--- title: Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military description: "The military, they have unbelievable heart" canonical: https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-02T01:21:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:51.427Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military og:description: "The military, they have unbelievable heart" og:url: https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91423345618ec6ef/698873602dce0173a29e6bb6/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3162 og:image:height: 1779 og:image:alt: donald-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military twitter:description: "The military, they have unbelievable heart" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91423345618ec6ef/698873602dce0173a29e6bb6/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 2, 2015 1:21 AM UTC  Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on Nov. 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on Nov. 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. Ty Wright—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 2, 2015 1:21 AM UTC Donald Trump said that he has always felt guilty for never serving in the military, and some of his career choices have been attempts to make up for that. Speaking at a rally in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire Tuesday night, Trump decided to take questions from the audience. The first question, from Daniel Ward who identified himself as a civil engineer, was about the source of Trump’s patriotism. “What makes you love this country the way you do?” Ward asked Trump. “I didn’t serve, I haven’t served,” Trump said of the military, saying he got deferments for service based on his education and a foot injury. “I always felt a little guilty,” Trump admitted. “I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve built the Vietnam Memorial in New York… In a way it’s a way of making up. I’ve built a lot of things and people forget, but the Vietnam Memorial to this day, if I’m walking down the street, the military so often they come up to me and they say, Mr. Trump, thank you for building the Vietnam Memorial. They still thank me for it. The military, they have unbelievable heart.” Trump donated over $1 million in 1983 to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in New York. Previously, Trump has said that he felt like he served in the military [because he attended a military boarding school](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/donald-trump-military-service-213392#ixzz3t7b8O100). “I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people,” Trump said in a biography of his time at the New York Military Academy. He also said his school years provided him with “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military","datePublished":"2015-12-02T01:21:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:51.427Z","description":"\"The military, they have unbelievable heart\"","url":"https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","new hampshire","Republican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91423345618ec6ef/698873602dce0173a29e6bb6/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91423345618ec6ef/698873602dce0173a29e6bb6/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump","caption":"Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on Nov. 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio.","creditText":"Ty Wright—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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4132139/donald-trump-military-new-hampshire/","name":"Donald Trump Feels Guilty for Never Serving in the Military"}}]}] ```