Former US President, Donald Trump has made a controversial statement stating that the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honours civilians, “is actually much better” than the Medal of Honor given to soldiers because service members who receive the nation’s highest military decoration are often wounded or giving the award posthumously.
Trump was praising Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom while in office as president, during remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“Miriam, I watched (Sheldon Adelson, her late husband) sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s 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,” Trump said.
“She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal,” Trump said.