Jesse Ventura ― the actor, pro wrestler and former Minnesota governor ― on Tuesday laid down a challenge to Barron Trump, daring the youngest son of Donald Trump to enlist in the U.S. military and serve in his father’s Iran war.
Ventura, a decorated Navy SEAL veteran and outspoken critic of the president, argued on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” that “a war is justified” only if those responsible are willing to send their own children to fight.
“Because how can you send somebody else’s kids to a war if you won’t send your own?” he asked.
Watch the interview from the 1:16 mark on YouTube.
Ventura dared the Trump scion:
“So, I’m calling right now for Barron Trump, Donald Trump’s son. You know, after all, he’s had three wives. He’s had kids by each wife and nobody’s ever served in the military. To my knowledge, a Trump in the last hundred years has never done military service. 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,” he added. “Do something your father didn’t have the patriotism to do.”
“I want to see a Trump in the military,” he said. “Everybody in my family has served, so I think I can say that with all due confidence. Come on, Trumps. Don’t just reap the benefits of this free world. Somebody put on the uniform and that’s you, Barron.”
Tom Williams via Getty Images
Elsewhere in the interview, Morgan asked Ventura about his interview of Trump at WrestleMania XX in 2004, when he told the crowd: “I think that we may need a wrestler in the White House in 2008.”
Ventura said he was only doing his job with the line and called Trump’s subsequent elevation to the WWE Hall of Fame a “tragedy,” adding that “when I was referring to putting a wrestler in the White House, I was talking about me, not him.”
Ventura later suggested it may be time “for a showdown between the Vietnam veteran and the draft dodger,” the latter a reference to Trump, who received deferments after he was diagnosed with bone spurs in his feet (even though the podiatrist’s daughters later claimed the diagnosis was done as “a favor” to Trump’s father, Fred Trump).
Morgan asked Ventura if he meant a physical confrontation.
“No, but if he wants it, he’s in the hall of fame,” Ventura replied. “Let’s both get in the ring. He’s in the hall of fame, isn’t he? Even though he’s never, ever had a match.”
