This is only the most recent in a string of insulting remarks made by Trump about military service. When Trump declared that then-Sen. John McCain,
a political rival who flew as a naval aviator in the Vietnam War and was imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for more than five years,
suffering injuries that would affect him for the rest of his life, was “not a war hero,” he sparked controversy early in his first presidential campaign.
Afterwards, in 2020, The Atlantic revealed that Trump had privately said, when on a trip to France in 2018, that he did not want to
pay respects at the graves of American military heroes, calling the dead warriors “losers” and “suckers.” Trump has denied saying the comment more than once.
Trump famously referred to his attempts to prevent acquiring sexually transmitted infections as “my personal Vietnam.”
