Donald Trump’s lengthy record of disparaging military service took a turn for the worse last week when the former president said the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the Medal of Honor because those who receive the nation’s highest military honor are often wounded or dead. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, among others, condemned the rhetoric as “asinine.”
In an interview with an NBC affiliate in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, which aired on Sunday night, the Republican tried to clarify his position, though he effectively just reiterated the comments that sparked the original controversy.
Trump’s former White House chief of staff saw his former boss’ comments and apparently felt compelled to condemn what he heard. CNN reported:
Former Trump chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly rejected former President Donald Trump’s comments that the Presidential Medal of Freedom that honors civilians was “much better” than the Medal of Honor given to service members, telling CNN that the two honors are “Not even close. No equivalency of any kind.” The Presidential Medal of Freedom is “given for some good works done or in fewer cases for other considerations, but they’re not even close,” Kelly said.
“Think of Normandy, Iwo Jima, Vietnam or Fallujah,” Kelly told CNN. “The Medal of Honor is earned, not won, by incredibly brave actions on the battlefield under fire typically by very young men who joined when others did not to defend their country. Their oath to the nation is essentially the oath the president and members of Congress take, that federal judges take, that political appointees also take and includes ‘…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties…’
“To the service member, the oath is sacred and taken with the understanding that one could be seriously wounded, captured or killed in living up to the words. No president, member of Congress, judge or political appointee — and certainly no recipient of the Presidential Medal — will ever be asked to give life or limb to protect the Constitution. The two awards cannot be compared in any way. Not even close.”
In terms of accuracy and propriety, there can be no doubt that the retired four-star Marine general has the facts on his side. But stepping back, it’s also worth emphasizing the fact that it’s remarkable to see the former president and his former White House chief of staff repeatedly clashing as the election season progresses.
As recently as late June, Trump, unprompted, lashed out at Kelly as “dumb” and a “lost soul.” Months earlier, by way of his social media platform, the former president said his former chief of staff was “by far the dumbest of my Military people.” He added, in reference to Kelly, “He was incapable of doing a good job, it was too much for him, and I couldn’t stand the guy, so I fired him like a ‘dog.’ He had no heart or respect for people, so I hit him hard.”
In a follow-up missive, Trump went on to say that Kelly is “a Lowlife with a very small brain and a very big mouth.”
There was no great mystery as to the motivation for the offensive. After all, Kelly is the one who confirmed on the record that Trump really did denigrate American servicemembers as “suckers and losers.”
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly told CNN in October 2023. Referring to his former boss, Kelly added, “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family — for all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason — in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.” Kelly has also accused Trump of, among other things, “poisoning” people’s minds, having “serious character issues,” and not being “a real man.” What’s more, Kelly told The New York Times in 2022 that Trump, during his presidency, told his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political foes. The Times’ report went on to note, “Mr. Kelly said he made clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted.” The then-president “regularly” made the demands anyway. The fact that the Republican nominee is publicly feuding with his own former DHS secretary and chief of staff should probably be a bigger deal in the 2024 campaign. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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