Trump Has No Respect for The American Military

His diminishment of the Medal of Honor says it all

Tom Davis
Civil Politics

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A colorized version of a photo of the Unknown Soldier from World War I as the remains are carried from the USS Olympia on November 9, 1921. To the right of the photo General of the Armies John J. Pershing salutes.
The Unknown Soldier is carried from the USS Olympia on November 9, 1921, photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On November 9, 1921, after an unusually difficult North Atlantic winter crossing, the cruiser USS Olympia docked at the Washington Navy Yard. A large number of dignitaries, led by General of the Armies John J. Pershing, were there to meet the ship. It was bringing home from France an unknown soldier killed in France in World War I.

The unknown was taken to the U.S. Capitol to lie in the building’s rotunda for two days, and then interred in Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921, a date then known as Armistice Day. President Warren G. Harding officiated at the burial, during which he presented the Unknown Soldier the Medal of Honor. On Memorial Day in 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon officiated as unknown servicemen from World War II and Korea were also interred. These servicemen were also awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Unknown Soldier of World War I, the first of the Unknowns, is buried at Arlingotn National Cemetery, November 11, 1921. President Warren Harding stands in the lower portion of the photograph.
The Unknown Soldier is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, November 11, 1921, photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Within the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the most hallowed place. The tomb has been guarded by specially selected soldiers of the Army’s Old Guard around the clock since 1948. Visitors to the cemetery are drawn to it and stand respectfully quiet as the guard is changed during a ceremony every half hour, one that takes military precision to its highest level.

A photo of the Tomb of the Unknowns as it is today, watched over by a soldier of the Army’s “Old Guard.” The Unknowns are guarded by an Old Guard sentry around the clock and every day since April 1948. The sentries stand watch through heat and cold, rain and sunshine, and even through thunderstorms and hurricanes.
The Tomb of the Unknowns as it is today, watched over by the Army’s “Old Guard,” photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The special history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, its central place in the country’s most revered burial ground, and the fact that the Unknowns are Medal of Honor recipients, all combine to make the recent visit by Donald Trump both inappropriate and tasteless.

Trump came to Arlington on August 26th for purely political purposes. Seeking to call attention to the loss of thirteen service members on that date in 2021 during the evacuation from Afghanistan ordered by President Joseph Biden, he also sought to deflect attention from his recent comments diminishing the value of the Medal of Honor and its recipients. Such political activities are prohibited in Arlington, but Trump does not feel that laws, regulations, rules, or social norms apply to him.

Trump began the visit by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, his face covered with an expression of seriousness and artificial respect. He and his political team then compounded the disrespect by going to Section 60 of Arlington where some of those lost during the Afghanistan evacuation are buried. Once there, his team rudely pushed aside an Arlington staff member attempting to enforce cemetery rules — claiming she had a “mental health episode,” while Trump was photographed with family members — smiling broadly and giving his “thumbs up” sign.

None of this was appropriate, an inappropriateness born of Trump’s words a week before diminishing the Medal of Honor by inaccurately comparing it to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Without question, Trump’s presence at Arlington was, for him, merely an effort at political damage control having little to do with any military reverence.

A photo of the Arlington grave of John H. Leims, Medal of Honor recipient. As a Marine Lieutenant, Leims was the platoon leader of my father’s best friend during the battle of Iwo Jima in March 1945. Leims crawled forward of friendly positions several times to rescue wounded Marines while my father’s friend provided covering fire.
The Arlington grave of John H. Leims, Medal of Honor recipient, platoon leader of my father’s best friend who fought on Iwo Jima in March 1945, photo public domain

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award. It is awarded by law to American service members who have distinguished themselves “through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” Of the approximately forty-one million Americans who have served in uniform since the nation’s founding, less than 3,500 have received the Medal of Honor — less than a hundredth of a percent.

The vast majority of Americans understand the singular significance of this award. Most understand that it is not awarded lightly, and that its approval only comes after a lengthy, heavily reviewed examination and investigation of the service member’s actions under extreme circumstances, a review that may take years. About twenty percent of Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously.

The late Paul W. “Buddy” Bucha, Medal of Honor recipient. Bucha was an instructor on the West Point faculty while the author was a cadet. He was an inspirational leader who received the Medal of Honor for heroically saving his beseiged company in Vietnam.
The late Paul W. “Buddy” Bucha, Medal of Honor recipient, West Point faculty member while the author was a cadet, photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Americans understand this. Donald Trump does not.

In his comments at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course on August 15th, Trump compared the Medal of Honor to the Presidential Medal of Freedom by noting: “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, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.” [emphasis added]

As with most Trump statements, there is so much wrong with his words that deciding where to begin is no minor task. So, let’s just start at the top. The Medal of Freedom is in no way the civilian version of the Medal of Honor. And quite clearly not “everyone gets” a Medal of Honor.

A photo of the late Marine Colonel Wesley L. Fox, Medal of Honor recipient. Colonel Fox was a faculty member of the Marine Command and Staff College when the author attended while a young Army Major. Colonel Fox received his Medal of Honor for heroic action in Vietnam.
The late Marine Colonel Wesley L. Fox, Medal of Honor recipient, faculty member of the Marine Command and Staff College when the author was a student, photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Not only does the Medal of Freedom not require risking life and limb, but it is also given at the direction of the President (or the “whim” in Trump’s case) and does not require any vetting or investigation that may take years. Nor does the Medal of Freedom have a long and notable presence in the American psyche and history, having been first established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 — a hundred years after the Medal of Honor.

During his time as president, as he does with most things, Trump cheapened the Medal of Freedom, actually widening the gap between it and the Medal of Honor. He awarded the Medal of Freedom twenty-four times while president, with half going to sports figures such as Tiger Woods, Jerry West, and Mariano Rivera. Trump did make two posthumous awards giving one to Babe Ruth and another to Elvis Presley.

But a significant number of the Trump Medals of Freedom went to his political supporters including racing car owner Roger Penske, inept Republican House members Devon Nunes and Jim Jordan, controversial conservative economist Arthur Laffer, major political donor Miriam Adelson, and Trump-friendly Fox News military analyst Jack Keane.

Perhaps Trump’s most ludicrous Medal of Freedom went to radio host Rush Limbaugh. The Limbaugh award was clearly a bow to Limbaugh’s Trump-supporting radio audience, and instead of presenting the award in the White House Trump had his wife Melania hang the award on Limbaugh during Trump’s nationally broadcast 2020 State of the Union address. It was, after all, an election year.

Trump has a well-established record of contemptuousness toward the military. It began with his dubious deferment during the Vietnam War for the debilitating ailment of bone spurs — which do not seem to hinder his frequent golf outings.

A particularly egregious display of disrespect occurred in 2016 when Trump declared that Senator John McCain was not, in Trump’s eyes, a hero as he had “been captured.” Trump did not seem to understand that McCain was captured after being shot down over Hanoi while piloting a Navy A-4 Skyhawk light attack plane, was severely injured, then held captive and tortured for over five years while Trump enjoyed the New York social swirl.

Trump is credibly reported by his own White House Chief of Staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, for not visiting the American Aisne-Marne Cemetery during his visit to France for the centennial observance of the end of World War I because the weather was bad. Plus, he did not understand why Americans were buried in France, and opined they were all “losers” anyway. Evidently, Trump was puzzled as to why he was in France to begin with, and seemed generally unfamiliar with World War I. He did not even walk with the other attending heads of state up the Champs-Élysées in Paris to the main commemoration. At over a mile, and slightly uphill, he probably lacked the stamina for the walk, and evidently no golf cart was available.

A photo taken by the author of the Aisne-Marne Cemetery near Château-Thierry, France. Aisne-Marne is below the site of the famous World War I Battle of Belleau Wood. Over 2,300 American from WWI are buried here. The grounds are immaculately maintained by French custodians.
The Aisne-Marne Cemetery near Château-Thierry, France, photo from the author’s collection

The issue here, simply put, is that Trump has no concept of service. In his mind, the only service of relevance is service to himself. In Trump’s self-centered thinking, the 2,300 honored American dead at Aisne-Marne were losers because they had served something higher than themselves.

Given his boundless self-image, it follows that Trump would naturally feel that a Medal of Freedom bestowed by him would certainly be superior to any Medal of Honor awarded on behalf of the nation. And if a Medal of Honor recipient is killed or seriously wounded under heroic circumstances while serving something other than themselves, this is behavior well beyond Donald Trump’s intellectual comprehension. Trump’s comprehension is limited to “self,” and does not include the word “selfless” or the concept of “self sacrifice.”

A Trump Medal of Freedom recognizes achievement in something Trump either understands, such as golf (Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Annika Sörenstam, Babe Didrikson Zaharias), time playing for the New York Yankees (Ruth and Rivera), or some significant service to him (Penske, Nunes, Jordan, Laffer, Limbaugh, Adelson, and Keane). Only through such a badly warped perspective could anyone feel the two awards are in any way similar, much less equivalent.

Trump’s award comments are not any new revelation on the contempt with which he views the military and public service, they merely add to what we already knew. As in so many things, Trump is simply clueless. While laying a wreath before the Unknowns on August 26th, one ponders if he even understood who these service members were, or the important symbolism of their final resting place. They gave all they had, their lives as well as their very identities. Trump simply has no comprehension of any such sacrifice.

A photo of the grave of 1LT Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr., Medal of Honor recipient, at the Normandy American Cemetery, above Omaha Beach and near Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The marker shows the special significance given the final resting place of a Medal of Honor recipient.
Grave of 1LT Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr., Medal of Honor recipient, at the Normandy American Cemetery, above Omaha Beach and near Colleville-sur-Mer, France, photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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Tom Davis
Civil Politics

Tom Davis is a 1972 West Point graduate with a Master’s degree from Harvard University. He is author of the Cold War novels “Conclave” and “Empty Quiver”.