Trump's Military School Post Completely Backfires As The Internet Brings Up The Truth

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On March 12, 2026, Donald Trump decided to support the long-held tradition of Throwback Thursday by posting a vintage snap from his school days. Standing at attention in full dress uniform, Donald posed beside his parents, Fred Trump and Mary Trump. In 1959, when he was 13, Donald began attending New York Military Academy for the remainder of his middle school and secondary school education.

The experience apparently was a pivotal one for Donald. "He said that in prep school he received more military training than most actual soldiers did," Michael D'Antonio wrote in "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success." However, despite Donald's close identification with the armed services, the president never served in the military — a fact that didn't escape the netizens who saw his retro photo. "Unspeakably pathetic (Trump received 5 draft deferments during the Vietnam War)," journalist Aaron Rupar remarked on X.

While four of these deferments were due to Donald's status as a college student, people poked fun at the health diagnosis that led to his medical exemption. "I'm surprised Trump was able to stand long enough to take this picture with those bone spurs," one poster joked. "Ahahaha! Corporal Bone Spurs playing soldier! Laughable," derided another. Donald's diagnosis of bone spurs occurred the year he graduated college, leading some to wonder if he was looking for a new option to avoid the draft. In addition, the diagnosing physician just happened to be one of Fred's tenants, which fueled further skepticism about the condition's legitimacy.

When he was growing up, Donald Trump reportedly had an outsized reputation for getting into various scrapes, which played into Fred Trump and Mary Trump's decision to send him to military school. Unfortunately, Donald's behavior in military school was sometimes very aggressive. "Donald Trump yelled at his classmates. He pushed them around," Marc Fisher, the co-author of "Trump Revealed," informed "Frontline PBS." "He even used a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who didn't listen to him when he told them what to do."

He rose through the ranks, moving from private to captain by the time he graduated from New York Military Academy. Donald and his then-white blond hair were also featured prominently in the yearbook, where he was lauded as the class "Ladies Man." In another instance, Donald reveled in the media coverage of his athletic abilities. "It was the first time I was ever in the newspaper. I thought it was amazing," Donald remarked in "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success."

Besides this recognition, Donald also had a leadership role during his senior year. However, he was reassigned just a month later, and people's perceptions are divided. "I got a promotion — because I did so good," he recalled in The Washington Post. In contrast, other students claimed the decision occurred because Donald didn't do his part to prevent hazing among the student body.