Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said that a mega donor he rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom got a “better” award than the military’s top honor, the Medal of Honor, because those recipients are often killed or wounded.
The GOP candidate praised the billionaire widow —who along with her late husband has been an ardent supporter of Trump and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018 — at a campaign event intended to fight antisemitism, however, the former president didn’t stick to his teleprompter.
“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said at his New Jersey golf club, speaking of Miriam Adelson’s late husband.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump continued, mistakenly calling the highest military honor bestowed for valor in combat the Congressional Medal of Honor, NBC News reported.
He didn’t stop there, going on to claim that the Presidential Medal of Freedom that he bestowed upon one of his biggest donors is “actually better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers.”
Adding that these individuals who fight for the country are “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.” And, by contrast, Adelson is “healthy and beautiful,” he added.
“It’s almost impossible to believe that Trump as a Presidential candidate could sound this ignorant,” Barry Richard McCaffrey, a retired United States Army general and NBC News commentator wrote on X. “Disordered language. Incoherent thinking. 5th grade stuff.”