Why Trump's Haters Are Wondering If Barron Has Bone Spurs

On the evening on June 21, 2025, Donald Trump announced via Truth Social that the U.S. had bombed three nuclear sites in Iran. The White House social media accounts later released photos of Donald wearing a MAGA hat while in the Situation Room watching the attack unfold. Along with posts about the inappropriateness (or not) of him wearing his own merch at such a serious time, plenty of people brought up Barron Trump in relation to the attack. One person joked on X, "In what has been described as a 'pure coincidence', nineteen year-old Barron Trump has been diagnosed with a debilitating bone spur on the same day his Dad started a new war." Another said, "BREAKING: Barron Trump has been rushed to the nearest hospital, complains of sharp pains in his feet."

As for why people would be linking Barron and bone spurs, it has everything to do with Donald. There have been claims that Trump avoided going to Vietnam by saying that he had bone spurs that he really didn't have. There's a report that it was a podiatrist from Queens, who was a tenant of Donald Trump's father Fred Trump, who wrote the doctor's note for the bone spurs. The podiatrist's daughters explained that their father told the story and said the letter was written as a "favor" for Fred, according to The New York Times.

Barron recently finished his first year at New York University and he is old enough to serve in the military. Bone spurs can be hereditary, so if Donald did have them, there's a chance Barron could, too. One person on X quipped, "Thoughts and prayers for his weak genes."

We don't have any clear evidence that Donald Trump did have bone spurs but we also don't have clear evidence that he didn't. We've heard testimony from Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who's now ashamed of his association with the president, about them. Cohen said he never saw any medical records that confirmed the diagnosis. Cohen also said he wasn't permitted to divulge any details, and that Trump had told him, "You think I'm stupid, I wasn't going to Vietnam," according to the Military Times.

What we do know about Trump and Vietnam is that before the medical deferment, he had used four educational deferments. But once he graduated from Wharton in 1968, he was again eligible for the draft. By October of that year, he had his medical deferment in place. In 1969, the draft lottery began; Trump's draft number was 356 of 365.

He didn't mention bone spurs as the reason that he didn't serve in Vietnam during a 2011 interview. Instead he said, "Well, I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I was sitting at college, watching. I was going to the Wharton School of Finance. And I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers [they] never got up to," per the National Review. That timeline doesn't seem to match up, and considering that Trump was athletic when he was in his military high school, critics are left with more questions than answers.

Donald Trump hasn't produced any documentation for his supposed medical condition and said spurs haven't come up on any of his White House medical updates. The updates have included details like an appendectomy he had at age 11, so it's not as though there would be a statute of limitations, as it were, on releasing information on any surgical treatment he may have had for them. Granted, bone spurs aren't always treated with surgery, so there may not have been anything to include in the report.

This isn't the first time Donald's bone spurs have come up as a topic of interest. When Nikki Haley was running against Donald for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, her campaign team brought up the bone spurs issue. "A man who went to elaborate lengths to avoid the uniform at all costs can't understand the selfless sacrifice American heroes make," she said, according to The American Presidency Project.

There's been no confirmation or denial from the White House or the Trump family as to whether or not Barron Trump has bone spurs. Melania Trump's team did shut down the rumor that Barron had been rejected from Harvard after Donald started attacking the college, however, so who knows. There might be an official statement coming soon.