In the recent past, Donald Trump and his administration have been after Harvard University. They have frozen its funding, revoked the university’s authority to admit international students, and also threatened its tax exempt status. All this hell broke loose since the university refused to comply with Trump’s demands to destroy the diversity initiatives and also take over its admissions processes.
While Harvard has entered a legal battle with the Trump administration, Barron Trump got badly burnt in the process. A while after this whole fiasco with Harvard started, rumors about Barron not being able to get admission to Harvard started doing the rounds. Many claimed that the source of Trump’s anger against the university came from the fact that his own son could not secure a place there.
Things got so out of hand that Melania Trump had to issue a statement through her spokesperson that said that Barron “did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.”
Talking about the incident, author Michael Wolff, who has penned a number of books on Trump, said that while he does not know that the rumors about Barron and Harvard are facts or fiction, it definitely became a joke at The White House.
He said on The Daily Beast Podcast, Because they’re like, ‘What is he doing?’ This is, you know, this is crazy stuff,” Wolff said of people in Trump’s orbit. “Why would this be happening? And then they tell the Barron joke.”
Joanna Coles, the host of the podcast added to this, saying, “also odd because so many of the people around Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities.” To this, Wolff said, “It’s important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does. But the other thing is that, by the way, he didn’t get into Harvard.”
Trump’s problems with Harvard seem to go way back because when the question of Trump applying to Harvard was raised last week, one of the spokesperson of The White House told USA Today, “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.”
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Whether Trump had tried to get admission to Harvard or not is a topic for another day. However, as per Wolff, the President is now fighting against the university because “he needs an enemy.” Wolff further added, “That’s what makes the show great. The Trump show. He picks fantastic enemies, actually. And Harvard, for all it represents, fits right into the Trump show.”
He also said, “Going after Harvard has proved to be an incredibly reliable headline. So he’s on the money. So he’s done what he set out to do. Dominate headlines.” With Harvard going against Trump’s orders and taking the legal route, it now remains to be seen what the next headline is regarding Trump and the university.
