Did Donald Trump receive a medical deferment from military service?
Executive summary
Donald Trump did receive a medical deferment during the Vietnam-era draft process: contemporaneous reporting and government records show he had four student deferments and a later medical classification tied to a foot condition described as "bone spurs" that kept him out of service [1] [2] [3]. That factual baseline is undisputed in mainstream reporting, even as the cause, provenance and credibility of the medical finding remain contested and politically charged [4] [5].
1. The documented record: five deferments, one medical
Contemporary accounts compiled by multiple outlets state that Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam era — four for education and one medical deferment after college that was recorded as a heel or bone-spur problem and initially classified as a temporary 1‑Y medical deferment before later reclassification to 4‑F — a sequence reported by The Hill, Business Insider and archival news coverage [1] [2] [3].
2. What "bone spurs" meant on paper and in practice
The medical exemption most often described in reporting was a diagnosis of heel bone spurs; that diagnosis was the administrative basis for the 1‑Y classification that deferred him from induction in the fall of 1968, according to contemporaneous press and later summaries of Selective Service classifications [3] [1]. Snopes and other fact-checkers note that some specific draft-era medical records were not preserved, so precise medical documentation and details about the examiners are limited in surviving public records [4].
3. The controversy over authenticity and motive
The legitimacy of that medical deferment has been litigated politically: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testified that Trump admitted fabricating an injury to avoid Vietnam service, asserting Trump "made up a fake injury" and that Cohen himself was involved in managing criticism about the deferment — a claim reported in testimony summaries [5]. That account represents one side of the dispute and comes from a highly antagonistic former associate, a fact that factors into how observers assess motive and credibility [5].
4. Limits of available evidence and why debates endure
Assessing the medical deferment runs up against archival gaps: many Vietnam-era Selective Service medical records were discarded or never preserved publicly, so independent verification of the exact clinical findings, who diagnosed them and whether the diagnosis was routine or exceptional is constrained by the surviving documentation, a point frequently noted by investigative reporters and fact-checkers [4] [3].
5. Two reasonable conclusions from the record
First, the narrow, factual answer is straightforward: yes — Donald Trump was granted a medical deferment as part of five total draft deferments in the Vietnam era, most commonly described as for heel bone spurs [1] [2]. Second, the broader interpretive dispute — whether that deferment reflected genuine physical incapacity, preferential treatment, or a manufactured excuse — lacks decisive public documentary proof and therefore remains a contested political narrative, amplified by hostile testimony from a former lawyer and by critics citing Trump's vigorous public persona at the time [5] [3].
6. Why the question matters politically, and who benefits from each framing
The medical-deferment story has been wielded as both critique and defense: opponents use it to question patriotism or privilege, while defenders point to commonality of deferments and the absence of definitive evidence of fraud to rebut such charges [2] [4]. The sources driving each framing have evident agendas — partisan outlets and a disgruntled former aide play outsized roles in shaping public perceptions — making it essential to separate the administrative fact of a deferment from competing narratives about its honesty or fairness [5] [2].