Donald Trump Was Deferred From Military Service Five Times: Report

  At last week’s Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq, posed a question to Donald Trump: Have you read the Constitution? Pakistan-born Khan attacked the billionaire businessman saying that if it was up to Trump, his son would have never been American or served in the military. “You have sacrificed nothing,” he told Trump. Days later, The New York Times in the course of an investigation, has reported that Trump himself had been deferred from getting drafted and serving in the military five times – four for education, once for a bad heel. In 1968, Trump was reported to be in the best of his health and was eligible to be drafted in the US military after his graduation from college. However, in that year, a bone spurs in his heels – a problem that caused a part of the bone in the heel to grow out – caused a deferment. When this diagnosis was produced in front of the medical officer, Trump got the much desired 1-Y medical deferment which exempted him from military service temporarily. This was during the Vietnam war, when a huge number of American troops were being sent to Southeast Asia. The paper goes on to report that the public statements he has made regarding his deferments have conflicted with his records in Selective Service. In fact, his recall of the same is often sketchy. The other four deferments he received were for continuing his education. In June 1964, after Trump’s 18th birthday, he registered with the Selective Service System, as was the custom for all men of his age. He submitted his papers in the summer following his graduation from the New York Military Academy.