DONALD TRUMP, THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM AND DAN GABLE

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, established by John F. Kennedy in 1963, is the Nation’s highest civilian honor.

It is awarded by the President of the United States to those who have made exceptional and especially meritorious contributions to “the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

Past recipients have included luminaries from a myriad of backgrounds — public service, civil rights, social justice, medicine, politics, journalism, religion, entertainment, sports and business — people like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Angela Merkel, Rosa Parks, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Steven Spielberg and Muhammad Ali to name a few.

As a unilateral power of the executive branch, presidents have broad discretion to select recipients.

But presidents often use the award for political purposes — to garner positive media attention, shape their legacies or reward their supporters.

Research shows that the politicization of the medal has increased over time.

Before 1981, Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies were sporadic, and recognized only about five recipients at a time.

That changed with President Ronald Regan, a media-savvy former Hollywood actor, who began hosting large ceremonies designed to maximize public attention.

President Obama truly raised the bar.

In 2016, on his way out of the Oval Office, he awarded 20 medals to recipients including athletes like Michael Jordan and entertainers like Bruce Springsteen.

In fact, Obama holds the record for awarding the most medals in total: 123 or about 15 per year on average; Reagan is next with 100.

Democratic presidents are more likely to award the Medal of Freedom to civil rights leaders, labor organizers and people of color.

Republicans lean toward bestowing the medal on military leaders, whites, and conservative editors and pundits.

In other words, presidents play to members of their party’s key constituency groups.

President Trump’s first round of medals was unusual in at least one respect.

He waited 20 months to award them, longer than any other president.

Odd, considering he is one who enjoys commanding the media’s attention and exercising unilateral executive power.

Trump’s first seven selections — Elvis Presley; Alan Page; Antonin Scalia; Miriam Adelson; Orrin Hatch; Babe Ruth; and Roger Staubach — offer an interesting dynamic in and of themselves.

Three athletes and three posthumous awards register well above the mark for past recipients, 5% of whom were athletes and 10% of whom were recognized posthumously.

His selections — not surprisingly — differ dramatically from those of Obama.

Whereas Obama chose the most diverse collection of recipients to date — 36% percent of whom were women and 39% people of color — Trump selected 6 men and 6 whites of seven award recipients.

In fairness, while Trump’s selection of Miriam Adelson was controversial, because the doctor and philanthropist is a GOP mega-donor along with her husband Sheldon — more than US$113 million in the till — he is not the first to reward a prominent political supporter with the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Obama, for one, awarded the medal to Oprah Winfrey who gave him a key endorsement in the 2008 primaries and he has also recognized Democratic activists such as Barbra Streisand and Springsteen.

Fairness aside, what Trump did to Dan Gable was deplorable.

On Monday December 7 in the Oval Office of the White House, The Donald awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Gable, then walked out on the ceremony.

He abruptly left the room.

He vacated the venue, leaving Gable shrugging and at a complete loss as to what he was supposed to do.

A little history first.

To say that Dan Gable was the preeminent freestyle wrestler in this country’s history would not be a reach.

The Waterloo, IA native was undefeated in 64 prep matches and was 117–1 at Iowa State University, the lone defeat coming at the hands of Larry Owings in the 1970 NCAA finals his senior year.

Gable was a two-time NCAA National Wrestling Champion; a three-time All-American; and a three-time Big Eight Champion.

Among his many notable achievements on the mat, consider this one:

Gable won a Gold Medal at the infamous 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, WITHOUT SURRENDERING A SINGLE POINT.

And he may have been a better coach.

As the University of Iowa’s all-time winningest coach from 1976–1997, Gable won 15 NCAA National Wrestling Team Titles while compiling a career record of 355–21–5.

He coached 152 All-Americans; 45 National Champions; 106 Big Ten Champions; and 12 Olympians including four gold, one silver and three bronze medalists.

His Hawkeyes won 25 consecutive Big Ten championships — 21 under Gable as head coach and four while he was an assistant coach and administrator.

His nine consecutive NCAA Championships (1978–1986) at the time, equaled the longest streak of national titles won by any school in any sport, tying Yale golf (1905–1913) and Southern Cal track (1935–1943).

(UCLA basketball under the legendary John Wooden, won seven in a row (1966–1973) and ten in twelve seasons).

He had a career winning percentage of .932.

So when Trump noted that he was bigger than Gable — and hopefully, kiddingly — asked the wrestling god if he thought The Donald could “take him” in a mat rough-and-tumble, the cauliflower-eared Gable looked him straight in the eye and replied succinctly, “Not a chance.”

Apparently, after Gable received his medal, he gave a speech and the assembled press then — rudely and inexplicably given the circumstance — tried to ask Trump questions about attending the inauguration of Joe Biden and other political matters.

Trump wanted nothing to do with it and walked out, awkwardly leaving Gable and his family in the Oval Office.

One of Gable’s grandsons caught a few winks, lying on the floor.

Gable stood there and raised his arms to the side, palms up — twice — in exasperation, baffled and befuddled, as if to ask, “Is that it?”

What Gable actually said in amazement was, “He’s gone.”

Needless to say, Twitter was afire.

And why not?

Who does this?

Who behaves this way?

Someone who lives in an alternate reality.

The man who no longer would be king, that’s who.

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in December 2020.]