Five times deferred, never served — now Trump wants the Medal of Honor and sends others to war

There is a certain kind of person who demands from others what he himself has never fulfilled. It is not called hypocrisy — the word is too small. It is more of a worldview: that rules apply to those who have no way of avoiding them.

Donald Trump was deferred from military service five times during the Vietnam War. Four times as a student, once because of a bone spur — a condition that millions of people have without ever seeing a doctor. Others from his generation went. Some did not come back. Trump attended the New York Military Academy, a private school with a military dress code. That is not the same. He knows that. We all know that.

Now he is signing a rule that is meant to automatically register eighteen-year-old men for military service. No longer a personal decision, no longer the hand that volunteers itself - but state databases transferring names before the young person even knows he might be asked. The obligation already existed. What is new is that it now leaves no gap. No way out. No bone spur.

And as if that were not enough, Trump is thinking about awarding himself the Medal of Honor. The highest military decoration of the United States. More than 3,500 people have received it since 1861 - all in active service, all at risk to their lives, none without a military background. Trump has none.

I sit with that thought and do not know whether to laugh or remain silent. Perhaps that is the real question: what does it say about a society when it no longer perceives such a moment as a scandal, but as just another piece of news?

The United States is at war. Trump has expanded operations against Iran, attacked Venezuela, and issued threats against Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, and Greenland. He has internally referred to veterans as losers. And now eighteen-year-olds are to be automatically registered - by a man who never stood where he is now sending others, and who wants to award himself the highest decoration of the country.

Perhaps that is the full definition of power: not only to decide who goes - but also to decide who was a hero.