The claim that Donald Trump described his own battles with venereal diseases as his “personal Vietnam” is inaccurate. In several interviews with Howard Stern in the 1990s, Trump compared avoiding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) during his dating life in the 1980s to the Vietnam War, calling it his “personal Vietnam” and joking that he felt like a “great and very brave soldier” for not contracting STDs. For example, in a 1997 interview, he said, “It’s amazing, I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world, it is a dangerous world out there. It’s like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.” Similar remarks were made in 1993 and 2004, emphasizing the risks of dating during the AIDS crisis, not personal infections. There is no evidence in these interviews or other credible sources that Trump claimed to have had venereal diseases himself; he stressed avoiding them. A 2016 claim by Ted Cruz alleging Trump spoke of “battles with venereal disease” was debunked as a misrepresentation, as Trump’s comments focused on prevention, not infection.
