Trump 'faked disability to avoid serving in Vietnam', Pete Buttigieg says
Buttigieg, an army veteran, says Trump used his privileged status to get a medical exemption
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg accuses Donald Trump of faking a disability to avoid being drafted in Vietnam.
The former naval intelligence officer said the president’s conduct “resulted in someone else going to war in his place,” during a Washington Post event on Thursday.
Donald Trump received five deferments from the draft, four for university and one for medical reasons - a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. Buttigieg said: “I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.”
Allegations that Trump has dodged the draft date back to his 2016 campaign.
In January 2018, Senator Amy Duckworth (Democrat-Illinois), called Trump a “five-deferment draft dodger.” Last February, Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney told Congress the president told him he had no medical excuse to avoid military draft.
Last December, a New York Times investigation revealed Trump's medical exemption was diagnosed by a podiatrist who also rented a space from his father, Fred Trump.
A member of the podiatrist family told the Times he did it as a favour to Trump's family. Buttigieg argues Trump used his privileged upbringing to avoid being drafted in Vietnam.
The 37-year-old took a seven-month leave of absence from his job as mayor of South Bend, a city of about 100,000 in the state of Indiana, in 2014 to serve in Afghanistan.
added during the event: “I mean, if he were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that, but this is somebody who, I think it is fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place."
Buttigieg officially launched his campaign on April 14, and the polyglot, millennial and openly gay mayor from Indiana intends to make climate change, gun control and income inequalities his main campaign battles.
He is among the five leading candidates to win the leadership race of the Democrats.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments