Why Dolly Parton declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom 3 times

On Aug. 25, 2026, Dolly Parton’s family announced the country music star had died at age 80.

In the wake of her death, many people online discussed how she had allegedly declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — from both U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden. Several posts on X claimed Parton declined the honor from Trump twice, without mentioning Biden.

By her own admission, Parton indeed refused the medal from both Trump and Biden a total of three times, so we’ve rated this claim true. In an interview, she revealed she was unable to accept the award for a range of reasons. The Trump and Biden administrations have not commented on Parton’s story.

In a 2020 interview, former President Barack Obama told television host Stephen Colbert that he was “shocked” Parton had not received the award. He said: “Actually that was a screw-up. I think I assumed that she had already got one. And that was incorrect. I’m surprised. She deserves one. I’ll call Biden.”

In February 2021, Parton appeared on NBC’s “Today” to discuss a Super Bowl advertisement in which she participated. Host Jenna Bush Hager asked about Obama’s statement, saying, “We read that President Obama’s biggest mistake was not giving you the Medal of Freedom, and he said he’s going to call his friend Joe [Biden]. Well, have you heard from Joe?” Parton replied:

Well, I actually have. To be honest, in all fairness, I got offered the Freedom award from the Trump administration. I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID. So, now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure. I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice, but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But that’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.

According to Parton, the Trump administration offered her the Medal of Freedom twice, and the Biden administration reached out to her once, leading to her declining it three times.

We reached out to the Biden administration in 2025 to learn more but received no response. We also have reached out to the Trump White House for more details. We will update this story if we get more information.

Parton, who was beloved across the political spectrum, often shied away from talking about her politics, though she was sometimes critical of politicians in general. In 2023, she released a song, “World on Fire,” in which she criticized politicians on both sides of the aisle, singing: “Don’t get me started on politics. Now how are we to live in a world like this? … Greedy politicians, present and past. They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the a**.” 

For further reading, we have investigated a number of rumors involving Parton.

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