Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
- President Donald Trump disembarked Air Force One on Thursday to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," a song about children of influential families who were able to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
- Trump was one of those people: he received military draft deferments five times in the 1960s and 1970s, four for college and one for citing a medical condition called bone spurs.
- The New York Times reported in 2018 that a foot doctor might have falsely diagnosed Trump with bone spurs as a favor to his father, Fred Trump.
- Trump had been disembarking his plane to attend a campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan.
- It comes after a week of tension between Trump and the military after an Atlantic report said he called fallen American soldiers "losers."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump's campaign played a song about rich people dodging the Vietnam War draft — which Trump did five times — as the president disembarked his plane for a rally in Michigan.
The 1969 song "Fortunate Son," by Creedence Clearwater Revival, blared as Air Force One arrived to crowds of Trump supporters at MBS International Airport in Freeland, Michigan, on Thursday.
You can watch the moment here:
—Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 10, 2020
The song is sung from the perspective of young men drafted to fight in the Vietnam War who didn't have the powerful connections to avoid going.
As the lyrics say: "Some folks are born silver spoon in hand / Lord, don't they help themselves, no ... It ain't me, it ain't me / I ain't no millionaire's son."
The Washington Post's Dave Weigel tweeted that it was "an entry for the 'nobody listened to the lyrics' hall of fame.'"
It's not clear if the song choice was intentional. Business Insider has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
Trump received military draft deferments five times in the 1960s and 1970s, according to Snopes: four times for college, and once for having bone spurs, which are protrusions of calcium on the heel bone and qualified him for a medical exemption.
In December 2018, The New York Times reported that a foot doctor may have falsely diagnosed Trump with bone spurs to avoid the Vietnam War as a favor to Trump's father and the doctor's landlord, Fred Trump.
Michael D'Antonio, the biographer of a 2015 book about Trump — "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" — had also said that when he interviewed Trump for his book, Trump "took off his shoes and tried to show me these bone spurs. I didn't see anything."
It was not uncommon for young men from influential families to avoid the military draft during the Vietnam War, as Business Insider previously reported.
Thursday's campaign rally came after a week of tensions between Trump and the military following a September 3 report in The Atlantic detailing how Trump previously called fallen US soldiers "losers" and "suckers."
Trump denied the claims in the report, though other outlets and officials have corroborated them.
- Read more:
- Trump escalated his friction with the military, saying its leaders 'want to do nothing but fight wars' so weapon makers can be 'happy'
- Former defense secretary says Trump's word and actions 'on the record' corroborates Atlantic report of him belittling American veterans
- Joe Biden relaunched a $47 million digital campaign targeting military families after Trump reportedly called dead US soldiers 'losers' and 'suckers'
- More US troops say they would vote for Biden than Trump, new poll shows
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