>They say we're not allowed to talk about this. Well, too bad!!

WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT TRUMP EITHER SO THAT MEANS EVERYTHING WE
SAY IS TRUE.

THAT MAY BE TRUE BUT TRUMP WAS BLOWING OTHER MEN DURING THE 1970S TO STOP
BEING DRAFTED AND SENT TO VIETNAM. IT'S SAID THAT TRUMP HAS A PRETTY
GOOD TECHNIQUE AND GIVES GOOD HEAD.

HE CALLED IT HIS 'PERSONAL VIETNAM'. HE GOT VD FROM DOZENS OF NEW YORK
CITY RENT BOYS.

TRUMP, A WIFE BEATER, ALSO HAS AIDS FROM SEXUAL ACTIVITY DURING THE
1980S, ANOTHER ONE OF HIS 'PERSONAL VIETNAMS'.

Trump once said that avoiding STDs in his dating life in the '80s was
his �personal Vietnam."

Rating: Correct Attribution

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a comment made by former
U.S. President Donald Trump in the 1990s resurfaced on social media. On
Aug. 8, 2024, a post on X claimed that Trump had once referred to
avoiding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as his "personal Vietnam."

The post, which had been viewed 662,400 times as of this writing,
featured a 25-second clip from Trump's 1997 appearance on Howard Stern's
radio show. In the clip, Stern interviewed Trump, then a New York real
estate mogul, about his sexual escapades.

It is true that Trump made this remark comparing his avoidance of STD's
to "his personal Vietnam" during his appearance on "The Howard Stern
Show." As such, we rate this claim as "Correct Attribution."

A longer version of the clip has also been posted to YouTube.

In the video, Trump is seen in a studio being interviewed by Stern along
with his co-host Robin Quivers, with the two men joking about surviving
the '80s with their sexual health intact. During the conversation, Stern
first compared the situation to the Vietnam War, a comparison that Trump
echoed. Here is a transcript of that exchange:

Howard Stern: Now, getting back to dating, right? And when you gotta
say to a woman, "Hey, listen, you gotta go to my personal doctor, and I'm
gonna have you checked out," is that a tough thing to say to a woman, or
you just got the b***s to say it?

Donald Trump: You know? I tell you, it's amazing. I can't even
believe it. I've been so lucky, in terms of that whole world.

Howard Stern: You've never gotten a social disease.

Donald Trump: It is a dangerous world out there. It is scary. It's
like Vietnam, sort of like, you know, the Vietnam era.

Howard Stern: It is. It is your personal Vietnam.

Donald Trump: It is my personal Vietnam.

Howard Stern: You've said that many times.

Donald Trump: I feel like a great and very brave soldier.

In an earlier 1993 interview with Stern, the two men discussed Trump's
dating life during the 1980s' AIDS crisis. According to a 2016 BuzzFeed
News report:

"You know, if you're young, and in this era, and if you have any
guilt about not having gone to Vietnam. We have our own Vietnam. It's
called the dating game," he said during a discussion of Trump's well-
publicized germaphobia and the ongoing AIDs epidemic.

"It's pretty dangerous out there Robin. It's like Vietnam," Trump
said earlier in the interview.

"It is, it is," Stern said. "The dating scene is like Vietnam."

"Dating is like being in Vietnam," Trump said. "You're the equivalent
of a soldier going over to Vietnam."

Stern reflected on his 1997 radio interview with Trump in his 2019 memoir
"Howard Stern Comes Again," transcribing it on page 132, and affirming
that he was the one who first brought up Trump's "personal Vietnam," with
Trump repeating the line.

In a 2019 interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Stern recalled
his 1997 conversation with Trump, acknowledging that it was a tongue-in-
cheek, "joking scenario," not meant to imply that Trump was seriously
comparing his experiences to those of Vietnam veterans. The reference is
at the 1 minute, 30-second mark of the interview:

Trump, now 78, is running for another shot at the presidency in the
November 2024 election. Although he did not serve in the military, Trump
was of age during the Vietnam War era when males 18 and older were
eligible for the draft. He obtained four student draft deferments while
attending college, and was later disqualified from serving, except in a
time of war or national emergency, due to bone spurs in both heels. We
confirmed Trump's deferment history via Selective Service records
obtained from the U.S. National Archives by The Smoking Gun in 2011.

Snopes has previously reported on interviews conducted by Stern,
including fact-checking his recent interview with President Joe Biden,
and Trump's admission to Stern that he entered changing rooms of beauty
pageant contestants.
Sources:

- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqJ2kCszGZc. Accessed 12 Aug.
2024.

---. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZCAupYSINI. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

"Donald Trump." Howard Stern, 2 Dec. 1997.

"---." Howard Stern, 2 Dec. 1997.

"Donald Trump Calls Avoiding STDs His 'Personal Vietnam.'" Peoplemag,
https://people.com/politics/trump-boasted-of-avoiding-stds-while-dating-
vaginas-are-landmines-it-was-my-personal-vietnam/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

Donald Trump on the Howard Stern Show (January 11, 1993).
https://www.trumponstern.com/episode/auto-draft-32/. Accessed 12 Aug.
2024.

Kaczynski, Andrew. "Trump, Comparing Sex to Vietnam, Said in 1998 He
Should Receive the Congressional Medal of Honor." CNNMoney, 14 Oct. 2016,
https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-
stds/index.html.

---. "Trump, Comparing Sex to Vietnam, Said in 1998 He Should Receive the
Congressional Medal of Honor." CNNMoney, 14 Oct. 2016,
https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-
stds/index.html.

Kaczynski, Nathan McDermott, Andrew. "Trump In 1993 On Dating And STDs:
'The Equivalent Of A Soldier Going Over To Vietnam.'" BuzzFeed News, 28
Apr. 2016, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/natemcdermott/trump-in-
1993-the-dating-scene-is-like-vietnam.

Krause, Alan. "Trump Dishonors the Military." Wednesday Journal, 9 July
2024, http://www.oakpark.com/2024/07/09/trump-dishonors-the-military/.

News, A. B. C. "Radio Legend Howard Stern Recalls Interviewing Trump:
'There Was No Filter.'" ABC News,
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/radio-legend-howard-stern-recalls-
interviewing-trump-filter/story?id=62993823. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.

@RonBrownstein. X, 7 Aug. 2024,
https://x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1821209176363634725.

Stern, Howard. Howard Stern Comes Again. Simon and Schuster, 2019.

Tsintziras, Aya. "Donald Trump Revealed Truths About His Dating Life
During Scandalous Interviews With Howard Stern." TheThings, 3 Apr. 2024,
https://www.thethings.com/donald-trumps-dating-scandal-howard-stern-
interviews/.

"X.Com." X (Formerly Twitter),
https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1821715557395071238. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.