What do Donald Trump’s Selective Service records show in full, and where can they be accessed?
Executive summary
Donald J. Trump’s Selective Service files made public by the National Archives show his registration card and a local draft board ledger documenting multiple student deferments between 1964–1968, a period classification changes including 1-A and 1-Y, and a final 4‑F classification in 1972; those original scanned documents are available from the National Archives’ FOIA reading room and mirror copies online at several archives and news outlets [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting that summarizes the records — including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, Snopes and others — corroborates the timeline and interprets specific notations in the ledger while noting that detailed medical records explaining the medical deferment were not preserved or released [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10].
1. What the raw documents are and exactly what they contain
The National Archives has posted two primary Selective Service images: an SSS Form 1‑A draft registration card for Donald John Trump dated June 24, 1964, and an SSS Form 102 local draft board ledger that records his classification history and board actions from the mid‑1960s through 1972; the Archives’ FOIA posting links to PDF images of both documents [1] [2] [3]. The card lists basic registration data (date, physical description and local board), while the ledger shows multiple entries: initial registration, four student (2‑S) deferments while in college, intermittent reclassifications to 1‑A (available), a 1‑Y wartime‑only classification after a physical, and ultimately a 4‑F (not qualified) reclassification in February 1972 [3] [10] [11].
2. The timeline the ledger and card create, in plain terms
The documents show Trump registered at age 18 in June 1964 and received successive student deferments through college (1964–1968), was listed available (1‑A) briefly in late 1966 before another student deferment, underwent an armed services physical in September 1968 resulting in a 1‑Y conditional classification in October 1968, and was later designated 4‑F in February 1972 — the classification that made him ineligible for military service [10] [6] [9]. Multiple news organizations and archival summaries reproduce this sequence and emphasize that the 4‑F appears after the draft lottery era began, meaning the final medical disqualification removed him from draft eligibility even once the lottery was in effect [5] [7].
3. What the records do and do not say about medical reasons
The ledger’s shorthand annotations (including “DISQ” after a 1968 physical and later ledger codes) indicate a disqualifying condition and the administrative trail to 4‑F, but the Selective Service images in the public record do not include full contemporaneous medical files or physician notes that would specify the diagnosis; contemporaneous medical folders from the Vietnam era generally were not preserved and are not part of the uploaded PDFs [3] [10] [12]. News investigations and fact‑checks repeatedly caution that the precise medical basis — Trump at times has described “bone spurs” and other accounts reference a Queens doctor — cannot be proven from the available Selective Service ledger and card alone because those detailed medical records were not released [6] [8] [9] [12].
4. How researchers and media have interpreted ledger shorthand
Archivists and reporters have explained that ledger codes like YXX and DISQ were standard administrative markers in Selective Service records of the era and do not by themselves reveal a rare genetic diagnosis or other sensational claims; independent debunkers and draft‑record analysts have repeatedly warned against overreading shorthand into medical specifics that the ledger does not contain [13] [4] [10]. Major outlets used the released images to reconstruct the procedural history of deferments and reclassifications while noting interpretive limits; some reporting emphasizes political context and implications, others focus on the bureaucratic record [6] [8] [5].
5. Where to access the records in full and trusted mirrors
The primary, authoritative public source is the National Archives FOIA reading room pages and the direct PDFs hosted by NARA, which include the SSS Form 1‑A card and the Form 102 ledger (see the Archives’ Trump Selective Service page and linked PDFs) [1] [3] [2]. Additional mirrors and full scans are hosted by the Internet Archive and were republished by news outlets such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and independent sites like The Smoking Gun and Snopes reproduce or summarize the same NARA documents [4] [5] [7] [14] [12].
6. Bottom line and limits of the public record
The publicly posted Selective Service card and local ledger show the objective administrative trail: college deferments, classification changes including a 1‑Y after a physical in 1968, and a final 4‑F in 1972, and those scanned images are accessible via the National Archives’ FOIA pages and multiple reputable mirrors [3] [1] [4]. They do not, however, contain the detailed medical records that would definitively explain the medical basis for the disqualification, a gap that reporters, archivists and fact‑checkers explicitly note [10] [12].