How did Donald Trump's student and occupational deferments work during the Vietnam draft process?

1. How the Vietnam-era deferment system worked in practice

During the Vietnam era, the Selective Service issued classifications and deferments that could temporarily exempt men from induction—most notably student deferments for full-time college enrollment and medical classifications that could disqualify registrants; local draft boards met quotas and exercised substantial discretion before the draft lottery system began in 1969 ^{[4] [3]}. Student deferments (commonly classified 2-S) postponed induction while a registrant was in school, and medical categories such as 1-Y or 4-F could render a man ineligible or only conditionally deferred, though many individual medical records from the period were not preserved ^{[4] [6] [5]}.

2. The record shows four education deferments for Trump

Selective Service records and multiple reporting show Donald Trump received four student deferments while attending Fordham University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which postponed his induction during his undergraduate years ^{[2] [1] [7]}. Trump registered with Selective Service shortly after turning 18 in June 1964 and was granted deferments tied to his full‑time student status in the mid-1960s, a common path for men with means and access to higher education at the time ^{[7] [1]}.

3. The fifth deferment was medical, nominally for “bone spurs,” and is disputed

After graduating in 1968, Trump received a medical classification that removed him from ordinary eligibility—campaign statements and news reports say it was for bone spurs in his feet—but the origin and legitimacy of that diagnosis have been the subject of dispute, including allegations that a local podiatrist provided the diagnosis as a favor and Michael Cohen’s later testimony that Trump fabricated the condition ^{[1] [3] [8]}. Contemporary Selective Service ledger entries and later reclassifications (including a transition to 4-F in 1972 after the abolition of 1-Y) are documented, yet many specific medical records were destroyed, leaving gaps that fuel competing narratives ^{[6] [5]}.

4. Context: why deferments looked systemic rather than exceptional

Analysts and historians note that deferments disproportionately benefited college students and those with resources to secure favorable medical assessments, and more than half of eligible men during the era were deferred, exempted, or disqualified at some point—an environment that made Trump’s sequence of deferments far from unusual among his socioeconomic cohort ^{[4] [1]}. Before the 1969 lottery, local boards had quota pressures that magnified the value of student status and medical exemptions, which critics such as Senator John McCain later characterized as an inequitable burden on lower-income Americans ^{[3] [9]}.

5. What remains uncertain and politically contested

Key factual limits persist: government medical files from the era were largely destroyed, Selective Service ledgers rarely record medical rationales in detail, and Trump’s public explanations have shifted over time between emphasizing a high lottery number and citing a medical condition—all factors that leave room for both legitimate uncertainty and politically charged claims ^{[6] [3] [5]}. Reporting documents the five deferments and records the controversy—including family accounts about the diagnosing doctor and courtroom testimony from a former lawyer making more accusatory claims—but available sources do not settle the medical question definitively ^{[3] [8] [5]}.