Melania sets record straight about Barron and Harvard rumors

Donald Trump is at war with Harvard, and there is a new narrative running wild in the media.

Rumors are floating around that Trump is upset with Harvard because it declined Barron’s application, and Melania had a little something to say about that.

Freezing Harvard’s grants

Going back to April, Donald Trump announced that he was going to freeze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts for Harvard University.

The university had rejected Trump’s demands for DEI and antisemitism changes, so this was Trump’s answer.

Harvard responded, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

Turning up the heat

Fast forward to this week, and Donald Trump announced that he was seeking to cancel all remaining contracts with Harvard, which would account for another $100 million.

General Services Administration Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum announced, "GSA is also aware of recent events at Harvard University involving anti-Semitic action that suggest the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.

“Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of its students has at times grounded day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and profoundly alarmed the general public."

Harvard is likely to litigate this, with some suits already filed, and the school will likely prevail on the grants front because the money was already allocated by Congress and approved in previous legislation. As far as the contracts, well, that could be another matter altogether.

Rumors flying

Just as we would expect, rumors started to fly about why Trump is going after Harvard, and one that caught hold was that Trump was upset that his son, Barron, had applied to Harvard and was denied, so this is why Trump was out to get the school.

First, I highly doubt that, as Barron was going to go to school for business, and he would have been a legacy at the University of Penn, arguably the best business school in the country, so I don’t see him picking Harvard over Penn. Second, he seemed intent on staying in New York, which is why he applied to NYU.

Melania Trump’s office looked to set the record straight this week, stating, “Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.”

I never bought into the rumors in the first place, and I have yet to see Melania be dishonest, so I am going to take her at face value. This is just the left looking to do two things: take a shot at Trump and drag Barron into the political firestorm.