In the third installment from Donald Trump’s Veterans speech of July 10th, we compare the things he’s saying to veterans now versus things he’s said in the past.

“We made a promise, and we have to honor the promise we made to these heroes: You will defend America, and America will defend you,” Trump said on Sunday to the gathering of military veterans. “But that promise has been broken by our politicians like so many others. … We have to get on the ball, we have to get it right.” He went on to outline many planned reforms to the Veteran’s Administration, including faster wait times, wider options of care and eliminating waste. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Trump’s planned changes could cost up to $500 billion dollars over the next ten years.

Trump has had a somewhat lower opinion of our nation’s military personnel in the past.

In 1991 Trump wrote a letter trying to get a 100 year old exception for veteran peddlers on Fifth Avenue revoked. “While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses? Do we allow Fifth Ave., one of the world’s finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?”

Not quite one year ago he made these comments about Sen. John McCain, decorated war hero and former POW: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

He told Bill O’Reilly that he disagreed with the current generals dealing with ISIS, and had a better idea. “I would hit them so hard. I would find you a proper general, I would find the Patton or MacArthur I would hit them so hard your head would spin. There’s nobody bigger or better at the military than I am.”

Speaking of Trump’s self proclaimed military acumen, he felt like he got the real military experience at his ritzy prep school. “I always felt like I was in the military. I got more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

He was drafted for Vietnam, but admitted to a medical deferment for heel spurs, and then bragged about it to The New York Times. “My number was so incredible, and it was a very high draft number. Anyway, so I never had to do that, but I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people.”

There are more, but we’ll end with the most disgusting. After Trump begged off from serving his country due to heel spurs, he compared the Vietnam war, where more than 50000 American soldiers died, to his sexual conquests in the 80s.

DONALD TRUMP: “I’ve been so lucky … In terms of that whole world.”
HOWARD STERN: “You’ve never gotten a social disease.”
TRUMP: “It is a dangerous world out there. It’s like Vietnam, sort of like, you know, Vietnam.”
STERN: “It is. It is your personal Vietnam, isn’t it?”
TRUMP: “It is my personal Vietnam.”
STERN: “It is, you’ve said that many times.”
TRUMP: “I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
STERN: “A lot of guys who went through Vietnam came out unscathed; a lot of guys who’ve gone through the eighties having sex with different women came out with AIDS and all kinds of things.”
TRUMP: “This is better than Vietnam. It’s more fun.”
STERN: “Every vagina is a landmine, haven’t we both said that in private?”

Sources:

http://www.people.com/article/donald-trump-likens-military-school-to-military-service

http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-military-training-quote/
http://www.tribdem.com/news/trump-calls-for-revamping-veterans-care-in-speech/article_2d072a56-8057-51f2-9794-c4040d0baa42.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-preaches-law-order-amid-renewed-push-va-reform-n607406
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2016/07/11/trump-va-plan-private-care/86954242/