Did Donald Trump receive draft deferments during the Vietnam War and why?
Executive summary
Yes: Donald Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War era — four student deferments and one medical classification tied to bone spurs in his heels — actions that, combined with other factors, kept him from serving in Vietnam; those facts are established in contemporary reporting and Selective Service records, while debate continues over the legitimacy of the medical finding and the role of privilege in his avoidance [1] [2] [3].
1. The basic record: five deferments, four for college and one for “bad feet”
Contemporaneous Selective Service entries and journalistic reconstructions show Trump received four student deferments while enrolled at Fordham and then the University of Pennsylvania, and a fifth deferment after graduation based on a medical classification involving bone spurs — commonly described in media accounts as calcium deposits in the heels — which moved him out of eligibility for induction except in a national emergency [1] [2] [3].
2. How the deferments functioned and why they mattered
Student deferments (2-S classifications) legally postponed induction for men enrolled in higher education, a common route for wealthier young men in the 1960s to avoid frontline service, and the later medical finding changed Trump’s status to an unfit or limited category that insulated him from the draft during the war’s peak; together those classifications meant he was not sent to Vietnam [1] [4] [3].
3. Contested narratives: lottery luck vs. medical exemption
The Trump campaign has at times emphasized that the 1969 draft lottery’s high number insulated him from service, while contemporaneous local draft-board notations and reporting indicate the medical deferment preceded and outlasted the lottery — creating two competing explanations for why he did not serve and fueling public scrutiny [5] [3].
4. Allegations and witnesses disputing the medical excuse
Critics and some witnesses have alleged the medical claim was convenient or manufactured: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testified that Trump admitted fabricating an injury and that aides were instructed to tamp down criticism, an assertion reported in testimony before a House panel [6]; other accounts cite family recollections about a podiatrist favoring the family, but reliable contemporaneous medical records are sparse, and investigators note that many draft-era medical files were not preserved [7] [3].
5. The broader context: privilege, common practice and political critique
Journalists and historians emphasize that deferments for college and medically based exemptions were widespread and disproportionately accessible to higher‑income men, a structural reality that drew public ire and criticism from figures like Sen. John McCain, who framed such avoidance as a systemic wrong that spared affluent Americans from combat while lower-income men bore the burden of conscription [1] [2] [4].
6. What can and cannot be definitively concluded from available reporting
Based on Selective Service records and multiple news reports, it is certain Trump obtained four student deferments and a later medical classification tied to bone spurs that kept him out of Vietnam; however, whether the medical finding represented a legitimate, independently verified physical impairment or a convenient avenue aided by privilege cannot be resolved conclusively from public sources because the detailed draft‑era medical records are incomplete and witness claims conflict [3] [6] [7].