Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News is ignoring Trump denigrating Medal of Honor recipients

Written by Courtney Hagle

Research contributions from Media Matters Staff

Published

Updated

At an August 15 campaign event, former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to a Republican billionaire is “much better” than the Medal of Honor awarded to service members, because those recipients are either injured or dead compared to his “healthy, beautiful” donor. Fox News — which has spent years spinning up ridiculous nonscandals about Democrats supposedly disrespecting service members, while defending or downplaying Trump’s pattern of denigrating veterans — has not mentioned Trump’s comments a single time.

  • Update (8/16/24): As of 5 p.m. ET, Fox still has not mentioned Trump's comments.

    Speaking in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump claimed that the medal he gave Miriam Adelson, a wealthy Republican donor and wife of deceased billionaire Sheldon Adelson, was the “equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.” He then went on to claim that the civilian medal is actually “much better” because those who receive the Medal of Honor are “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.” Trump concluded that Adelson is a “healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal.”

  • From the August 15, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

  • Trump has a sordid record of making offensive comments about those who have served in the military, which Fox has frequently defended — or outright ignored. During his 2016 campaign, Trump infamously drew outrage after attacking a Gold Star family. Trump’s chief of staff during his presidency confirmed reports that Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers” and canceled a visit to honor American war dead in 2018. Fox and conservative media have also targeted Trump’s critics' records of service — Fox followed Trump’s lead in attacking Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s military record after he testified in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, and Fox also supported Trump’s 2015 comments that he likes “people that weren’t captured” while denigrating the late GOP Sen. John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war. (Trump continued to attack McCain following his death.)

    Meanwhile, Fox has a long history of melting down about perceived slights toward the military coming from Democrats. Among many other examples: In 2014, Fox freaked out over former President Barack Obama saluting two Marines while holding a coffee cup as he exited a helicopter. Last year, when President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War veteran and delivered remarks praising the man’s heroism, conservative media twisted Biden’s departure at the end of the ceremony, prior to a closing prayer, as an insult to veterans. Fox News also “slammed” Biden in 2021 for supposedly checking his watch during a ceremony for deceased Marines.

    Since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate earlier this month, Fox News and Republican politicians have been smearing his 24 years of service, pushing false claims of “stolen valor” and falsely arguing that Walz “abandoned” his National Guard unit in order to discredit his time in the military. 

    Methodology

    Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Trump,” or “Former President” within close proximity of any of the terms “Veteran,” “Medal,” “freedom,” “award,” “honor,” or “Military,” from August 15, 2024, when Trump made the comments disparaging Medal of Honor recipients, through August 16, 2024, 1:00 p.m. ET.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Trump's comments on Medal of Honor recipients were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the comments. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the comments with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned Trump's comments without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Trump's comments scheduled to air later in the broadcast.