On Thursday, Donald Trump stated that the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honor we bestow, is not as prestigious as the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He said that the “Presidential Medal of Freedom is much better” because those who receive the Medal of Honor are often severely injured or deceased. He emphasized that recipients of the Medal of Honor are typically “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead,” contrasting this with recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, whom he described as “healthy, beautiful” people.

To be awarded the Medal of Honor, a recipient must go through the following process:

• Recommendation by chain of command.
• Command review.Chain of command review.
• Service Branch Review
• Department of Defense Review
• Presidential Review.
  • Congressional Notification.

To be awarded the President Medal of Freedom the only requirement is that the President decides to give it to you.

In other words, there is no comparison. The Medal of Honor is awarded to those who have taken an oath to serve this country and were willing to, or did, sacrifice their life for their country. It is not a political award like the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Why would Donald Trump say such a completely senseless thing? The secret, I believe, lies in who he has given it to—one person in particular: Miriam Adelson, the billionaire Republican megadonor, whose political advisors were present at Trump’s press conference. He was reminding them that he had given her the most important honor the country can bestow, and she owed him.

Is it a surprise that, after the press conference, Adelson’s political aide Andy Abboud was overheard telling attendees at a campaign event at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday that whatever the GOP presidential nominee needs from Adelson, he’s going to get, according to Abboud and a person with direct knowledge of the matter?

This is what we have come to expect from Donald Trump—quid pro quo for his friends in the billionaire class, with little regard for what his words mean to those who fought and died for our country. They don’t matter.

Allowing a man as base, shallow, and transactional as him to be Commander-in-Chief would be a disservice to anyone who ever fought for this country.