MS Word Mailmerge string comparison returns bad balue

I am trying to add some logic to a word document, as I have dozens of times before, I even have other logic in the same word document that behaves correctly. But this one problem has me completely stumped. First I thought there was something wrong with my logic, but after breaking it down to see what is happening things seem to have gotten worse.

These are my merge fields to test to comparison

{ mergefield col2_benefit } = 7D > { if { mergefield col2_benefit } = "7D" "T" "F" }
{ mergefield col2_benefit } = 7T > { if { mergefield col2_benefit } = "7T" "T" "F" }

And this is the output:

7T = 7D > T
7T = 7T > T

Somehow word thinks that 7T = 7D is true, what is going on?

I also tried doing a straight comparison (below) without the merged field and it was fine.

{ if "7T" = "7D" "T" "F" }   // Returned F
{ if "7T" = "7T" "T" "F" }   // Returned T

I have tried deleting all the merge fields and starting over but that didn't help. Any help would be appreciated.