What evidence exists about Donald Trump’s draft deferments and the bone‑spur medical records?
Executive summary
Donald Trump received five Vietnam‑era draft deferments—four student deferments and a later medical deferment for bone spurs in his heels—which together kept him out of Vietnam, and official Selective Service records confirming the deferments were obtained and reported by news outlets and fact‑checkers [1][2]. The core dispute is not whether he received those deferments but whether the bone‑spur diagnosis was medically legitimate; contemporaneous medical records that would settle that question are scarce or not publicly available, and reporting has relied on second‑hand accounts, family testimony and Selective Service summaries [3][1][2].
1. The deferment timeline that is not in dispute
Publicly reported Selective Service documents show Trump registered for the draft in 1964, received four college (2‑S) deferments and later a medical classification that left him ineligible for service, with contemporaneous reporting and later fact checks summarizing that history [1][2].
2. The draft‑lottery number and how the medical deferment fit in
Contemporaneous accounts and fact‑checks note that after the medical deferment Trump was still entered into the 1969 lottery and drew a very high number—356 out of 365—which, combined with his prior deferments, ensured he was not called to Vietnam [1][2].
3. The bone‑spur diagnosis: original reporting and the New York Times story
Investigative reporting by outlets including The New York Times (summarized by CNN) traced the diagnosis to a Queens podiatrist whose daughters later told reporters he may have provided the diagnosis as a favor to Trump’s father, but the Times did not find contemporaneous medical documentation to corroborate whether Trump was actually examined [3][4].
4. Testimony and assertions from inside Trump’s orbit
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testified that Trump acknowledged faking an injury to avoid Vietnam and that Cohen was unable to obtain medical records when he asked, an account Cohen gave to a House committee that has been widely cited [5][6].
5. The evidentiary gap: what records exist and what don’t
Multiple reports and fact‑checks emphasize a critical limitation: most draft‑related medical records from the Vietnam era were not preserved or are not publicly available, so while Selective Service classifications and lottery results are documented, the primary medical records that would definitively show the basis for Trump’s 1‑Y classification are missing from public archives [1][2][3].
6. Competing interpretations and political framing
Critics, including veterans and some lawmakers, have framed the bone‑spur episode as emblematic of unequal draft avoidance—Sen. John McCain criticized the pattern of wealthier Americans obtaining deferments [7]—while supporters and Trump himself have emphasized the formal existence of a doctor’s letter and the lottery result; campaign materials and opposition research have both used the unresolved details for political gains, and some sources reporting the podiatrist’s daughters acknowledged their political leanings, which reporters flagged as context [3][4].
7. What can be concluded, and what remains contested
The verifiable facts are clear: Trump received documented student deferments, a later medical classification for heel bone spurs, and a high lottery number that kept him from service; what remains contested—and unresolved by publicly available primary medical records—is whether the bone‑spur diagnosis was medically justified or issued as a favor, a question based on secondary testimony and the absence of contemporaneous medical files [1][2][3][5].