Author Michael Wolff suggests a very personal reason is behind Trump’s war on the university
There’s a running joke going around the White House that President Donald Trump is out for Harvard’s blood because his son Barron didn’t get in—one scotched by First Lady Melania Trump in an unprecedented piercing of her veil of privacy.
But presidential biographer Michael Wolff has suggested a very different explanation for Trump’s vendetta: he’s the one that couldn’t attend the prestigious Ivy League.
Wolff, author of bestsellers Fire & Fury and this year’s All or Nothing advanced the suggestion on Thursday’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast in a discussion with host Joanna Coles about his war on Harvard and other elite colleges.
“It’s also odd because so many of the people around Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities. Several of them went to Harvard Business School,” Coles said. “Obviously, JD Vance proudly went to Yale. So it does seem particularly odd, but perhaps he’s also trying to stuff it to them too.”
“It’s important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does,” Wolff said. “But the other thing is that, by the way, he didn’t get into Harvard. So one of the Trump things is always holding a grudge against the Ivy Leagues.”
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, was critical about Wolff’s claim. She did not, however, confirm on the record whether or not Trump applied to Harvard.