Eric Trump raised eyebrows among Twitter users this week after stating that his father, Donald Trump, “fought” for the U.S.
“My father fought for this country,” the former president’s son said in a video shared online. “[NFL quarterback] Tom Brady always fought and played for his team. My father’s playing for Team America.”
While the word “fought” was likely just a turn of phrase, critics on Twitter felt it was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
They immediately highlighted Trump’s history of medical deferments from the military, including one on the basis of bone spurs in his heels. That diagnosis has since been questioned, though, after the daughter of the podiatrist who saw Trump said it was done simply as a favor to his father, Fred C. Trump.
Others online pointed out Trump’s past criticism of wounded war veterans. The former president has also described avoiding sexually transmitted infections in the 1970s and 1980s as his “personal Vietnam.”
