First Lady Melania Trump’s office shut down rumors that Barron wasn’t accepted into Harvard amid Trump’s battles with the Ivy League university.
First Lady Melania Trump on Thursday rejected speculation that Barron Trump was denied admission into Harvard University, saying he didn’t even apply to the Ivy League school.
“Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false,” Nicholas Clemens, the first lady’s spokesman, said in an emailed statement to NTD, sister media of The Epoch Times.
Harvard University also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Universities generally do not publicly release information about applicants who have been denied admission due to privacy reasons.
The president’s son recently wrapped up his freshman year at New York University after graduating last year from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. President Donald Trump in May 2024 referred to his son as a “great student.”
During a July 2024 campaign rally in Doral, Florida, the president touted that Barron “got into every college he wanted to” and hinted that he made his choice but did not disclose details at the time.
Some critics of Trump’s policy targeting Harvard speculated on social media that the president’s son might have been rejected for admission by the school.
“Can’t help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote on X in April in response to a news article about Harvard.
The Ivy League university has grappled with student-led protests over the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel. The Trump administration has accused Harvard of being a hotbed of progressivism and anti-Semitism.
The administration has demanded that Harvard make changes to its leadership, revise its admissions policies, and audit its faculty and student body to ensure that the university is home to diverse viewpoints.
Harvard has pushed back against the Trump administration’s demands and in April sued the federal government.
The government has since threatened the school’s tax-exempt status and moved to cut off its enrollment of international students.
“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote in a May 26 Truth Social post. “Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason! The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!”
A federal judge on Thursday extended an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to bar Harvard from enrolling foreign students.
Trump earlier this week directed federal agencies to cancel $100 million worth of contracts with Harvard University and urged them not to consider Harvard for future grants. The president has already scrapped more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants for the school.
Harvard on Thursday held its graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2025. Student speaker Thor Reimann addressed Harvard’s fight with the federal government in a speech to fellow graduates.
“We leave a campus much different than the one we entered, with Harvard at the center of a national battle of higher education in America,” Reimann said. “Our university is certainly imperfect, but I am proud to stand today alongside our graduating class, our faculty, and our president with the shared conviction that this ongoing project of veritas is one that is worth defending.”
Harvard President Alan Garber indirectly took a swipe at the Trump administration’s ongoing threats during his commencement speech, saying that the university’s global reach is “just as it should be.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From NTD News
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