--- title: John McCain Makes Bone Spur Jab at Trump Over Vietnam War description: Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump's draft deferrals during the Vietnam War this week. canonical: https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-23T07:40:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:58:06.910Z article:section: Politics og:title: McCain Takes Veiled Swipe at Trump's Vietnam War Exemptions og:description: The Senator criticized "high income" people who avoided military service. og:url: https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c4a20f44fcf487c/6988e2e5196cf40dfb0426dc/gettyimages-863085138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4871 og:image:height: 2740 og:image:alt: Senate Votes On Various Budget Amendments og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: McCain Takes Veiled Swipe at Trump's Vietnam War Exemptions twitter:description: The Senator criticized "high income" people who avoided military service. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c4a20f44fcf487c/6988e2e5196cf40dfb0426dc/gettyimages-863085138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6e7d854e-f7f4-45f2-a106-ef4ac4524b18&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War [Watch (HLS stream): John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pyh4yeir.m3u8) (0:55)  _Published 2017-10-23. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump's draft deferrals during the Vietnam War this week, following a series of public rebukes of the Trump administration._ by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Oct 23, 2017 7:40 AM UTC Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump's draft deferrals during the Vietnam War this week, following a series of public rebukes of the Trump administration. by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Oct 23, 2017 7:40 AM UTC Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump’s [draft deferrals](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/22/politics/john-mccain-trump-draft-deferments/index.html) during the Vietnam War this week, following a series of public rebukes of the Trump administration. In an [interview](https://twitter.com/cspanhistory/status/922175734180872192) about the Vietnam War on C-SPAN3, American History TV, on Oct. 22, McCain [criticized](http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-trump-bone-spurs-2017-10) “high income” draftees who avoided military service while apparently alluding to the president’s own draft exemption — but he did not mention Trump by name. “One aspect of the \[Vietnam\] conflict by the way that I will never, ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” he said, naming the ailment under which Trump received medical deferrals. “That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve,” McCain said. The president’s 1968 medical deferral from the Vietnam War, his [fifth](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/questions-linger-about-trumps-draft-deferments-during-vietnam-war/2015/07/21/257677bc-2fdd-11e5-8353-1215475949f4%5Fstory.html), according to the Washington _Post_, was a frequent [source of criticism](http://time.com/4489574/veterans-donald-trump/) during the 2016 presidential election. In an [interview](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html?%5Fr=0) with the New York _Times_ in 2016, Trump said he received “a very strong letter on the heels” from a doctor, referring to the bone spurs. (Trump has also previously referred to [avoiding sexually transmitted diseases](http://people.com/politics/trump-boasted-of-avoiding-stds-while-dating-vaginas-are-landmines-it-was-my-personal-vietnam/) as his own “personal Vietnam.”) McCain, who served 22 years in the Navy, has lashed out repeatedly against the administration in recent weeks. At an award ceremony last week at the National Constitution Center, McCain mourned a [shift in American politics](http://time.com/4985320/john-mccain-liberty-medal-nationalism-isolationism/) to “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” In July, McCain [cast a key late night vote](http://time.com/4878038/john-mccain-vote-video/) to defeat the Republican “skinny repeal” attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act. McCain and Trump have clashed publicly since the presidential primary, when Trump [questioned McCain’s military credentials](http://time.com/3963612/donald-trump-john-mccain-military-service/) and reputation as a “war hero,” claiming to prefer “people who weren’t captured” — a reference to McCain’s five years in captivity as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. McCain has meanwhile suggested that Trump [apologize](http://time.com/3964229/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero-apology/) to veterans and military families, which Trump refused. More recently, he [called](http://time.com/4924866/john-mccain-congress-trump-op-ed/) Trump “poorly informed” and “impulsive” in an August [op-ed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-its-time-congress-returns-to-regular-order/2017/08/31/f62a3e0c-8cfb-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.1e35a9e874c2) in the Washington _Post,_ in which he criticized the president’s response to violence at a white supremacy rally in [Charlottesville](http://time.com/4902502/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference/). ## Transcript [00:00] It was a tumultuous time, and most of it was bred by [00:04] the conflict. And one aspect of the conflict, by the way, [00:07] that I will never ever countenance, is that [00:11] we drafted the lowest income level of America, [00:16] and the highest income level found a doctor that would [00:19] say that they had a bone spur That is wrong. That [00:23] is wrong. If we're gonna ask every American to serve, [00:28] every American should serve. And later in the war we [00:31] went to the lottery system which was, but for years and [00:34] years it was the lowest income Americans which means [00:38] a lot of minorities That were forced to go and fight, [00:42] and to me that's a black mark [00:46] on the history of this country. Asking those with the [00:50] lowest income level to do the fighting for us, while the [00:53] wealthiest stayed home. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/"},"headline":"John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War","datePublished":"2017-10-23T07:40:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:58:06.910Z","description":"The president's medical deferrals from the war have been frequently criticized","url":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/","keywords":["John McCain","Donald Trump","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c4a20f44fcf487c/6988e2e5196cf40dfb0426dc/gettyimages-863085138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c4a20f44fcf487c/6988e2e5196cf40dfb0426dc/gettyimages-863085138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Votes On Various Budget Amendments","caption":"Senate Votes On Various Budget Amendments","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/john-mccain/","name":"John McCain"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/","name":"John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"John McCain Takes a Veiled Swipe at Donald Trump's Medical Exemption From the Vietnam War","description":"Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump's draft deferrals during the Vietnam War this week, following a series of public rebukes of the Trump administration.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pyh4yeir/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-23T16:34:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pyh4yeir.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/","duration":"PT55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4992850/john-mccain-draft-trump-bone-spur/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```