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What was Donald Trump’s complete draft registration and deferment history during the Vietnam War era?
Executive summary
Donald Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War era: four student deferments and one medical deferment for bone spurs, and he was assigned a high lottery number [1] that made him unlikely to be called; he was classified 4‑F by 1972 and thus permanently ineligible for service [2] [3] [4]. Available sources document the timing and types of the deferments but say details about the 1968 medical exam and some draft records are incomplete or disputed [5] [4].
1. The basic timeline: five deferments, then 4‑F
Reporting compiled from contemporary documents and later news accounts says Trump first registered with Selective Service in June 1964 and obtained four student deferments while at Fordham and Wharton (June 1964, December 1965, December 1966, January 1968), followed by a medical deferment for bone spurs in 1968; he kept a 1‑Y (available) status through 1972 when he was classified 4‑F and permanently disqualified from service [4] [5] [3].
2. What the records show — and what they don’t
Released selective‑service documents and contemporary news reporting list the student deferments and the later medical deferment, and confirm Trump’s lottery number [1], but they do not fully explain the medical basis or the detailed medical records for the 1968 exemption; many draft‑era medical files were not preserved, and outlets note the precise circumstances of the medical deferment remain unclear [5] [4].
3. The medical deferment: bone spurs and disputed explanations
Multiple outlets report a medical deferment for bone spurs on Trump’s heels that year — a condition that commonly generated temporary exemptions — yet those same reports emphasize ambiguity about whether the diagnosis was routine, private, or politically contested; some former associates have later alleged the injury was fabricated, a claim covered by reporting but not settled by the available records [4] [6].
4. The role of the draft lottery number
Trump received an extremely high draft lottery number (356 out of 365) in the 1969 lottery, which by itself would have made being called for Vietnam unlikely; however, contemporary documents and news coverage indicate the student and medical deferments were also active during the period, complicating simple narratives that credit only luck [7] [5] [4].
5. How many deferments were student vs. medical, and when
Multiple sources agree on the split: four deferments tied to college enrollment (two at Fordham, two while at Wharton) and one medical deferment later in 1968; reporting traces the student deferments to June 1964, December 1965, December 1966 and January 1968, with the medical classification following as he neared graduation [5] [2] [4].
6. Public and political reactions then and later
Public figures and commentators have used Trump’s deferments to argue broader points about socioeconomic disparities in draft outcomes — for example, John McCain criticized the system that let wealthier Americans obtain medical or educational deferments — and Trump’s deferment history has been a recurring focus in political coverage and memoir/testimony [8] [9] [6].
7. Conflicting accounts and unresolved questions
While most mainstream outlets concur on the five deferments and the high lottery number, sources differ on emphasis: some media stress that deferments alone explain avoidance of Vietnam, others stress the lottery number, and some personal testimony asserts the medical claim was fabricated; the underlying selective‑service and medical records that would definitively resolve these disputes are described in reporting as incomplete or not publicly preserved [5] [4] [6].
8. Context: how common were deferments for college and medical reasons?
News analyses place Trump’s experience in a broader pattern in which college deferments and medically based exemptions were common paths that disproportionately benefited middle‑ and upper‑income men during the Vietnam era; journalists and fact‑checkers cite that deferments for education and minor medical conditions were widespread and often determinative [2] [7] [9].
9. What claims are explicitly refuted by the reporting?
Available sources do not show any record that Trump served in the military or in Vietnam; instead, they consistently report five deferments and eventual 4‑F classification. Some accounts explicitly dispute a clean, singular explanation (i.e., "only the lottery") by pointing to the deferments in contemporaneous documents [5] [4].
10. Bottom line for readers
The documentary record reported by major outlets concludes Trump had four student deferments and one medical deferment, received a very high lottery number, and was classified 4‑F by 1972 — but the precise medical documentation for the 1968 deferment and some administrative details are incomplete in available public records, leaving room for competing narratives in political debate [5] [4] [3].