The Trump Administration has been going to war with Harvard University, doing everything from seeking to ban international students from attending there to pulling billions in research grants and government contracts, to pulling its tax-exempt status, to roundly accusing the university of antisemitism. The courts have stymied some of the efforts.
What’s Trump’s motivation in going after the nation’s most prestigious university? Various explanations have been floated, ranging from Trump wanting to make an example of Harvard to supposed anger about his son, Barron, not being accepted into the university.
Michael Wolff, the author of multiple Trump biographies, has another theory.
“It’s important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does,” Wolff said during his latest appearance on The Daily Beast podcast. “But the other thing is that, by the way, he didn’t get into Harvard. So one of the Trump things is always holding a grudge against the Ivy League.”
Harvard University just announced they will refuse to comply with Trump after he threatened to withhold their funding if they don’t dismantle their support for diversity.
“No government should dictate what private universities can teach.” pic.twitter.com/5rMGT141zF
— People For the American Way (@peoplefor) April 14, 2025
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Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania, which is itself an Ivy League institution, as did three of his five children. Several others in his administration attended Ivy League schools, including Vice President and Yale Law School alumnus JD Vance.
Per the Palm Beach Post, while the White House has issued an official denial that Barron Trump applied to and was rejected from Harvard, there has not been a denial that Trump himself was rejected from Harvard. The White House told the newspaper that “the President didn’t need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard to become a successful businessman and the most transformative President in history.”
The White House issued an even angrier denial to Wolff’s claim.
“The Daily Beast and Michael Wolff have lots in common—they both peddle fake news for clickbait in a hopeless attempt to amount to something more than lying losers,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the publication, repeating the statement that “The President didn’t need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard to become a successful businessman and the most transformative President in history.”
According to The Daily Beast, there do not appear to be definitive records showing whether Trump ever applied to Harvard, although biographies of the president have not made that assertion.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
