WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday recognized a major Republican Party donor and six other “extraordinary Americans” with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the nation reserves for a civilian.
Individuals who make “outstanding contributions to American life and culture” have received the medal, Trump said, adding that it was his “true privilege” to present it to six men and one woman representing the fields of entertainment, sports, law, medicine, politics and philanthropy.
Miriam Adelson is a doctor, philanthropist and wife of Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate considered one of the nation’s most powerful Republican donors. The Adelsons donated $30 million to Trump’s campaign in the final months of the 2016 race. They followed up by donating $100 million to the Republican Party for last week’s midterm elections.
Trump says Miriam Adelson is “somebody who’s worked so hard. Doesn’t have to do it, but she does, 24 hours a day, this is what she does.”
Miriam Adelson is an Israeli-born, naturalized U.S. citizen who earned a medical degree from Tel Aviv University and founded drug abuse treatment and research centers in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv. She and her husband own the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Israel Hayom newspapers.
The Adelsons are also avid supporters of Israel. Trump noted how “very happy” they were that he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump also honored Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. One of the longest-serving Republican senators in U.S. history, Hatch is retiring in January after more than 40 years. Trump called Hatch a “great friend of mine” who “liked me right from the beginning, and therefore I like him.”
Retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice Alan Page, who played with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears before transitioning to a career in law, and Roger Staubach, the Hall of Fame quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, were also honored.
Posthumous honors were given to Elvis Presley, baseball’s Babe Ruth and Antonin Scalia, the conservative Supreme Court justice. Six of the nine justices currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, including newest member Brett Kavanaugh, attended the White House ceremony.
Trump said Ruth and Presley are “true legends” whose legacies will live on forever.
Some questioned Trump’s decision to recognize Miriam Adelson so soon after the Nov. 6 election.
Robert Weissman, president of the public interest group Public Citizen, said the decision was “emblematic of the corrupt and transactional presidency of Donald Trump.”
But Elliott Abrams, who held foreign policy positions under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, called the complaints “ridiculous.”
