{"slug":"trump-pre-presidency-vietnam-draft-deferments","title":"Vietnam Draft Deferments: Five Deferments Including Bone Spurs, While Calling Others Cowards","date":"1964-01-01","lastUpdated":"2018-12-26","description":"Donald Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War era: four student deferments while attending college (1964-1968) and a medical deferment for bone spurs in both heels in 1968. He was classified 1-Y (unfit for service) and later 4-F (not qualified for service). Throughout his adult life Trump repeatedly praised military service and criticized others for avoiding conflict, while himself having used deferments to avoid the war. A 2018 New York Times investigation reported that the bone spurs diagnosis may have been provided as a favor by a podiatrist whose father was a tenant of Fred Trump.","summary":"The four student deferments were legal and widely used by college students of the era. The 1968 bone spurs medical deferment, obtained after Trump's student deferments expired at graduation, came from Dr. Larry Braunstein, a podiatrist in Jamaica, Queens — a building owner named Fred Trump. Braunstein's daughters told the New York Times in 2018 that their father provided the diagnosis as a 'favor' to Fred Trump, the landlord. Trump has described his bone spurs in varying ways over the years, at times saying they had healed on their own and at other times appearing not to remember which foot was affected. He has praised military service at Veterans events while criticizing specific veterans including John McCain for being captured.","category":"corruption","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/politics/trump-bone-spurs-military-draft.html","title":"The Diagnosis That Exempted Trump From Military Service","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-draft-deferments-vietnam-bone-spurs/2018/12/27/story.html","title":"Trump's bone spurs and the Vietnam draft","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-vietnam-draft-bone-spurs-deferments","title":"Trump received 5 draft deferments during Vietnam era","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Vietnam","draft","bone-spurs","pre-presidency","corruption","military","deferments"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"1964-01-01","title":"First student deferment — Fordham University","summary":"Trump receives his first student deferment while attending Fordham University in the Bronx. He will transfer to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1966. Student deferments continue through graduation in 1968."},{"date":"1968-06-01","title":"Student deferments expire — bone spur medical deferment obtained","summary":"Upon graduation from Wharton, Trump's student deferments expire. He is examined by Dr. Larry Braunstein, a podiatrist whose office building is owned by Fred Trump, and receives a diagnosis of bilateral heel spurs. He is classified 1-Y (unfit for service)."},{"date":"1972-01-01","title":"Classification changes to 4-F — not qualified for service","summary":"Trump's classification changes from 1-Y to 4-F (not qualified for service) as the military updates its classification system. He is never drafted and never serves."},{"date":"2015-07-18","title":"Trump attacks McCain — 'I like people who weren't captured'","summary":"At a campaign event, Trump says John McCain is not a war hero because he was captured after being shot down over Vietnam. McCain was held as a POW and tortured for over five years. Trump made the attack while having himself avoided service in the same war through deferments."},{"date":"2018-12-26","title":"NYT investigation — bone spur diagnosis may have been favor from Fred Trump's tenant","summary":"The New York Times reports that Braunstein's daughters stated their father provided Trump's bone spur diagnosis as a favor to Fred Trump, who was his landlord. The daughters say their father mentioned it as an example of how Fred Trump helped people."}],"location":{"name":"New York, NY","lat":40.7128,"lng":-74.006},"custom":{"era":"pre-presidency","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Vietnam veterans who served while Trump obtained deferments; veterans who were later attacked by Trump despite his own avoidance of service; democratic discourse distorted by Trump's subsequent military posturing despite personal history of draft avoidance","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Draft-age individual who obtained five deferments; obtained bone spur diagnosis that may have been provided as a favor; subsequently praised military service and attacked veterans while having avoided service himself","institution":"Private individual / Trump Organization"},{"name":"Fred Trump","role":"Father; Queens building owner; daughters of the diagnosing podiatrist told the New York Times that the diagnosis was provided as a favor to Fred Trump who was the podiatrist's landlord","institution":"Trump Organization"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2018-12-26","summary":"Updated with NYT investigation into bone spur diagnosis origins."}]}}