Furious Melania Trump quashes 'completely false' viral rumor that Barron was rejected from Harvard
A furious Melania Trump is denying the 'completely false' rumor that her son Barron was rejected from Harvard University.
The viral internet rumor about the 19-year-old resurfaced on Tuesday after President Donald Trump launched another broadside against the Ivy League university, cutting the federal government's remaining contracts, which are worth about $100 million.
The first lady's office denied Barron ever applied to Harvard, let alone got turned down from attending.
'Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false,' her communications director Nicholas Clemens said in a statement.
Harvard has a notoriously high reject rate with about 96% of applicants being told no.
It's unclear where the rumor that Barron was rejected got started.
When President Trump launched his first broadside against Harvard in April, canceling a massive round of federal funding after the university wouldn't bow to his demands, the internet went a fire with speculation he was angry because his son wasn't admitted.
'Did Trump target Harvard because the university rejected Barron?,' read several posts on social media.
Even a Democratic senator stoked the fires of speculation with a tweet on the matter.
'Can't help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard,' Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote on X when he reposted an article about the president's attacks.
There has never been any evidence that Barron applied and was rejected.
The youngest Trump child broke from family's tradition when he decided to attend Stern Business School at New York University. The president attended the University of Pennsylvania as did many of his children. Other Trump kids went to Georgetown University.
In an interview with DailyMail last fall, Donald Trump said Barron had been accepted to 'a lot' of colleges.
'He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at NYU,' he said.
He also said Barron had considered following in his footsteps at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, but ultimately chose NYU.
'It's a very high quality place. He liked it. He liked the school,' said Trump.
Barron graduated from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida, last May. He lives in Trump Tower in New York while attending NYU.
Melania Trump has spent much of her time as first lady in New York with her son. The two are close and she is known to be protective of him.
In September, she told Fox News that Barron was always looking at studying in New York.
He 'wants to be in New York and study in New York and live in his home,' she said at the time.
President Trump, meanwhile, has waged war on elite universities, accusing them of antisemitism and blasting their 'woke' ideology. He claims the top schools in the country are controlled by 'Marxist maniacs and lunatics.'
Trump has demanded Harvard eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion program; cut the power of its professors; refuse foreign students; and ban masks at campus protests.
Harvard is fighting back just as hard, filing lawsuits in federal court to counter the administration.
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