Why People Suspect Barron Trump Got Rejected By Harvard

After months of speculation, Donald Trump revealed Barron Trump's college choice in the fall of 2024. Barron's decision to attend New York University was surprising given the Trump family's clear history of college choices. Everyone from The Donald down to his fourth child, Tiffany Trump, attended either the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown. Barron is the first to stray from the beaten path. However, many believe Barron may not have had that many options to choose from.

According to online rumors, Barron was rejected by three big-name schools: Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford. While the president never specified which universities his youngest son considered attending before settling for NYU's Stern School of Business, he boasted about the array of choices Barron had. "He was accepted to a lot of colleges," he told the Daily Mail in September 2024. "He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at NYU."

Previously, Donald had revealed that Barron considered staying in line with family tradition and attending UPenn's Wharton School of Business. "We're thinking about that right now," he said on "The Megyn Kelly Show" in 2023. Donald and Melania Trump never revealed why Barron chose NYU, but it has been speculated that his mother preferred him to be in New York, though she denied it. "It was his decision to come here, that he wants to be in New York ... and live in his home," she said on "Fox & Friends." But many believe there's more to the story.

Megyn Kelly suggested that Barron Trump would likely have a hard time choosing a college, given how liberal most tend to be. "How do you choose one because they all hate all Republicans, let alone one named Trump," she said in her conversation with Donald Trump. For many, Kelly may have had a good point. After Donald froze billions in federal grants to Harvard between April and May 2025, observers speculated whether his motivation was personal.

"Can't help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote on X. Donald similarly cut funds to Columbia, claiming that it had allowed antisemitism to proliferate on campus. Unlike Harvard, the New York institution acquiesced to some of the administration's demands to have its federal funding restored. The president also opened investigations into Stanford and other California universities' admission policies, further amplifying suspicions he may have been pursuing a vendetta against them.

"Guess what colleges didn't accept Barron Trump? Harvard. Stanford. Columbia. Any college Trump is attacking — are the ones that with all of his money they said 'no endowment will let him in,'" a Facebook user argued. The fact-checking site Snopes was unable to verify the claims that Barron was rejected by Harvard, Columbia, or Stanford. None of the schools responded to inquiries, and online searches haven't produced verifiable evidence. Until then, speculation about Donald's widespread crusade against some of the country's most prestigious universities will likely persist.