Trump Claims That His Private Boarding School Provided Him With Superior Military Training

As per the author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump claimed that despite never having served in the military, he 'always felt' that he had because he attended a military-themed prep school. Very few people know that before Trump was a reality TV celebrity, real estate mogul, or president, he was a student at the New York Military Academy. Interestingly, the author mentioned that Trump 'would compare military school with actual military service.'

As reported by The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy of Michael D'Antonio's book at the time, the real estate mogul compared his time at New York Military Academy, a boarding school in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., to serving in the military. This is because he wore a uniform and took part in marching drills while there and because some of his teachers were veterans themselves. Trump graduated from the academy in 1964 after his parents sent him there in an effort to correct their son's persistently disruptive conduct. Trump went on to study at Fordham University and then transferred to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a medical deferment from the Vietnam Draught in 1968 owing to 'bone spurs on both heels of his feet.' 

As per the outlet, the book stated, "The medical deferment was expected to be short-term and he was therefore entered in the military draft lottery where he received an extremely high number, 356 out of 365." Further, Trump told Antonio, "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." After years of disruptive and rebellious behavior at Kew-Forest, a more conventional prep school in Queens, the book claimed Trump enrolled in the New York Military Academy. He reportedly blacked out a Kew-Forest instructor "because I didn't think he knew anything about music."

Further, Trump also referred to the Vietnam War as 'a mistake.' He was proud of the time he spent at the military academy and lamented the declining number of students enrolled there. Trump also added, "After the Vietnam War, all those military academies lost ground because people really disrespected the military. They weren’t sending their kids to military school. It was a whole different thing, but in those days — 1964, I graduated — that was a very good thing or tough thing, and it was a real way of life at the military academy."

Trump also confessed, "When you start studying yourself too deeply, you start seeing things that maybe you don’t want to see. And if there’s a rhyme and reason people can figure you out, and once they can figure you out, you’re in big trouble.” In the spring of 1968, after completing college and being ready to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he got a diagnosis that altered the course of his life: bone spurs in his heels. At the time, he was granted a highly sought-after medical deferment from military duty for a full year that autumn, allowing him to avoid serving in the armed forces at a time when the United States was deploying large numbers of troops to Southeast Asia.