands with D-Day veterans (U.S. DOD)
One of America's largest veterans-advocacy groups has called Donald Trump's comments "asinine" after the Republican presidential candidate compared various medals and concluded that the best ones are those that go to civilians because those recipients tend not to be injured, disabled, or dead. A reasonable person might conclude this is a controversy that easily could have been avoided. After all, is there any need to compare such medals? Is there any reason to declare that one is better than the others? Isn't it an issue that is sure to launch discord and would best be left untouched? But this is Donald Trump we are talking about here, so he avoided any sign of rational thought, dove headlong into a non-issue, and left a smoldering pile of discord in his wake.
How did such an unnecessary blowup come to pass? Reporter Eden Teshome, of The Hill, provides insight under the headline "Veterans of Foreign Wars blasts Trump’s statement as ‘asinine’ Teshome writes:
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), one of the nation’s largest and oldest veteran advocacy organizations, on Friday condemned former President Trump’s recent statement comparing the Medal of Honor to a presidential award for civilians, calling his remarks “asinine.”
“These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterized the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,” wrote VFW National Commander Al Lipphardt in a Friday statement.
The VFW’s reaction comes after Trump equated the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to civilians, to the Medal of Honor, which is awarded to soldiers wounded in the line of combat.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” Trump told attendees at an event at his Bedminster, N.J., club, attended by GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson, who was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 2018.
“It’s actually much better, because everyone who 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, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman,” Trump said in reference to Adelson. “And they’re rated equal.”
The moment sparked an onslaught of condemnations from veterans-rights advocates and allies.
The words above were not coming from just any politician -- they came from a man who, as of January 2025, hopes to be commander in chief -- even though he has a long history of insulting officers, rank-and-file troops, prisoners of war, the military dead, just about anyone who ever has worn the uniform. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Trump even has suggested a high-ranking official should be executed for displeasing him as president.
Trump seems to have a knack for showing disrespect toward military personnel. Teshome writes:
This is not the first time the former president has attracted attention for disparaging comments about wounded veterans. In 2020, the VFW demanded an apology from the president after Trump downplayed the injuries to 34 service members who suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of retaliatory Iranian airstrikes by saying that they had “headaches.”
“[Traumatic brain injury] is a serious injury and one that cannot be taken lightly,” the organization wrote at the time. “The VFW expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks.”
The Trump camp has not backed away from the former president’s most recent comments.
In an interview on NewsNation with Leland Vittert, Trump campaign senior adviser Corey Lewandowski defended Trump’s remarks as Vittert asked whether he was doubling down on them.
“Because there are some people who don’t serve in our military but should still be recognized with the highest honor our country has to offer them,” Lewandowski told NewsNation on Friday evening in response to questions from Vittert about Trump’s remarks.
The clip was reposted by Kamala HQ, the Harris campaign’s rapid response team. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill.
The controversy comes as Republicans attempt to attack the service record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Harris’s running mate, alleging that discrepancies in his public comments amount to stolen valor. Walz served as an enlisted member of the Army National Guard. Republican Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, is also a veteran, having served in the Marines during the Iraq War.
Following Harris’s VP announcement, Lipphardt lauded both campaigns for selecting veterans. Ahead of the election, however, VFW’s confidence in the Republican campaign appears to have soured.
“When a candidate to serve as commander-in-chief so brazenly dismisses the valor and reverence symbolized by the Medal of Honor, I question whether they would discharge their responsibilities with the seriousness and discernment necessary,” Lipphardt concluded in his statement.
“It is even more disappointing when these comments come from a man who has served in this noble office and frankly should already know better.”
For several months, I've been wondering how any American with functioning brain cells could support Trump. Following Trump's most recent insults toward military personnel, I don't see how a single American could vote for the guy. His disrespect toward the military, in my view, make him unfit to serve as president. How bad have Trump's words and actions been? He reportedly called American dead, buried at a cemetery in France, "suckers" and "losers."
I've never served in the military, but I find such language highly offensive. Like many other American families, the Shulers have skin in this "game. As I reported in June, my father, William J. Shuler, was in a squadron that arrived for a recovery mission at Normandy three days after the D-Day Invasion.
Another relative, a man named Elijah Stamps from my mother's side of the family in Arkansas, fought in Southwest Missouri for the Confederate Army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, which was the first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War.
Elijah Stamps, while on the battlefield, wrote a letter to his wife, Elvira. Based on my knowledge of our family history, which can be sketchy in places, Elijah Stamps survived the battle, and his letter somehow wound up with my mother, who treasured it for decades and ultimately made sure it became part of the battlefield's museum collection.
As for the 2024 election, I don't see how any American could cast a vote for someone as despicable as Donald Trump. That decision, of course, rests with the would-be voter, not me.
But in my view, you cannot be a Donald Trump supporter and a patriotic American. He has stated many times that, if elected, he intends to act outside our constitution and usher in an authoritarian regime that might end American democracy forever. (See here and here.) Vote for Donald Trump, if you must, but don't try to con the rest of us into believing you are a patriot. Your vote will mark you as not even close to being a patriot.
For those who are interested in digging deeper into issues raised in this post, I highly recommend an article by Robert Kagan, in The Washington Post under the headline "We have a radical democracy. Will Trump voters destroy it?" (April 24, 2024). Trump and his supporters certainly would be wise to read Kagan's piece. They might discover that achieving his stated, undemocratic, goals, will be far more difficult than they might have imagined.
If you care at all about your country, I have a suggestion. Save ll of us a lot of time and trouble and cast your vote for someone who actually is fit to serve as president . . . someone like Kamala Harris.
