Donald Trump’s warrior image ‘is hiding his war draft-dodging past in Vietnam’
Donald Trump’s ‘warrior ethos’ masks his repeated avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War, commentators have suggested.
The US President ‘s record has come under scrutiny again after he claimed NATO troops stayed ‘a little off the frontlines’ during the war in Afghanistan.
In an interview with Fox News in Davos, the US president repeated his criticism of NATO, saying he was not ‘sure’ the alliance would ‘be there if we ever needed them’.
He added: ‘We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.’
This has sparked fury among political leaders and veterans, with one mother of a veteran stating it was ‘the ultimate insult.’
The comments are also damning as Trump has previously faced claims he avoided being drafted in the Vietnam War.
Navy veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly previously said the commander in chief avoided the draft in the 1960s, and historical evidence appears to back this up.
Documents held in US archives show that he received student deferments while in college, followed by a medical exemption after graduating.
Trump, now 79, was assessed eight times for military service but was never enlisted, and was disqualified as a result of an armed forces physical examination, one of the records shows.
Although the exact reason is not stated, Trump has previously said that a bone spur — either on one or both of his heels — was the reason.
Another document only deepens the question marks over why he was not called up — referring to birth marks on both of his heels.
Professor David Dunn, chair in international politics at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘Trump refuses to release his medical records and he’s never had an operation to remove the bone spur, which suggests that it’s spurious.
‘His former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump told him, “You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”
‘The other aspect of this is the contempt Trump has shown to the military, such as his comment about the former Navy pilot John McCain, who was held in a prisoner of war camp, when he said, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
‘There’s a long history of Trump having a fraught relationship with the military and we can see within this his contempt of the notion of military service.’
Although the current stamp is set out in law, the executive order introduces a ‘secondary title’, according to a White House document.
The Trump administration wants a ‘warrior ethos’ at the Pentagon and is ‘not interested in woke garbage or political correctness’, according to the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, whose title has accordingly changed from Secretary of Defense.
US Presidents who avoided being drafted
Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and George W. Bush all avoided service in Vietnam. Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was studying in England and W. Bush got a coveted spot in the 147th Texas Air National Guard as a pilot and was not eligible for the draft. Biden received student draft deferments and a ‘1-Y’, meaning he could only be drafted in a national emergency.
Dr Laura Smith, a specialist in American presidential history at the University of Oxford, told Metro: ‘While being labeled a “draft dodger” was once seen as political dynamite, the ability of politicians to become commander in chief regardless of their service seems to have become a trend, one that is likely to continue considering the unpopularity of America’s foreign interventions.
‘Trump justified his recent decision to return to the War label as somehow a return to glory days. However, the Defense Department has existed since the end of WWII – the entirety of the period of America’s existence as the global superpower.
‘The War Department existed from George Washington’s cabinet and oversaw the long period up until the end of the 19th Century, when America did not have the power to engage or effectively challenge Old World powers on the global stage as Britain still ruled the waves.
‘It seems that once again, this executive decision is made upon a rhetorical concept of history, rather than the facts.’
Trump also previously faced scrutiny after he renamed the Department of Defense as the Department of War to expel ‘wokism’.
He previously claimed the old name was ‘too defensive’ while the new title, last used in 1947, reverted to a time when ‘we won everything’ in wars.
For Dunn, there is a disconnect between the warrior image and reality contained in the service record documents.
‘We have to ask what Trump’s service record tells us about modern politics or modern America more broadly,’ he said.
‘It tells us that someone shown to have dodged the draft can be elected president, that it’s no block to service.
‘It’s about performativity; it seems Americans prefer candidates, or presidents, who are performative rather than substantive.
‘What we have now with the Department of War is in marked contrast to the fact that Trump is appeasing Vladimir Putin, who is the enemy of human rights, international law and is wanted for war crimes.
‘It’s sacrificed for the performativity of Trump cos-playing Ronald Reagan and pretending to be this grand statesman on the world stage.’
Trump had five deferments: four times as a student and once for medical reasons, assumed to be because of one or more bone spurs.
In 2018, the daughters of New York foot doctor Dr Larry Braunstein said that he had diagnosed the future president with the condition to help him avoid the draft as a ‘favour’ to his property mogul father, Fred Trump.
The podiatrist is said to have made the diagnosis in the 1960s while he was working out of an office owned by the Trump family.
Trump Jnr, who graduated from New York Military Academy, would say many years later that a doctor provided a ‘very strong letter’ about the condition, but that he could not recall the person’s name.
Bone spurs are bony lumps that grow around joints and can affect movement or put pressure on nerves.
As far as high school went, they did not seem to have stopped Trump playing sports including baseball, football and soccer.
He also studied at Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania, with the medical disqualification covering him after he graduated.
Seasoned White House watcher Mike Tappin was in the US in 1968 during the nation’s bloodiest year in Vietnam, when it lost almost 17,000 personnel.
Trump’s record at the time shows he was only classified as being available for service for four months before being marked 1-Y — which is only given to men deemed to qualify for national service ‘in times of national emergency.’
In 1972, he was finally marked 4-F, which means not qualified, an amendment that may have been caused by the abolition of the 1-Y category.
‘Trump graduated in 1968 when the war in Vietnam was at its height, so he should have been eligible for military service as were other men of his age,’ Tappin said.
‘But of course, the history of American politics shows rich people got out of it. Another famous example of a president who avoided the draft is Bill Clinton.
‘Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Congressional Medal of Honor holder who was seriously injured in Iraq, publicly called Trump “cadet bone spurs” and a draft dodger.
‘So one could make an argument that Michael Cohen’s words in the Senate were true; Trump did not want to go to Vietnam.’
Tappin, honorary fellow at Keele University and co-author of American Politics Today, is among the commentators who believe that Trump’s avoidance of the draft was down to his multi-millionaire father.
‘One can draw the conclusion that his father Fred bought him the deferment,’ he said.
Tappin also defended Truman’s original emphasis on defence, not war.
‘Trump has said that the Defense Department “went woke”,’ he said.
‘Truman was anything but woke.
‘He served in the military in the First World War, he was a major, and he was a solid American president. He would be turning in his grave if he knew what Trump has said about his decision.’
Trump has said in an interview that he had ‘spurs’ in the back of his feet, which at the time ‘prevented me from walking long distances.’
He has also said that he had a ‘very, very high draft number’ in 1969 which the military draft lottery did not get near to, apparently as it worked in ascending order through a list of eligible men.
In 2019, Trump told Piers Morgan he was ‘never a fan’ of the Vietnam War but would have been happy and honoured to have served.
The president is due in the UK this week for a three-day state visit where he will be hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle.
Metro has approached the White House for comment.
This article was originally published on September 15, 2025.
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