To the editor:

In a press conference recently, our brave, stalwart president, Donald Trump, was asked about the recent Parkland school shooting where a school resource officer failed to rush into the school but instead waited outside. Trump mused that were it he there, he would have bravely and unhesitatingly rushed in to confront the shooter, insinuating the resource officer was a coward, and Trump would have been a hero. Speaking of cowards, I would remind Mr. Trump he had his chance to prove his bravery and manhood back in the late ’60s, when he was sent a draft notice, as was I.

Back then, such a notice was almost a certain guarantee you would be sent to fight in Vietnam. Trump desperately avoided the draft five times (and Vietnam) by claiming he had “bone spurs.” I got the same notice, was drafted and spent a year, 1968, in Vietnam as a Marine Corps captain. Over 58,000 other American kids died in Vietnam, while Trump went to college and hid behind Daddy’s money.

Now today, Mr. Trump paints himself as a courageous, heroic, fearless leader in his attempt to reinvent his persona, ignore his past behavior, trying to paint himself as the person he wishes he was, but knows inside he isn’t. To me, he is a pathetic, sad excuse of a president … and a man.

There is an old saying, “When someone tells you who they are … believe them!”