Doing the math on Trump’s claims that parents of KIAs from the Korean War asked him to bring their sons home

Here’s the money quote from the interview in the video above, with emphasis added by me:

“We have thousands of people that have asked for that. Thousands and thousands of people. So many people asked when I was on the campaign; I’d say ‘Wait a minute, I don’t have any relationship’, but they said, ‘When you can, President, we’d love our son to be brought back home.’”

Time for some history and math!

The Korean War ran from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. Readers who grew up in the 1970s may think it ran longer, but that’s because of the TV series M*A*S*H, which was set during that war, ran from 1972 to 1983, nearly four times as long.

Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor feeds a 2-week-old kitten named Miss Hap after her mother had been killed during a mortar attack in Korea. Click the photo to see the source.

Suppose the youngest of soldiers was recruited and sent to Korea in the last days of the war, when he was killed. At the age of 18, that puts his birth year at 1935.

Dean Martin — possibly sober — in 1918. Click the photo to see the source.

Suppose his parents were also 18 when he was born, which wouldn’t have been too out of the ordinary back then. That puts their birth year at 1917, which would make them 101 years old today, or 100 if their birthdays take place later this year.

Now remember, Trump said that thousands of these parents have asked for their sons’ remains to be sent home. Thousands of people who at least 100 years old.

Now, let’s consider Trump’s rather casual relationship with the truth, but at the same time, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Suppose what he’s saying is true, and that these parents exist, but he exaggerated their number. If we take those thousands and reduce their number by 90%, that would mean there are still hundreds of these 100-year-old parents of Korean MIAs.

Even if we took that number of parents and reduced that number by 90%, there’d still be dozens of these centenarians looking to bring their sons home.

Even if there were a single dozen of these 100+ year old parents, never mind thousands, they’d be in the news. In fact, given Trump’s ego, he’d trot them out in front the cameras.