Trump boasts ‘I would have won Vietnam very quickly’ as Iran peace hangs in balance

In 1968, a podiatrist who rented office space from Donald Trump’s father told a draft board that the future president had bone spurs in his heels, rendering him ineligible to be conscripted into service for the Vietnam War.Fifty-eight years later, Trump says he could have singlehandedly caused the U.S. to win that war had only he been in charge. Speaking during a telephone interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box program, Trump was in the midst of a rant about how his two-month-old war against Iran hasn’t been going on for nearly as long as other conflicts when he inexplicably boasted that he could have brought about a U.S. victory “very quickly.”“I just looked at a little chart: World War One, four years and three months. World War Two, six years Korean. War Three years Vietnam, 19 years, Iraq, eight years — I’m five months [in Iran],” Trump said.He then added: “ I would have won Vietnam very quickly. I would have, if I were president.”Unlike most American men of his generation, Trump avoided military service in Vietnam despite the U.S. having a mandatory draft at the time.Trump avoided service in the Vietnam War but claims he could have 'won' the conflict easy had he been in charge (Getty)After he became eligible to be drafted on his 18th birthday, he was granted four student deferments during his time as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania.But when he became eligible to be drafted once more upon his graduation, he quickly obtained a medical deferment that kept him from being conscripted, thanks to one of his real estate mogul father’s tenants.According to The New York Times, Trump presented the draft board with a letter from Dr. Larry Braunstein, a Queens, New York podiatrist who rented office space from Fred Trump Sr, which stated that he had bone spurs in both heelsBraunstein’s daughter, Dr. Elysa Braunstein, told the Times that her father had told her that he’d given Trump the letter as a favor to his father.Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told Congress in 2019 that Trump never provided him with any documentation to support the diagnosis of bone spurs when he was questioned about Trump’s medical deferments during the 2016 presidential election. “Mr. Trump claimed (his medical deferment) was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery,” Cohen said.“He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.”More follows...