Governor Gavin Newsom didn’t hold back when President Donald Trump gave a gushing speech to U.S. Navy troops and suggested he’d “love” to have their jobs.
The California governor’s press office took to X on Tuesday to mock Trump as the “Bone Spurs in Chief,” a brutal nod to the president’s draft-dodging past, after his rambling address aboard the USS George Washington off Japan’s coast.
“You are winners. Oh, I’d love to have your job,” Trump told the sailors, praising their service in a way that sharply contrasted with his own history.
To underline the jab, Newsom’s team shared a screenshot of a 2019 Military Times article detailing how Trump avoided the Vietnam draft. The piece quotes his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, saying the president faked a medical condition to secure a deferment.
“Mr. Trump claimed [his medical deferment] was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery,” Cohen told the House Oversight Committee in February 2019.
Trump ultimately received five draft deferments. Four came while he was in college, and a fifth arrived in 1968 after a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels—a buildup of calcium that conveniently kept him out of combat.
Despite never serving in a war, Trump has called himself a war hero, most recently in August after ordering bombings on Iran. The president also awarded the title to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a man with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
“He’s a war hero, because we worked together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am too,” Trump told Fox News host Mark Levin on his radio show.
Trump’s tour of East Asia, which began in Malaysia on Sunday, continued in Japan on Monday. Observers noted the president gingerly stepping off Air Force One, fueling questions about his health. On the flight from Malaysia, he told reporters he had undergone an MRI during what was described as a routine medical checkup earlier this month—without offering details.
Between self-awarded war hero status and military admiration, Trump’s performance provided Newsom with a perfect opening for a sharp, public dig—reminding the world of the five deferments that earned him the moniker “Bone Spurs in Chief.” Watch Trump’s remarks and Newsom’s response below:
Trump to US Troops: I’d love to have your job pic.twitter.com/h1yPTTqAU8
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 28, 2025
