Meet the Veterans Who Trump is Screwing Over

Six vets sound off about the draft dodger in chief.

Donald Trump has purged the military’s senior leadership and replaced them with people who one retired colonel told The New York Times makes it seem like “they’re political appointees selected on the basis of their personal loyalty and partisan alignment.”

He summoned hundreds of top generals to Quantico, VA and made them sit through a lecture about grooming from a secretary of defense who likes to do push ups on the internet while sharing secret war plans with journalists.

He is banning transgender people from serving in the military, leaving service members feeling “betrayed and devastated.” He’s repeatedly used our armed forces as stage props and human propaganda at his rallies, dangerously politicizing America’s soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

This is in keeping with Trump’s lifelong pattern of disrespect and contempt for military service and those who serve.

After repeatedly dodging the draft during the Vietnam War, he called his struggle to avoid getting STDs his “personal Vietnam.” He has called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers” and refused to appear at memorials for those killed in action.

He has had wounded warriors shielded from view at his public appearances—saying, “no one wants to see that”—and demeaned the service of Sen. John McCain, who spent more than five years in a prisoner of war camp.

When reviewing the dead at Arlington, Trump asked his own chief of staff, Marine Gen. John Kelly—whose son died in combat—“I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Trump’s disrespect for the military is boundless. And it hasn’t escaped the notice of America’s service members.

Here are just some of the veterans—real people who put on our country’s uniform and volunteered to put their lives on the line—speaking out about how Trump’s disastrous policies have affected them, and about all the ways his cruelty and disrespect undermine America’s military preparedness:

ALLISON, Army Medic

A staff sergeant who served for eight years, Allison deployed to Afghanistan and planned to use her GI Bill benefits to help fund her three-year-old daughter’s education. But Trump’s move to expel transgender service members and revoke their benefits is changing all that.

She deployed with the storied 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper as a senior line medic in Afghanistan during Operation Allies Refuge. There, she was part of the effort to help more than 124,000 Afghan refugees escape Taliban rule. For the past several years, she has worked in the air medical research laboratory at Fort Rucker, AL.

Trump’s transgender ban means that Allison now won’t be eligible for the benefits that were promised to her. Her plan to become an Army nurse has been scuttled, despite the fact that she has secured letters of recommendation from multiple senior officers and doctors attesting to her fitness to serve.

Her plan was always to join the military and serve her country, and she went to airborne school, air assault school, and was, until recently, planning on joining the elite Pathfinder School. The Trump administration has rewarded that service by moving to kick her out.

Supporters of Trump’s purge say that transgender service members are “non-deployable.” That’s a lie. Allison stood ready to deploy again if and when her country called, until Trump made that impossible.

ALAN, US Army

Alan served in the US Army, deploying to Korea to man the de-militarized zone between North and South Korea. He was frostbitten, wounded on patrol, and suffered hearing problems from tank gunnery exercises. When he came home, he saw disrespect from many Americans who demeaned his service. Today, he’s seeing that same kind of attack—except this time it’s coming from the commander in chief.

Trump’s deep cuts to the Veterans Administration have significantly diminished the standard and availability of care across VA hospitals. Alan relies on the VA for all of his medical care, and he immediately noticed the difference once Trump took office. And he’s watched as other veterans have experienced similar losses, with longer wait times and fewer resources available to them.

Sometimes, red-hatted MAGA supporters come up to Alan, slap him on the back, and thank him for his service. When he tells them about what Trump is doing to his health care, they call him a “communist.” It’s painfully ironic that a service member who literally fought communism now has to suffer being called a communist just for daring to demand that the president not screw vets out of their duly earned benefits.

JIM, Retired Marine

Jim served on active duty for 20 years, from 1976 to 1996. Today, as a disabled veteran, he relies on the VA for all of his health care needs. For him, it has been a literal lifesaver. It has provided the most stable and reliable care he’s ever received, and fulfilled its historic promise of serving those who served the country. Jim has had seven surgeries, all with good outcomes, including one operation in 2011 that saved his life.

Throughout that time, though, the agency has always been short-staffed and underfunded. Since Trump came back into office, that’s been taken to a new level. Trump’s and Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts threaten care to vets, eliminate vital services, and create longer wait times. Jim had the same primary care doctor at the VA for 22 years. But after she retired earlier this year, he’s had to cycle through multiple new doctors, and he faces months-long wait times just for an appointment.

Jim’s wife of 23 years is disabled as well and is a cancer survivor. With the disruptions to VA services, she has had to move states just to get access to the care she needs. Jim can’t do the same, because he’s anchored to the hospital he’s established at. So now they live long-distance, hundreds of miles apart, talking on the phone and planning to visit one another whenever they can. Trump did that.

BILL, Navy Corpsman

From 1967 to 1969, Bill served on active duty as a US Navy hospital corpsman at the height of the Vietnam War. In recent months, his local VA physician informed him that she didn’t know how long she would be able to remain in her job, or even how long the care center would remain open. This was alarming news for a veteran who answered the call to serve his nation when Trump famously refused to. And it was a blatant betrayal of Trump’s repeated campaign promises to protect the military and “take care of our veterans.”

Last year, Bill lost his wife, who struggled with advanced Alzheimer’s. As her caregiver, Bill did everything he could to make her comfortable, and he searched for programs that might help mitigate the disease. For years, the VA has led critical research into potential cures for Alzheimer’s—which affects as many as 131,000 service members each year—investing hundreds of millions in clinical trials. Trump’s VA cuts now threaten that progress, as potentially life-saving studies are pulled for lack of funding.

Today, Bill is an adjunct professor of history at his local community college, and he knows well that at least since the Civil War, the United States has upheld a special obligation to take care of those among us who choose to wear the country’s uniform. Trump’s policies are a revocation of that centuries-long promise.

SCOTT, 82nd Airborne

After serving in the 82nd Airborne, Scott now serves as a veterans advocate, helping advance the interests of America’s service members. He relies on one of the largest VA medical centers in the Southeast for his health care, and since Trump came back into office, the quality of that care has declined precipitously. Scott has spoken to frontline doctors and nurses, as well as support staff who work at the facility, who live in daily fear of being let go. Many have already been fired, and others are planning on departing on their own terms, rather than waiting around.

His direct care hasn’t been affected—yet. But Scott believes it’s just a matter of time. He’s already seeing his VA center’s waiting room fill up with people from further out in his state, especially rural areas, and even people from out of state, who have lost access to their local care centers. That puts new strain on the staff, increases wait times, and will further diminish the standard of care that vets like him receive. There was also supposed to be a new clinic opening in his area earlier this year, but it’s been delayed indefinitely.

As a veteran and an advocate, Scott is deeply disappointed. He knows this administration isn’t putting veterans’ needs first and, even worse, he sees little hope on the horizon for the situation to get better. He never thought vets would end up being a casualty in a budget line, but that’s the reality of Trump’s second term.

RONN, Vietnam Veteran

Ronn served in Vietnam, where, like many others, he was exposed to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. Partially as a result of that exposure, today he’s a disabled veteran. He’s watched as people who express love and appreciation for the military—who laud service and praise America’s veterans—have instead turned their backs once those veterans need actual care and support. These are people whose freedoms were paid for by people like Ronn, and are now refusing to return the favor.

Trump’s VA cuts are particularly disturbing to Ronn. In the past, he’s relied on the VA’s suicide hotline, a lifeline for veterans in crisis and a resource that’s saved countless lives over the years. Thanks to the cuts, a vet in need might find themselves on hold, rather than connected to someone on the other end who can help. And cuts to cancer research at the VA jeopardize Vietnam vets in particular, due to cancer risks associated with exposure to Agent Orange. The mass firings at the VA will only make these problems worse.

While Trump has talked a big game about protecting American service members, Ronn considers him the biggest threat to veterans in our country. And he has a message for the vast majority of Americans who never served in the military: If you love veterans as much as you say you do, then silence is not acceptable in the face of this ongoing war on veterans.

Home of the Brave is a new initiative highlighting the harms of Donald Trump’s second term.