Trump honors Purple Heart recipients, including 3 who sent him medals after attempt on his life

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump recognized nearly 100 recipients of the Purple Heart at the White House on Thursday, including three service members who gave him their own medals after an attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.

Trump opened the event marking National Purple Heart Day by noting that dozens of the award's recipients were at the ceremony in the East Room. The Republican president offered “everlasting thanks to you and your unbelievable families.”

But he had special words for the trio of veterans who sent Trump their medals after the 2024 shooting in Butler. Trump said the trio, “showed me the same unbelievable gesture of kindness.”

“What a great honor to get those Purple Hearts. I guess, in a certain way, it wasn't that easy for me either, when you think of it,” Trump said of the attempt on his life. “But you went through a lot more than I did, and I appreciate it very much.”

After a shooter's bullet pierced the upper part of Trump's right ear in Butler just days before the 2024 Republican National Convention, the then-Republican presidential candidate was gifted medals from some Purple Heart recipients. The medals were presented to him at campaign events during the race's closing months.

According to the White House, some of those Purple Heart recipients were brought to Trump's campaign stops so that he could return their medals to them.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also attended, along with Chris LaCivita, Trump’s former campaign co-manager and a Marine veteran who is also a Purple Heart recipient.

National Purple Heart Day is marked annually on Aug. 7.

The Purple Heart, the oldest military award still in use and is awarded to service members who are killed or wounded while engaging in enemy action or resulting from acts of terrorism. According to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, more than 1.8 million medals have been presented since the award's inception in 1782.

Trump also highlighted the stories of valor of other Purple Heart recipients, including Army Spc. Kevin Jensen whose Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2008. Jensen pulled fellow Purple Heart recipient, Capt. Sam Brown, from the flames.

“He flew 10 feet up in the air, exploded in flames. The whole place was in flames, including, unfortunately, Kevin," Trump said of Jansen. “He suffered deep, third-degree burns all over his body. He was in trouble, big trouble. Despite the agony, he selflessly ran to the aid of his platoon leader.”

Trump also used the ceremony to gloat about having authorized a 2020 U.S. drone strike, during his first term, that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Trump derided Soleimani on Thursday as “father of the roadside bomb.”

“Where is he? Where is he?” Trump scoffed to attendee laughter. “Where is Soleimani?”

Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed reporting.

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Purple Heart medal given to him by a supporter during a campaign rally, Aug. 2, 2016, in Ashburn, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Purple Heart medal given to him by a supporter during a campaign rally, Aug. 2, 2016, in Ashburn, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, watches as President Donald Trump departs an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump, left, takes a selfie with an attendee as he departs an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump departs an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump greets attendees as he departs an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Purple Heart medal given to him by a supporter during a campaign rally, Aug. 2, 2016, in Ashburn, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Purple Heart medal given to him by a supporter during a campaign rally, Aug. 2, 2016, in Ashburn, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The European Union’s top official on Tuesday called into question U.S. President Donald Trump’s trustworthiness, saying that he had agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on members of the bloc.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Trump’s planned new tariffs over Greenland "a mistake especially between long-standing allies.”

She was responding to Trump's announcement that starting February, a 10% import tax will be imposed goods from eight European nations that have rallied around Denmark in the wake of his stepped up calls for the United States to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.

“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July," Von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “And in politics as in business – a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”

"We consider the people of the United States not just our allies, but our friends. And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape,” she added.

She vowed that the EU’s response “will be unflinching, united and proportional.”

Trump has insisted the U.S. needs the territory for security reasons against possible threats from China and Russia.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said America’s relations with Europe remain strong and urged trading partners to “take a deep breath” and let tensions driven the new tariff threats over Greenland “play out.”

“I think our relations have never been closer,” he said.

The American leader’s threats have sparked outrage and a flurry of diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the first-ever use of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument.

The EU has three major economic tools it could use to pressure Washington: new tariffs, suspension of the U.S.-EU trade deal, and the “trade bazooka” — the unofficial term for the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, which could sanction individuals or institutions found to be putting undue pressure on the EU.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He said "I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland,” which is hosting the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting this week.

Trump also posted a text message from Emmanuel Macron in which the French president suggested a meeting of members of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies in Paris after the Davos gathering.

Later, however, Trump posted some provocatively doctored images. One showed him planting the U.S. flag next to a sign reading “Greenland, U.S. Territory, Est. 2026.” The other showed Trump in the Oval Office next to a map that showed Greenland and Canada covered with the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

In a sign of how tensions have increased in recent days, thousands of Greenlanders marched over the weekend in protest of any effort to take over their island. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Monday that the tariff threats would not change their stance.

“We will not be pressured,” he wrote.

In his latest threat of tariffs, Trump indicated that the import taxes would be retaliation for last week’s deployment of symbolic numbers of troops from the European countries to Greenland — though he also suggested that he was using the tariffs as leverage to negotiate with Denmark.

Denmark's minister for European affairs called Trump's tariff threats “deeply unfair." He said that Europe needs to become even stronger and more independent, while stressing there is "no interest in escalating a trade war."

"You just have to note that we are on the edge of a new world order, where having power has unfortunately become crucial, and we see a United States with an enormous condescending rhetoric towards Europe,” Marie Bjerre told Danish public broadcaster DK on Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of Davos, California Gov. Gavin Newsom slammed Europe’s response to Trump's tariff threats as “pathetic” and “embarrassing,” and urged European leaders to unite and stand up to the United States.

“It is time to get serious, and stop being complicit,” Newsom told reporters. “It’s time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone.”

European markets opened sharply lower on Tuesday and U.S. futures fell further as tensions rose over Greenland. Benchmarks in Germany, France and Britain fell about 1%. The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.5% and the Dow future was down 1.4%.

With U.S. trading closed Monday for a holiday, financial markets had a relatively muted response to Trump’s threat to put a 10% extra tariff on exports from eight European countries that have opposed his push to exert control over Greenland. Jonas Golterman of Capital Economics described the situation as a lose-lose one for both the U.S. and the targets of Trump’s anger. He said, “It certainly fells like the kind of situation that could get worse before it gets better.”

In another sign of tension between allies, the British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after Trump attacked the plan, which his administration previously supported.

Trump said that relinquishing the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base, was an act of stupidity that shows why he needs to take over Greenland.

The United Kingdom signed a deal in May to give Mauritius sovereignty over the islands, though the U.K. will lease back the island of Diego Garcia, where the U.S. base is located, for at least 99 years.

AP writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Jill Lawless in London and Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Riot police clash with protesters after a rally against the World Economic Forum in Davos and the visit of US President Donald Trump, on Monday, in Zurich, Switzerland, Jan. 19, 2026. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP)

A fisherman navigates past ice in the sea off the coast of Nuuk, Greenland, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, greets Minister for Foreign Affairs and Research of Greenland Vivian Motzfeldt, right, and Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, left, prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

People protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury, holds a speech at the USA House during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)