Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, took a sharp swipe at her uncle on Tuesday after he claimed the United States would have won the Vietnam War easily if he had been in charge.
In a post on X, April 21, Mary Trump wrote: “Donald says we would have won the Vietnam War if he’d been president. Maybe he should have just served.”
The comment came hours after Trump spoke about past U.S. military conflicts and said that America stopped fighting to win in Vietnam because of “political correctness.”
He said the country “would’ve won easy” without it. Trump has made similar remarks before, including claims that the U.S. could have won in Afghanistan the same way.
The Vietnam War ran from 1955 to 1975. The United States sent combat troops starting in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson.
At its peak, more than 500,000 American troops were in Vietnam. The war ended when North Vietnamese forces took Saigon in April 1975. More than 58,000 Americans died, and hundreds of thousands more were wounded.
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Trump, born in 1946, was of draft age during the war. He received five deferments between 1964 and 1968.
Four were for college, while the fifth was a medical exemption in 1968 for bone spurs in his heels. He has said the condition made him unfit for service.
The daughters of a Queens podiatrist later told The New York Times that their father gave Trump the diagnosis as a favor to their grandfather, Fred Trump. Trump has defended the deferments and said he supported the troops.
Mary Trump’s endless attacks on Donald Trump
Mary Trump, the daughter of Trump’s late brother Fred Trump Jr., has been a vocal critic of her uncle for years.
She wrote the 2020 book “Too Much and Never Enough,” which described the Trump family as dysfunctional and portrayed Donald Trump as unfit for office. She has also spoken out against him on television and social media since then.
Long-standing tension inside the Trump family
Mary Trump has been accusing her uncle of harming the family business and the country.
President Trump has dismissed her as someone looking for attention and money from her last name.
Trump has often brushed off criticism from family members. In the past, he has called his niece “not a nice person” and said she knows nothing about him.
President Trump also spoke about current military actions, including operations tied to Iran. He has told reporters he is “not afraid” of any conflict turning into “another Vietnam.”
Besides Mary Trump, other critics say the president’s comments about winning past wars ignore the complex reasons those conflicts ended as they did.
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Veterans groups have mixed views on Trump. He has signed measures to speed up veterans’ health care and has visited military bases.
At the same time, some veterans point to his draft record and past remarks, which seemed to question the sacrifice of those who served.
Mary Trump’s post holds the focus on the gap between Trump’s tough talk on war and his own lack of service.
She simply suggested that if her uncle believed he could have won the war, he should have taken part in it himself.
The Trump family has a long history of public disagreements. Brothers Fred and Donald had a difficult relationship.
It is the public domain that Fred Trump Jr. struggled with alcohol and died in 1981.
