It appears that President Donald Trump avoided the military draft during the Vietnam War when a doctor claimed he had bone spurs on his heels. I believe he simply got a doctor to lie about this to get the draft deferment. I’ve blogged about this multiple times. Last year, the two daughters of that doctor, who is now deceased, said this rumor about Donald Trump’s bone spur(s) circulated around metro-New York City for decades, and it is true. (Trump has never been clear about whether or not he had a bone spur on one heel or both heels.) One of that doctor’s daughters said she didn’t even think her dad examined Donald Trump, such as having an X-ray of his heels. Much of America appears to believe this now. If it is true, it is hypocrisy for our draft dodging president to tout the U.S. military on Independence Day.
But I’m surprised that I haven’t heard or read anything about the medical possibility that Donald Trump could have had bone spurs way back then and doesn’t have them now. For, everything I’ve read lately about bone spurs on heels is that they don’t go away. And it is mostly elderly people who even get bone spurs. And it’s mostly people who have arthritis, which are mostly elderly people, who get bone spurs. Donald Trump was in his twenties during the Vietnam War, which is young to have a bone spur.
Bone spurs are called osteophytes in medicine. They are bumps of extra bone that form on the ends or edges of bones. So, they can occur on heels. Bone spurs that do not occur due to significant osteoarthritis often form due to an injury or the constant rubbing of a tendon or ligament on a bone due to overuse syndrome.
Mayo Clinic says only about ten per cent of the population has a bone spur on their heel, and most of these are elderly people. Mayo also says about half of the people who have a bone spur never know it unless they get an X-ray of it. Thus, half of the people who have a bone spur never suffer pain from it. With no pain, they do all the normal stuff they want to do without being hindered by the bone spur.
The famous Cleveland Clinic says on its website in its article about “Bone Spurs” that “a bone spur is not a spiky structure, but rather a smooth outgrowth from the bone that has developed over a long period.”
So, bone spurs take a long time to form. Therefore, it is quite rare for someone in their twenties to have a bone spur. Moreover, Donald Trump would have had to have pain associated with his bone spur(s) in order for him to have legitimately avoided the draft.
Moreover, bone spurs are permanent deposits that will not go away on their own. The online website “Live Science” cites Mayo Clinic multiple times in its article published on August 3, 2016, “Donald Trump’s Draft Deferment: What Are Heel Spurs?” Dr. John G. Kennedy, a foot and ankle surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, is quoted in this article, and he seems to say, “the spurs themselves don’t go away.”
Despite all of the various treatments there are for bone spurs nowadays, they do not go away without being removed by surgery. And it is easy to tell if a person has a bone spur in a particular area by simply having it X-rayed. Bone spurs can be treated with anti-inflammatories and cortisone injections. But whatever improvement is derived from it is often temporary. And there can be negative effects from these meds. Bone spurs can be removed by surgery.
So, believe me, a bone spur will not go away on its own. Over twenty years ago, while I was playing on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour, I had to have a bone spur surgically removed from underneath my right kneecap. I had gotten so I could hardly walk. My doctor, Dr. Steadman (Steadman-Philippon Clinic then, in Vail, Colorado), was so famous they called him “the Knee Pope.” Lots of professional athletes, including Kobe Bryant when he got accused of sexual misbehavior and then sued for it, have had their knees operated on by Dr. Steadman. He was recommended to me by my PGA Tour friend Dave Stockton, for which I’ve always been grateful.
When Dr. Steadman did the surgery on my knee, he then told me that this arthritic condition would return. He said there was no way to prevent it, and therefore I might have to have the same surgery again in about ten or fifteen years. But he also told me that orthopedic surgery accounts for 50% of the improvement from surgery and rehabilitation is the other 50%. That is why I work the knee extension machine in the gym just about everyday I’m there. It keeps me going with no pain in that knee.
And when I had a hip replacement three years ago, the doctor removed a bone spur on that hip, which was separate from the hip joint, that had caused me severe pain for years because the tendon rubbed against it. I evidently had this problem for a long time before I started having pain from it. So, I have had some experience with bone spurs.
Just as Donald Trump is hides his taxes, I think he hides about his bone(s) spur by refusing to have an X-ray of his heels to prove he indeed has bone spurs that legitimately got him out of the military draft. As I’ve said multiple times, I’m an Army veteran and therefore dislike mostly white guy draft dodgers. As far as I’m concerned, they were not patriotic and were cowards in dodging in the draft. If he escaped the military draft, as reported, by faking bone spurs, he’s a hypocrite today in touting our military on Independence Day. In that case, the man should have just let the day go by without doing that.
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