Did Harvard reject Trump? Is that why he holds a grudge in opposition to the college?

Earlier this week, rumours lit up social media claiming that US President
Donald Trump
was going after Harvard College as a result of his youngest son, Barron Trump, had been rejected by the Ivy League college.

However the hypothesis was rapidly put to relaxation by First Girl Melania Trump, who clarified that
Barron by no means utilized to Harvard
within the first place.

Now, a brand new idea has surfaced, this time from Michael Wolff, the President’s biographer, suggesting that Trump’s grudge in opposition to the college could be extra private than anybody thought.

Based on him, Trump’s anger doesn’t stem from Barron’s non-existent rejection, however from the truth that Trump himself by no means made it to Harvard.

So, is Trump’s feud with the elite establishment truly about his personal previous? What precisely did Wolff say? And the way is the White Home responding to those claims? Right here’s a more in-depth look.

Trump has a ‘grudge’ in opposition to the Ivy League?

Throughout a current episode of The Each day Beast podcast hosted by Joanna Coles, the dialog turned to Trump’s obvious hostility towards elite universities. Coles famous what number of in Trump’s circle are Ivy League alumni.

“It’s additionally odd as a result of so lots of the folks round Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities. A number of of them went to Harvard Enterprise College,” she mentioned. “Clearly, JD Vance proudly went to Yale. So it does appear significantly odd, however maybe he’s additionally attempting to stuff it to them.”

In response, Michael Wolff, who has authored a number of books on Trump, together with ‘Hearth and Fury, Siege: Trump Below Hearth’, and the newest ‘All or Nothing’, prompt there could also be a extra private purpose behind Trump’s disdain for the Ivy League.

“It’s necessary to not lend an excessive amount of calculation and planning to something he does,” Wolff mentioned. “However the different factor is that, by the way in which, he didn’t get into Harvard. So one of many Trump issues is all the time holding a grudge in opposition to the Ivy Leagues.”

Whereas there’s no official file confirming whether or not Trump ever utilized to Harvard, not to mention if he was rejected, Wolff’s comment provides to the speculation that the president’s Ivy League animosity could also be rooted in his personal educational historical past.

Trump started his faculty training at Fordham College in 1964 after 4 years on the New York Army Academy. Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton College on the College of Pennsylvania, the place he earned a bachelor’s diploma in economics.

However Trump’s educational credibility has lengthy been underneath scrutiny. In 2020, The Washington Put up revealed audio recordings made by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, through which Trump’s sister, the late federal decide Maryanne Trump Barry, made some startling claims.

“I drove him round New York Metropolis to attempt to get him into faculty,” Trump Barry mentioned within the 2018–19 recordings. She added, “He went to Fordham for one 12 months after which he obtained into the College of Pennsylvania as a result of he had any individual take the exams.”

The White Home swiftly dismissed the claims on the time, saying it was “false” that anybody else had taken Trump’s SATs.

When requested by The Put up to reply to the recordings, Trump merely mentioned: “Who cares?”

Based on The New York Instances reporters Ross Buettner and Susanne Craig, of their 2024 guide ‘Fortunate Loser, Trump’ was a mediocre pupil at Fordham. He didn’t even make the dean’s listing in his first 12 months, which solely required a GPA of three.5, equal to a B+.

And whereas a lot hypothesis continues to swirl round his Harvard rejection, what is thought, although, is that as a younger man, Trump had desires of going to movie college on the College of Southern California (USC). Satirically, USC, too, has now develop into a goal of his ire.

After the Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights mentioned USC failed to satisfy its Title VI obligations underneath the Civil Rights Act to guard Jewish college students, Trump lower federal analysis funding, inflicting the establishment to lose $17.5 million.

‘The Trump present’

Wolff claimed that other than “holding the grudge”, Trump’s “TV star instincts as a producer” play a key function in his authorized battle in opposition to Ivy League universities, significantly Harvard. Based on him, Trump “wants an enemy”.

“That’s what makes the present nice, the Trump present. He picks implausible enemies. And Harvard, for all it represents, matches proper into the Trump present. The president loves the drama,” he advised The Each day Beast.

“He’s finished what he got down to do – dominate the headline. What do you do? You go after Harvard in a manner that’s draconian, dramatic, and existential. It’s threatening Harvard on that degree,” he added_._

For Trump, Wolff added, Harvard turns into simply one other character within the unfolding drama that’s the “Trump present”.

In current weeks, that drama has escalated. The Trump-led administration moved to revoke Harvard College’s skill to enrol new worldwide college students, a coverage that has since been
quickly blocked by a US decide.

Earlier than that, the White Home had additionally positioned a $2.2 billion freeze on federal funding to the college. Trump reportedly provided to elevate the funding ban however solely underneath sure circumstances that Harvard refused to simply accept.

All through, Trump has doubled down on his criticism, accusing Harvard and different elite universities of selling progressive ideologies and nurturing a so-called “woke” campus tradition.

The White Home reacts to Wolff’s claims

Unsurprisingly, the White Home didn’t take Wolff’s newest remarks evenly.

Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the administration, pushed again laborious in opposition to each Wolff and The Each day Beast, dismissing their reporting totally.

“They each peddle faux information for clickbait in a hopeless try to quantity to one thing greater than mendacity losers,” Rogers mentioned. “The President didn’t want to use to an overrated, corrupt establishment like Harvard to develop into a profitable businessman and essentially the most transformative President in historical past.”

The White Home has beforehand shot down one other declare the creator made that
Melania Trump had “separated”
from her husband and that their marriage was not conventional. The White Home fired again, calling Wolff “a blithering fool.”

With enter from businesses