Swampier

In early November last year, Donald Trump awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson, wife of billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. The award is supposed to be presented to individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Miriam Adelson's personal history reveals nothing especially meritorious. She's a medical doctor married to a billionaire.

But that billionaire and his wife happened to donate $30 million to political action committees supporting Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Only a few weeks before Adelson was awarded the Medal of Freedom, she and her husband also made a $500,000 contribution to a legal defense fund for members of Trump's campaign and administration who have been accused of crimes (details here).

The bottom line is that if the Adelsons hadn't given all this money, she wouldn't have received the award. And you'd think that award would have no real meaning for the recipient because she knew it was payback for large donations. But then some people are shameless.

Remember when Trump said he was going to drain the swamp? That, of course, turned out to be another big lie. When you're rewarding big donors with inappropriate honors, you couldn't get much swampier.