Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a decorated Navy SEAL veteran, has called on Barron Trump to join the military.
“Do something your father didn’t have the patriotism to do,” Ventura, 74, said Tuesday on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Ventura, who served on an elite Navy SEALs unit during the Vietnam War, slammed President Donald Trump’s three-week-old war with Iran, which has claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members and injured hundreds more.
“How can you send somebody else’s kids to a war if you won’t send your own?” said Ventura, who is also a WWE Hall of Famer.
“There’s a simple thing as a leader, and you know this having been in the military—Trump wouldn’t know it because he’s a draft dodging coward...it’s this: A war is justified if you’re willing to send your kids.”
Trump, 79, never served in the military, and in fact avoided the draft on five occasions, the last of which owed to a bone spur diagnosis.
Barron, 20, is living at the White House while attending New York University’s D.C. campus. He would be of draft age if a draft were authorized by his father and Congress.
Ventura voluntarily enlisted in 1969 after graduating high school, and was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal, the Navy Expeditionary Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Medal for his service.
He said he was “calling on” Barron to break family tradition and serve in the armed forces: “I want to see a Trump in the military.”
“After all, he’s had three wives, he’s had kids by each wife, and nobody’s ever served in the military,” Ventura said.
“Well Barron, you can change that. Enlist in the United States military right now, do something your father didn’t have the courage to do, do something your father didn’t have the patriotism to do.”
None of the president’s children—Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, and Barron—have served in uniform, and neither did his father, Fred Trump.
Trump’s paternal grandfather, Frederick Trump, born Friedrich Trump, escaped Germany’s mandatory military service when he immigrated to the U.S. He was later stripped of his German citizenship after authorities found out he had dodged the draft.
Ventura said he’d heard the excuse that Barron, at 6-foot-9, is too tall to serve.
“Uh-uh!” Ventura said, pointing out that 7-foot-tall NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson once served on active duty in the Navy.
“Come on Trumps! Don’t just reap the benefits of this free world. Somebody put on the uniform, and that’s you Barron!” he said.
After the self-styled “Peace President” launched his war on Iran and dismissed U.S. military deaths as “the way it is,” #SendBarron began trending nationwide.
Meanwhile, former South Park writer Toby Morton created DraftBarronTrump.com, a website calling on the young Trump to be sent to war.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
