In an interview from 1997 on “The Howard Stern Present“, Trump referred to his efforts to keep away from contracting sexually transmitted illnesses (STDs) as his “private Vietnam.”
“It is superb, I am unable to even consider it.I have been so fortunate by way of that complete world, it’s a harmful world on the market. It is like Vietnam, kind of. It’s my private Vietnam. I really feel like an amazing and really courageous soldier”, Trump mentioned.
Trump additionally joked that his courting exploits warranted the Congressional Medal of Honor, a extremely revered army award given for acts of bravery in fight. This comparability drew vital backlash for trivializing the experiences of Vietnam Conflict 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 throughout the AIDS epidemic of the Eighties. He advised that males who didn’t serve in Vietnam shouldn’t really feel responsible, claiming that “courting throughout that point was equally as harmful.”
Trump himself didn’t serve within the Vietnam Conflict, having obtained 5 draft deferments—4 whereas in faculty and one for bone spurs in his ft. His marketing campaign later mentioned 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 Conflict memorial in New York was his method of constructing amends.
