Politico reports:

Donald Trump was privately stewing over Brian Kemp earlier this year — long before he unloaded on him at a rally in Atlanta this month — offended by the Georgia governor’s absence from campaign events and fundraisers and other perceived slights.

“What’s the deal with Brian Kemp?” Trump asked companions on a flight back to Florida from a fundraiser held in the swing state in April, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion granted anonymity to describe a private matter. After all, Trump said, he’d “helped him get elected” in a competitive 2018 primary.

Kemp had skipped the fundraiser and a Georgia rally weeks earlier. And just days before, Kemp’s wife, Marty, had told a local television reporter — in a clip that no longer appears on the news station’s website — that she planned to write in her husband’s name for president, rather than vote for Trump.

Trump asked an aide on the plane to print off a copy of the news report. He called the Georgia first lady’s comments “terrible,” and asked others on the flight, including Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, how he should respond.

Trump’s allies, worried that feuding with the popular swing state governor could hurt Trump’s prospects in the state, encouraged him not to give the comment oxygen. Republicans in Georgia at the time were scrambling to further ease tensions between Trump and Kemp ahead of the November election, including at the April fundraiser luncheon in Buckhead that Trump had just attended.

At that event, Bill White, a Trump donor and longtime friend of the former president, had gone around the room asking high-profile Georgia GOP donors and officials if anyone could “go make the peace with Brian Kemp,” according to a person in the room. Among those in attendance were former Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher; Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his father, Bill, former Sen. David Perdue; former Trump aide Nick Ayers; and others.

Publicly, Trump was not saying much about Kemp at the time, though no real progress had been made behind the scenes in reuniting the two men. But by the time the August rally arrived, Trump did exactly what Republicans in both camps had feared: He let loose. [Continue reading…]

Rolling Stone reports:

Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the country’s largest veterans advocacy group, condemned Donald Trump in a new statement after comments the former president made earlier this week comparing the Congressional Medal of Honor to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

At an event meant to center on fighting antisemitism Thursday at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, Trump talked about awarding a civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018 to megadonor Miriam Adelson, noting how its equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor — the highest military honor given for valor in combat — but even better, because that’s given to soldiers “in very bad shape … or they’re dead.”

“I watched Sheldon [Adelson] sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.”

“But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead,” Trump added. “She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she got it for — and that’s through committees and everything else.”

The VFW, unsurprisingly, took umbrage Trump’s remarks, with the organization’s National Commander Al Lipphardt saying in a statement (via The Hill), “These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterized the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.” [Continue reading…]