Did Donald Trump receive draft deferments or special treatment during the Vietnam era?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam era — four student deferments and a medical classification that ultimately kept him from service — a factual core confirmed across contemporaneous records and multiple news outlets [1] [2] [3]. Whether those deferments amounted to unique “special treatment” remains disputed: critics point to a disputed medical diagnosis and family connections to a local podiatrist, while defenders note that deferments of this type were widespread for men of Trump’s background [4] [5] [6].
1. The documented record: five deferments, four for college and one for medical reasons
Selective Service records and long-form reporting agree that Trump obtained four educational deferments while attending Fordham and the Wharton School and later received a medical classification — commonly described as bone spurs in his heels — that led to a 4‑F or otherwise disqualifying status that removed him from draft eligibility [7] [1] [3].
2. The contested medical exemption: bone spurs, a convenient letter, and missing paperwork
The precise medical basis for Trump’s 1968 medical deferment is contested because most individual Selective Service medical records from that era were destroyed, leaving only the classification itself; investigations and news reports have reconstructed that he was classified 1‑Y or later 4‑F for a foot ailment often described as bone spurs, but the clinical details cannot be independently verified from the preserved files [3] [7].
3. Allegations of influence: the Braunstein claim and Cohen’s testimony
Reporting by The New York Times (recounted in secondary sources here) and interviews with the family of a Queens podiatrist, Larry Braunstein, allege Braunstein provided or vouched for the diagnosis as a favor to Trump’s father; Michael Cohen has testified that Trump admitted inventing an injury to avoid service and that aides tamped down criticism — allegations that support the claim of impropriety but do not function as definitive legal proof [4] [5].
4. Context matters: deferments were common and systemically unequal
Historians and analysts emphasize that college deferments and medically marginal exemptions disproportionately benefited wealthier, college‑attending men in the 1960s; large numbers of men sought and received deferments, and some used privileged access to doctors or educational paths as routings out of service, so Trump’s pattern matches a broader, unequal system rather than an isolated anomaly [6] [1] [8].
5. Conclusion — what is established and what remains unresolved
Established: Trump received five deferments (four academic, one medical) and did not serve in Vietnam [1] [2]. Disputed/unresolved: whether the medical exemption was fraudulent or the product of improper influence; existing documentary gaps (destroyed Selective Service medical files) and competing witness accounts (the Braunstein family, Michael Cohen, Trump campaign statements asserting legitimacy or citing a high lottery number) mean the question of uniquely privileged “special treatment” cannot be closed by the public record cited here [3] [4] [5] [9]. Readers should weigh the documented pattern against the broader historical context in which deferments were available and frequently used by those with educational and social advantages [6] [1].