Melania Trump issued a statement on Tuesday denying that Barron Trump was rejected by Harvard University amid Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with the institution.
“Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false,” Nicholas Clemens, Melania’s communications director, told the New York Post.
Barron just finished his freshman year at New York University’s (NYU) Stern School of Business in Manhattan.
Rumors swirled online about Barron being rejected by Harvard which led some, including a US senator, to believe that is Trump’s true motives for targeting the elite university.
“Can’t help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote in an X.
The Trump administration has accused Harvard of allowing antisemitism on its campus amid pro-Palestinian protests. They have also demanded that the institution eliminate its DEI programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, among other sweeping changes.
Harvard officials refused the Trump administration’s requests and the feud has dramatically escalated since then.
The Trump administration has frozen $3.2 billion in grants to Harvard and attempted to ban the university from enrolling foreign students – a move which was temporarily blocked by federal courts.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the administration is set to direct all federal agencies to cancel government contracts with Harvard University. The contracts are worth an estimated $100 million.
