Donald Trump’s administration has not ruled out putting American troops on the ground in Iran, and recent comments from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in response to concerns from a Fox News host about the possibility of a draft are raising eyebrows.
During a recent appearance on Sunday Morning Futures, Leavitt was asked again whether the administration was considering deploying U.S. troops, with host Maria Bartiromo framing the question around the possibility of a draft.
“Mothers are worried that we’re going to have a draft, that they’re going to see their sons and daughters get involved in this,” Bartiromo said. “What do you want to say about the president’s plans for troops on the ground? As we know it’s largely been an air campaign up until now.”
In response, Leavitt said “President Trump wisely does not remove options off of the table.”
“I know a lot of politicians like to do that quickly but the president as commander in chief wants to continue to assess the success of this military operation,” she added. “It’s not part of the current plan right now but again the president wisely keeps his options on the table.”
When asked to clarify Leavitt’s remarks, including whether the president is considering imposing a draft, a White House spokesperson directed The Independent back to Leavitt’s remarks.
Americans have not been conscripted into war since the early 1970s, when 1.8 million men were called up to military service in Vietnam in a process that became increasingly unpopular.
During an interview with CBS 60 Minutes, when asked about the likelihood of boots on the ground, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “you don’t tell the enemy, you don’t tell the press, you don’t tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation.”
Advocacy groups for active-duty service members and veterans have criticized the administration’s shifting justifications for war with Iran and urged Congress to swiftly pass a War Powers resolution to rein in the president’s actions.
“Refusing to rule out boots on the ground, let alone a draft, sends a chilling message to service members and their families: your lives and futures are bargaining chips in an open-ended conflict with no clear endgame or congressional authorization,” Naveed Shah, political director for veterans’ advocacy group Common Defense, told The Independent.
“We’ve seen this playbook before, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, where initial promises of quick, limited action gave way to boots-on-the-ground, then troop surges, prolonged occupations, and massive human costs,” he said.
“A draft would be catastrophic: it would disproportionately hit working-class communities, divide the nation further, and undermine the all-volunteer force we’ve relied on since 1973,” according to Shah. “The U.S. military is strong and capable, but it’s not infinite, especially with recruitment challenges and existing global commitments.”
What has Trump said about the draft?
Trump falsely accused his Democratic opponents of forcing Americans into military service throughout his 2024 campaign.
During a rally in September 2024, he baselessly alleged Kamala Harris was talking about a draft. “That’s what they’re doing,” he said from Las Vegas. “She’s already talking about bringing back the draft. She wants to bring back the draft, and draft your child, and put them in a war that should never have happened.”
“All of your sons and daughters will end up getting a draft notice,” he said from Atlanta in October, roughly one week before Election Day. “‘Congratulations, you’ve been drafted in the military. You’re going to fight a war against a country that nobody’s ever heard of.’ Isn’t it true? Isn’t it ridiculous?”
A viral false claim on social media alleged that Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint for Trump’s return to the White House, had recommended opening the draft to public high school seniors for a two-year commitment. That does not appear in the document.
But officials in Trump’s orbit have in the past pushed for the president to impose some form of national service mandates to support the nation’s all-volunteer army. No such proposal has been introduced.
What exactly is the draft?
A military draft operates within the Selective Service System, a quasi independent agency separate from the Department of Defense.
The agency maintains a database of eligible Americans for a system that, “when authorized by the president and Congress, rapidly provides personnel in a fair and equitable manner while managing an alternative service program for conscientious objectors.”
A wartime draft was imposed for six conflicts, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the last war in which Americans were conscripted into military service.
A peacetime draft was imposed through the Selective Training and Service Act in 1940.
The U.S. armed forces moved to an all-volunteer military in 1973, though men are still required to register with the Selective Service System between the ages of 18 and 25.
Those requirements were renewed as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act in 2024.
How does it work?
The president cannot unilaterally bring back the draft through executive action.
Congress holds the constitutional power to “raise and support Armies,” and lawmakers would have to amend the Military Selective Service Act to authorize military conscription — which is unlikely to have any kind of majority support in a divided Congress during an unpopular war.
If a draft were held today, the Selective Service System would use a lottery system to determine the order in which men are conscripted. Officials would then likely draw numbers corresponding to birthdates.
Men who are 20 years old or turning 20 during the year in which the numbers are drawn would likely be the first ones selected, according to the agency. Beginning January 1 of the year an eligible male turns 21, he would drop into a second priority category, and men born the following year would then move into the first group.
Each succeeding birth year, draft eligible men drop into the next lower priority group until he has reached his 26th birthday, which remains the cut-off age for conscription.
The Selective Service says a modern-day draft “would be the most fair draft in history.”
What if you don’t register?
Most men ages 18 to 25 are required to have registered with the Selective Service, which is baked into driver’s license registration and renewal processes in most states. More than 15 million men are registered, according to the agency.
It’s technically a felony to fail to register, though rarely if ever prosecuted, and it may be difficult to obtain government benefits at any time after turning 26.
Roughly three-quarters of of Americans oppose reinstating a military draft, according to Pew Research Center.
Who is exempt?
Men whose numbers are called up may also be eligible for deferment, including married men, students and relatives of family members who died in combat. Under the current draft law, college students can postpone their induction until the end of the current semester. A senior can postpone until the end of their full academic year.
People with medical deferrals and conscientious objectors can also appeal their draft or potentially enlist in a specific branch to avoid combat duty.
Draftees can also appear directly before a local board to appeal.
More than half of the 27 million men eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War were deferred, exempt or disqualified from service.
Draft dodgers who fail to show up for service (there were more roughly 570,000 during the Vietnam War) could also face felony charges punishable up to $250,000 in fines or a prison term of up to five years.
Roughly 210,000 people were charged for violating the draft in the Vietnam era, though only 3,250 were jailed, and nearly 100,000 fled the country. In 1974, then-President Gerald Ford offered amnesty for draft dodgers that required some form of alternative service, and President Jimmy Carter granted them unconditional pardons in 1977.
What about women?
Women are still not required to register for the Selective Service despite congressional efforts to amend federal law.
In 2016, House and Senate committees approved a provision in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that would have made the change, though the measure never made it into legislation that passed the full Congress.
Source: independent.co.uk