Donald Trump Claims Prep School Gave Him More Military Experience Than Actually Serving

The Barclays - Final Round
Getty Image

Those remarks about John McCain not being a true war hero might come back to bite Donald Trump in the ass sooner than expected. In a new biography to come out Sept. 22, Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, Trump spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael D’Antonio over the course of extensive interviews touching on all aspects of his life, including his time spent at New York Military Academy.

Trump was sent to the expensive prep school by his parents “to correct poor behavior,” which I’m wagering a guess never really took. But, despite the fact that he enjoyed several draft deferments during the Vietnam War and never made it into service, Trump still feels as though that his prep-school training gave him the same experience, claiming that he got “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

“My number was so incredible and it was a very high draft number. Anyway so I never had to do that, but I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people,” he told Mr. D’Antonio.

The author seemed taken aback by this claim. Not many of the academy’s alumni “would compare military school with actual military service,” he wrote. “But the assertion was consistent with the self-image Trump often expressed.”

If any other politician, presidential candidate or no, made a claim that so blatantly yet obliviously spat in the faces of the brave men and women who serve in the United States Armed Forces, it would be career suicide. But because this is Donald Trump, I’m sure it will just roll off him like everything else incredulously seems to do. Hopefully, if anything, this is merely just a sign that, when it comes down to it, people really don’t take him seriously.

(Via New York Times)

×