Who was the Queens podiatrist linked to Trump’s 1968 bone‑spur diagnosis, and what documentation exists about that interaction?
Executive summary
The Queens podiatrist identified in reporting as linked to President Trump’s 1968 “bone‑spur” diagnosis is Dr. Larry Braunstein, whose daughters told The New York Times that he signed the medical paperwork as a favor to Trump’s father, Fred Trump [1]. Reporting makes clear that the claim rests on family recollection and circumstantial landlord‑tenant records — no contemporaneous medical or draft‑board paperwork has been produced to corroborate the daughters’ account [1] [2].
1. Who the podiatrist was and the family’s claim
The doctor named in multiple outlets is Larry Braunstein, a podiatrist who practiced in Jamaica, Queens, and died in 2007; his daughters, Elysa Braunstein and Sharon Kessel, recounted family lore that their father provided the 1968 bone‑spur diagnosis for then‑22‑year‑old Donald Trump as a courtesy to Fred Trump, who owned the building where Braunstein rented office space [1] [3] [4].
2. What documentary traces reporters found about the connection
News organizations located property and tenancy records showing that Braunstein rented office space in a Trump‑owned building in Queens in the 1960s, establishing a landlord‑tenant relationship between Braunstein and Fred Trump, which the daughters cite as context for the alleged favor [1] [5]. The Selective Service ledger from the local draft board — now in the National Archives — shows that Donald Trump reported for a physical on Sept. 17, 1968, and was medically disqualified, consistent with the timing of the bone‑spur classification, but that ledger does not identify the examining doctor in the reporting cited here [4].
3. Gaps in the paper trail and journalistic caveats
Reporting from The New York Times and others notes a crucial limitation: the daughters offered no contemporaneous medical records or draft‑board paperwork naming Braunstein as the doctor, and journalists were unable to find paper evidence directly corroborating that Braunstein examined Trump or signed the diagnostic form [1] [2]. Conservative outlets and commentators seized on the absence of paperwork to call the story unverified or unsubstantiated, highlighting that the core allegation rests on family memory and circumstantial tenancy records rather than primary medical documentation [2] [6].
4. Alternate names and memories in the reporting
The Braunstein sisters also suggested that another podiatrist, Dr. Manny Weinstein, might have been involved in aspects of the story, and reporting notes that Weinstein died in 1995; colleagues and residents recalled podiatrists living in Trump properties, but none produced records proving who actually signed Trump’s 1968 form [1] [2]. Donald Trump himself has said he could not remember the doctor who wrote the letter to the draft board, and his campaign later said the spurs affected both feet, underscoring inconsistent or limited personal recollection in the public record [7].
5. Reading the evidence and the competing narratives
Taken together, the strongest documentary evidence in public reporting is the tenancy link between Braunstein and Fred Trump and the Selective Service ledger showing Trump’s medical disqualification in September 1968; the pivotal claim that Braunstein provided the diagnosis as a favor comes from his daughters’ oral history and remains uncorroborated by medical or draft forms in the reporting reviewed here [1] [4] [7]. Critics argue that without contemporaneous documents the allegation is speculative and susceptible to political framing [2] [6], while supporters of the reporting point to the plausibility of preferential landlord‑tenant relationships in New York at the time as contextual support for the daughters’ account [1] [5].