Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sharply criticized former President Donald Trump’s comparison of the Medal of Honor to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying the two awards are not remotely comparable.
Kelly, a persistent Trump critic since he left the Trump administration in January 2019, raised another objection on CNN after Trump compared the two highest military and civilian awards.
Kelly said the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “awarded for some good deeds or, in rarer cases, for other reasons, but that’s not even close to the case.”
“Think of Normandy, Iwo Jima, Vietnam or Fallujah,” he continued. “The Medal of Honor is not won, it is earned, through incredibly brave acts on the battlefield under fire, typically by very young men who joined when others would not, to defend their country.”
“For the soldier, the oath is sacred, and he takes it with the knowledge that if he follows through on his words, he could be seriously wounded, captured, or killed,” Kelly added. “No president, no congressman, no judge, no political official, and certainly no recipient of the Presidential Medal will ever be asked to give his life or health to protect the Constitution. The two awards cannot be compared in any way – not even close.”
His comments were prompted by recent comments by Trump about awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to major GOP donor Miriam Adelson. After pointing out that the two medals are the highest civilian and military awards, he argued that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better because it does not involve the risk of being killed or wounded.
“Miriam, I saw (Sheldon Adelson) sitting so proudly in the White House when we awarded Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said of Miriam Adelson’s husband. “It’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, just the civilian version. It’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor – these are soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit by bullets so many times, or they’re dead.”
“She understands it and she is a healthy, beautiful woman and they are judged equally,” he added.
Kelly has been a thorn in Trump’s side since leaving office, backing some of the harshest criticisms the former president has faced, including saying Trump had referred to soldiers killed in combat as “suckers” and “losers.”
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Kelly’s claim was refuted by 14 others in attendance, including Kelly’s deputy, Zach Fuentes, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton, a fierce critic of Trump.
“I never heard those comments or anything like them,” Bolton said. “I was there that morning when it was decided that he would not go to the Aisne-Marne cemetery. He decided not to go because John Kelly recommended it. It was a purely weather-related decision and I thought it was the right thing to do.”
