The Veterans of Foreign Wars criticized Donald Trump’s “flippant” comments on Friday after the former president called a civilian award “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.
“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,” said VFW National Commander Al Lipphardt in a statement.
The statement from one of the nation’s largest veteran advocacy organizations comes after Trump compared the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, to the military decoration during a campaign event in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” said Trump as he referred to GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson receiving the civilian award from him in 2018.
He continued, “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. She gets it, and she’s a healthy beautiful woman. And they’re rated equal. But she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Lipphardt said that when a candidate for the military’s commander-in-chief “so brazenly dismisses the valor and reverence symbolized” by the Medal of Honor and its recipients, they must ask whether they can take on the responsibilities with “seriousness and discernment necessary for such a powerful position.”
“It is even more disappointing when these comments come from a man who already served in this noble office and should frankly already know better,” added Lipphardt, a U.S. Army veteran.
Lipphardt, in a statement earlier this month, had praised both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for picking veterans as their running mates.
HuffPost reached out to the Trump campaign, which was not immediately available for comment.
Trump has a history of making controversial comments about soldiers and veterans including notably denying claims that he referred to American service members who died in World War I as “suckers” and “losers.”
He’s also gone after the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on several occasions both before and after his death in 2018.
Trump mocked the late senator earlier this year over injuries he sustained during his time in the military and declared in 2016 that McCain was not “a war hero” before noting that he likes people “who weren’t captured.”
Trump’s running mate and Marine veteran, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), was asked Friday about what he’d tell veterans who think that the former president’s Medal of Honor remarks were “demeaning.”
“I don’t think him complimenting and saying a nice word about a person who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in any way denigrating those who receive military honors,” said Vance, who has attacked Harris’ running mate Tim Walz over the Minnesota governor’s military service.
“They’re two different awards and I think the president was saying some nice things about a person he liked and that’s a totally reasonable thing to do.”