More Trump Lies Uncovered: Statements On Vietnam Draft Deferments Don’t Add Up

With the topic of service to one’s country now front and center in the 2016 Presidential race, the New York Times thought it would be a good time to back and take a closer look at the five draft deferments GOP nominee Donald Trump received when he was of draft age during the Vietnam War. And what they uncovered shows yet again that Trump will lie about anything, including his own physical health.

The year is 1968. Donald Trump is 22 years old and eligible to be drafted for service in Vietnam, a war of which he has said:

“I thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was another deal where politicians got us into a war where we shouldn’t have been in. And I felt that very strongly from Day 1.”

But in the spring of 1968, Trump graduated from undergrad school and was immediately eligible to be drafted. However, quite fortuitously for him, a doctor diagnosed him bone spurs in his heels. He had just dodged being eligible for military service.

All total, Trump received five deferments during the years he was eligible to be drafted into the military: Four for educational reasons and the one for bone spurs. Which makes statements Trump later made to the press about how he avoided duty in Vietnam more than a bit confusing.

Trump has also been asked to provide a copy of the letter from his doctor specifying he indeed suffered from heel spurs, but neither he or the campaign has produced the evidence so far.

Years after he was granted the medical deferment and had joined his father in the world of New York real estate, Trump told a reporter that what saved him from having to serve in Southeast Asia was a high lottery number.  But his Selective Service records, which were obtained from the National Archives, don’t support that assertion.  Trump had already been medically exempted over a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969. Why would he need a high draft lottery number if he’d already been declared medically unfit to serve?

In a 2011 interview, Trump commented:

“I’ll never forget; that was an amazing period of time in my life. I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”

Clearly, that statement is a lie. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery was even held. So again, why did he need a high draft number? Why would he have been so glad to see that his lottery number would probably not be called if the heel spurs had removed him from the pool of eligible draftees?

Also, despite the medical condition which kept him out of Vietnam, Trump admits that while in college he played squash, football, and tennis. Wouldn’t heel spurs have made such physical activity unbearable for a young Trump?

Let us not forget that this is the same Donald J. Trump who said over the weekend:

“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”

The only sacrifices made on behalf of Trump have all been made by others. He has never done anything but lie, cheat, steal, and take. This man is walking, talking insult to the notion of what a human being is supposed to be.

This article was originally published by the same author at Liberal America.org

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