The Pentagon announced that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recognized 50 U.S. service members on Tuesday with the Mexican Border Defense Medal, an award the department reestablished in August 2025.
Hegseth said the medal highlights the department’s partnerships with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security. He told the service members: “You have been dynamic, you have been creative, you have been aggressive, you have used the authorities you’ve been given [and] you work with your law enforcement partners.”
I need you to understand how patently stupid this is. This is what we colloquially call an “I was there” award. Service medals are not given in a ceremony on a neck ribbon EVER. Rarely in a ceremony at all. I’ve got stacks of them for Korea, Desert Shield, Hurricane Hugo, Iraq,… https://t.co/K0Qlm00AvY
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) July 28, 2026
Fred Wellman, a West Point graduate and former Army aviator who served three tours in Iraq — and who is running as a Democrat in Missouri for incumbent Rep. Ann Wagner‘s (R-MO) seat — slammed Hegseth for the ceremony.
Wellman wrote: “I need you to understand how patently stupid this is. This is what we colloquially call an ‘I was there’ award. Service medals are not given in a ceremony on a neck ribbon EVER. Rarely in a ceremony at all. I’ve got stacks of them for Korea, Desert Shield, Hurricane Hugo, Iraq, and more. 90% of the time they show up on your records and you might get a physical medal handed to you at the office. These aren’t combat awards. Certainly not with a neck ribbon like the Medal of Honor! How much money was wasted on this ridiculous ceremony for propaganda?”
Stars and Stripes reported the award “is limited to US service members assigned, attached or detailed to a unit deployed as part of a designated operation supporting CBP for 30 days” within 100 miles of the US-Mexico border or 24 nautical miles in adjacent US waters.
[NOTE: In December, when Hegseth and General Dan Caine awarded the first Mexican Border Defense Medals to 13 soldiers and marines at a ceremony in the Oval Office with President Trump, they were not presented on ribbons and hung around the necks of the recipients. The awards were pinned to the soldiers’ uniforms.]
After the Mexican Border Defense Medals were presented, President Trump passed out what he called “another medal” to the soldiers.
From his desk, Trump gave Presidential Challenge Coins to the soldiers and said the coins “may be more beautiful, I’m not sure it means as much, but it’s really good.”
Trump suggested to a few of the soldiers, “You can tie it around your neck, get a nice ribbon,” to which they lightly laughed.
BREAKING: President Trump just awarded U.S. service members with the Mexican Border Defense Medal in the Oval Office for deploying and securing the southern border
“How about you guys hold it up? You deserve it more than me.”
47 is the best. pic.twitter.com/R5YQyXgboX
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 15, 2025
