Did A Jewish Podiatrist ‘Diagnose’ Bone Spurs That Got Trump Out Of Vietnam?
Donald Trump Image by Getty Images
It’s been unclear for 50 years who drafted the “very strong letter” confirming that President Trump had bone spurs in his heels, allowing him to skirt military service in Vietnam.
“You are talking a lot of years,” Trump told The New York Times in 2016, unable to recall the doctor’s name.
The answer could be Larry Braunstein, a now-deceased podiatrist in Queens, New York, who rented his office from Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump. The New York Times visited the doctor’s daughters, who suggested that the diagnosis could have been granted as a favor.
Elysa Braunstein and Sharon Kessel told the Times that their father, who died in 2007, often shared the story of helping the younger Trump during the Vietnam War.
“I know it was a favor,” Elysa Braunstein said, recalling that her father made it sound as if President Trump did not have an injury that should’ve exempted him from serving. “But did he examine him? I don’t know.”
There is no paper evidence backing up the family’s claims, according to The Times. The Braunstein family also implied another foot doctor, Manny Weinstein, may have been involved in the spur scheme. Weinstein, who died in 1995, lived in two apartments owned by Fred Trump. According to city directories, he moved into the first the year President Trump’s exemption was signed off on.
Braunstein’s daughters said their father didn’t leave any medical records with them, and the doctor who took over his practice told The Times that he has no knowledge of the situation.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
