Ahead of the November 2024 U.S. presidential elections, a purported quote from Republican candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump went viral, in which he allegedly insulted soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War.
Per the quote, which was shared by Democratic candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign account on X, Trump allegedly said, "Vietnam would have been a waste of time for me. Only suckers went to Vietnam."
(X user @KamalaHQ)
The quote in question emerged from an Oct. 24, 2024, story in The Atlantic written by the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The article addressed Trump's various comments about the U.S. military, including past claims that he called soldiers who died in battle "suckers and losers." Goldberg shared an anecdote told to him by an unnamed former Trump Cabinet secretary:
One former Trump-administration Cabinet secretary told me of a conversation he'd had with Trump during his time in office about the Vietnam War. Trump famously escaped the draft by claiming that his feet were afflicted with bone spurs. ("I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels," Trump told The New York Times in 2016.) Once, when the subject of aging Vietnam veterans came up in conversation, Trump offered this observation to the Cabinet official: "Vietnam would have been a waste of time for me. Only suckers went to Vietnam."
However, there appears to be no evidence of an audio or video recording of the remarks in question, nor is there any documentation, such as transcripts or presidential notes, to independently confirm or deny the alleged quotes' authenticity. Furthermore, the anecdote was presented as a second-hand account, with an anonymous former official as the source. Without the corroboration of a firsthand witness, we can't say for certain whether Trump made the above comments.
We reached out to Trump's press team for its response to this anecdote. They would neither confirm nor deny that Trump made any such remarks. Spokesperson Brian Hughes told us over email, "President Trump rebuilt our military and expanded support for veterans to have a strong standing in the world and the peace and stability that comes with that strength, and he is the only candidate that will put veterans and military families first in a second term."
We should note that Trump's purported remarks calling fallen U.S. soldiers "suckers and losers" was first reported by The Atlantic in 2020. The early news stories on Trump's disparaging comments about soldiers relied initially on anonymous sources.
Gen. John Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff when the alleged comments were made, confirmed that Trump did call American troops "losers" and "suckers." However, it was unclear whether he witnessed the comments firsthand or heard about them from someone else, or from news reports. Trump and his allies denied the accusations, though they have not responded to the above anecdote cited in this October 2024 story.
Per the October 2024 Atlantic story, former Trump administration officials including Kelly shared stories of Trump's admiration for autocrats like Adolf Hitler, and his past comments on the military. According to the book, "The Divider: Trump in the White House" Trump asked his then-chief of staff, Kelly "Why can't you be like the German generals?" Kelly told Trump the German generals "tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off." But Trump responded, "No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him."
Kelly gave The Atlantic additional details about the above exchange:
[Kelly] told me that when Trump raised the subject of "German generals," Kelly responded by asking, "'Do you mean Bismarck's generals?'" He went on: "I mean, I knew he didn't know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, 'Do you mean the kaiser's generals? Surely you can't mean Hitler's generals? And he said, 'Yeah, yeah, Hitler's generals.' I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler." Kelly told me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel.
As we have reported before, Trump received four student deferments, then was disqualified from serving except in a time of war or national emergency after a medical examination found he had bone spurs in both heels. We confirmed Trump's deferment history via Selective Service records obtained from the U.S. National Archives by The Smoking Gun in 2011.