Donald Trump is now calling himself a war hero — and says he’s not getting the credit he deserves.
In a Tuesday interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, Trump praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war hero” and then lumped himself into the same category.
“I worked with your friend Bibi… He’s a war hero. I guess I am, too,” Trump said.
He didn’t stop there. Referring to U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, Trump added, “Nobody cares, but I am too. I sent those planes.”
Trump, who never served in the military and received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War — including one for alleged “bone spurs” — now says launching airstrikes makes him a war hero.
“I’ve settled six wars, and we did Iran, and I wiped out their total nuclear capability, which they would have used against Israel in two seconds if they had the chance,” he told Levin.
“He’s in there fighting, they’re trying to put him in jail on top of everything else, how about that?” Trump said of Netanyahu. “He’s a war hero because we worked together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am too.”
Trump has been trying to rebrand himself as a global peacemaker. But reality doesn’t match the story — and calling himself a “war hero” isn’t convincing anyone.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, blasted the comment.
“To put himself on the same level of people that have actually gone out and served this country, not claimed bone spurs, is an offense to anybody who served,” Kinzinger told CNN.
“And frankly, you just take somebody that served, calling themselves a war hero, even that would be inappropriate,” he added. “For a guy that never served to say it, it’s nuts.”
This isn’t the first time Trump’s view of military service has raised eyebrows. In 2015, he mocked the late Sen. John McCain’s record as a POW, saying: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
And in a 1997 interview with Howard Stern, Trump infamously compared dating in the 1980s to combat: “It’s like Vietnam. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
Now, he’s comparing ordering airstrikes to frontline military service — and calling himself a war hero for it.
Listen to Trump’s remarks in the clip below:
Donald Trump on Benjamin Netanyahu:
“I worked with your friend Bibi…He’s a war hero. I guess I am, too.” pic.twitter.com/N7RJI5DlYp
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) August 19, 2025
