Donald Trump’s war against elite universities, especially Harvard, isn’t about his son Barron. It’s personal.
That’s according to journalist and Trump biographer Michael Wolff, who says Trump’s recent crackdown on Harvard has more to do with an old grudge — one rooted in his own rejection from the school.
“He didn’t get into Harvard,” Wolff said bluntly on The Daily Beast Podcast this week. “One of the Trump things is always holding a grudge against the Ivy Leagues.”
Recently, a running joke inside Trump’s circle has been that his attacks on Harvard stem from Barron Trump supposedly being denied admission. But First Lady Melania Trump shut that rumor down, saying her son “never applied to Harvard.” Barron now attends NYU.
That hasn’t stopped Trump from lashing out at the Ivy League. In May, he demanded the names and nationalities of all international students at Harvard, accusing the school of harboring “radicalized lunatics.” He’s also moved to cut off most of Harvard’s federal funding, accusing the university of refusing to comply with his orders to end diversity programs.
Trump claims it’s about antisemitism on campus. But Wolff says the real reason is ego. “He needs an enemy,” Wolff said. “That’s what makes the Trump show. And Harvard, for all it represents, fits perfectly.”
Trump himself has never publicly said he applied to Harvard, and no official biographies have confirmed it. But Wolff insists the resentment is real — and it’s rooted in rejection.
Trump started college at Fordham University in 1964 before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. That Ivy League name is something he’s clung to ever since — often exaggerating his academic record.
But behind the scenes, his own family has raised serious questions about how he got in.
In recordings released by The Washington Post in 2020, Trump’s late sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, said she helped him with homework and claimed a friend took his entrance exam. “I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college,” she said. “He went to Fordham for one year and then he got into the University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.”
Mary Trump, his niece, made similar claims in her book, saying Trump paid someone to take the SATs.
The White House at the time dismissed those stories as lies. Trump himself responded with: “Who cares?”
Now, with Harvard in his political crosshairs, Wolff argues it’s all part of a personal vendetta dressed up as policy.
“He’s done what he set out to do — dominate the headlines,” Wolff said. “What do you do? You go after Harvard. And you go after it in a way that’s draconian, dramatic, and existential.”
Whether or not the courts block his efforts, the drama is the point. Wolff calls it another episode in what he calls “The Trump Show.”
But the motive, Wolff insists, is simple: “It’s not Barron. It’s him.”
