Trump biographer claims the president's beef against Harvard is because he didn't get in

Trump biographer Michael Wolff believes the president's ongoing feud with Harvard University is a personal one after he didn't get accepted into the Ivy League school back in the day.

Previously, The Daily Beastreported there was a running joke in the White House that Donald Trump's Harvard grudge was to do with his son Barron not getting in, with online rumours speculating this theory too.

(For context, Barron currently attends New York University.)

But this rumour was denied by First Lady Melania Trump, as her spokesperson, Nick Clemens, told The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday: “Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false."

Wolff, bestselling author of Fire and Furyand All or Nothing, spoke on The Daily Beast Podcast on Thursday, where he discussed his theory with host Joanna Coles about the president's attitude towards Harvard and other top US universities.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“It’s also odd because so many of the people around Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities. Several of them went to Harvard Business School,” Coles said. “Obviously, JD Vance proudly went to Yale. So it does seem particularly odd, but perhaps he’s also trying to stuff it to them.”

“It’s important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does,” Wolff replied. “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 Leagues.”

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers had some choice words about Wolff, his claim, and The Daily Beastin a statement to the publication.

“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,“ she said. ”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.”

In a rundown of Trump's education history, he attended the New York Military Academy, then in 1964 enrolled at Fordham University for two years, and he later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce.

Meanwhile, Harvard recently had $2.6 billion in federal research grants cancelled by the government after it refused to cave into policy change demands from the Trump administration.

On April 21, the university filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing it of attempting to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard".

Last week, the Trump administration attempted to revoke Harvard's ability to enrol international students - that's around 6,800 students make up about 27 per cent of Harvard's intake, but this was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston on Friday (May 23) and the order was extended in a hearing yesterday (May 29).

Elsewhere, Why is Donald Trump being called President Taco? and Trump hit by court ruling on 'Liberation Day' tariffs.

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