The Congressional Medal of Honor is the country’s "most prestigious military decoration" and is awarded to recognize American armed forces personnel
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Donald-Trump-021926-3f876335ebd047ee9a4c5590a00831f0.jpg "US President Donald Trump gives a speech about the economy at the Coosa Steel Corporation factory in Rome, Georgia, on February 19, 2026.")
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NEED TO KNOW
- President Donald Trump said on Thursday, Feb. 19, that he wanted to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor due to his 2018 visit to Iraq
- In December 2018, Trump made a surprise visit to U.S. troops at Al Asad Air Force Base in Iraq’s Anbar province
- “I was extremely brave,” Trump said of his visit
President Donald Trump wanted to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor, he revealed.
The president, 79, appeared in Rome, Ga., on Thursday, Feb. 19, where he recalled his December 2018 surprise visit to U.S. troops at Al Asad Air Force Base in Iraq's Anbar province.
“I decided to go to Iraq. I was extremely brave. So brave in fact that I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump told the Georgia crowd, per footage published by ABC News 4. “I said to my people, ‘Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor?’”
He acknowledged that the honor has been given to “so many guys that are seriously brave.”
“I mean, they come in and their arms are missing, their legs are missing. Their stories are so unbelievable. And I said that’s a little stretch if I gave myself one,” he said.
Megan Varner/Bloomberg via Getty
“It's one of those things, someday I'm going to try. I'm going to test the law.”
“Maybe I'll win in court, after everyone sues me after the radical left lunatic sues me,” he continued, adding, “You know, I'm having fun.”
He went on to claim that “fake news will say ‘Donald Trump wants to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he was rebuffed by the audience who stood up and booed the hell out of him,' ” he said.
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The Congressional Gold Medal was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. It is the highest military award in the United States, alongside the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The honor is "the nation’s most prestigious military decoration that may be awarded to recognize American armed forces personnel – U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and U.S. Coast Guard – who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor in combat," according to the Congressional Gold Medal Society.
It is an extremely rare honor, with only 3,528 of the 40 million Americans who have served receiving the honor. It has historically been given posthumously, and a majority of recipients fought in the Civil War. Currently, there are only 61 living recipients.
While Trump quipped about bestowing the honor on himself, he recently boasted about deserving the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for solving "seven unendable wars"
The 2025 Peace Prize laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, received the Nobel Peace Prize in October. In January, she gave her medal away to Trump. However, days later, the Norwegian Nobel Committee indirectly addressed Machado's decision.
"Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize," the news release read. "Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."