President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that he would have secured a “very quick” victory in the Vietnam War had he been commander-in-chief at the time, drawing parallels to his administration’s perceived success in the current conflict with Iran.
Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box on April 21, the 79-year-old former president asserted that U.S. forces “won” the war against Iran within the first week of combat. The conflict, which began in February following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, remains active. Trump’s victory declaration comes as Vice President JD Vance prepares for upcoming peace negotiations to resolve the ongoing military action.
“I would have won Vietnam very quickly if I were president,” Trump told CNBC. “I would have won Iraq in the same amount of time—’cause essentially, we’ve won here.”
Trump also touted the January operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro. Despite the complexities of the late-night operation, Trump characterized the transition as nearly instantaneous, claiming, “we basically took it over in 45 minutes.”
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Trump’s assertions regarding Vietnam stand in stark contrast to his personal history during that conflict. The Vietnam War (1955–1975) resulted in the deaths of 58,279 U.S. service members and left more than 300,000 wounded.
During the height of the draft, Trump avoided military service through five separate deferments:
- Four educational deferments while attending college.
- One medical disqualification in 1968 for bone spurs in his heels.
While Trump told The New York Times in 2016 that the spurs were “not a big problem” but enough to make long-term walking “difficult,” the diagnosis has faced intense scrutiny.
A 2018 investigative report by The New York Times challenged the legitimacy of Trump’s medical exemption. The report featured testimony from the daughters of the late Dr. Larry Braunstein, the Queens podiatrist who provided the 1968 diagnosis.
According to Dr. Elysa Braunstein, her father’s diagnosis was a “favor” to Fred C. Trump, the former president’s father, who owned the building where the doctor practiced. She alleged that the future president did not actually possess a disqualifying foot ailment.
The White House did not provide comments regarding the Braunstein allegations at the time of the exposé, and Trump has continued to maintain that his medical record was accurate.
