In an interview from 1997 on “The Howard Stern Present“, Trump stated, “It is wonderful, I can not even consider it.I have been so fortunate when it comes to that entire world, it’s a harmful world on the market. It is like Vietnam, form of. It’s my private Vietnam. I really feel like a terrific and really courageous soldier.”
Trump additionally joked that his relationship exploits warranted the Congressional Medal of Honor, a extremely revered navy award given for acts of bravery in fight. This comparability drew important backlash for trivializing the experiences of Vietnam Battle veterans.
The 1997 interview was not an remoted incident. In a 1993 look on the identical present, Trump boasted about his promiscuous way of life through the AIDS epidemic of the Nineteen Eighties. He prompt that males who didn’t serve in Vietnam shouldn’t really feel responsible, claiming that “relationship throughout that point was equally as harmful.”
Trump himself didn’t serve within the Vietnam Battle, having acquired 5 draft deferments—4 whereas in school and one for bone spurs in his ft. His marketing campaign later stated that the bone spur situation was minor and non permanent.
In December 2015 nevertheless, whereas campaigning for the presidency, Trump expressed guilt over not serving and talked about that serving to to construct a Vietnam Battle memorial in New York was his manner of constructing amends.
