Melania Trump comes out swinging over vicious Barron Trump rumors, after source is revealed

Wolff admitted he didn’t know if the rumor held any truth but acknowledged its rapid spread.

PUBLISHED MAY 30, 2025

The speculation gained traction when Trump launched a public attack on Harvard in April.

Washington D.C.: Melania Trump has shut down a rumor that her 19-year-old son, Barron, had been rejected from Harvard University after it became a running joke among White House staff.

According to Trump biographer Michael Wolff, allies of the former president speculated that his aggressive stance against Harvard stemmed from Barron’s supposed rejection—a claim Melania’s team firmly denied.

Three weeks ago, Wolff shared the joke circulating in the White House on Instagram: "What do all the universities Trump is targeting have in common? Barron didn't get into them."

Melania’s office issued a rare public statement refuting the claim, with her communications director, Nicholas Clemens, clarifying that Barron had never applied to Harvard and that the rumor was "completely false."

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Barron is currently a freshman at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that his son was accepted to multiple universities but chose NYU.

Wolff admitted he didn’t know if the rumor held any truth but acknowledged its rapid spread among White House insiders. "I don’t know if there is any truth to this... but within the White House, that is the joke," he said, referencing Trump’s intense criticism of elite institutions.

The speculation gained traction when Trump launched a public attack on Harvard in April, cutting federal funding and banning foreign students. Social media users and even Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse fueled the theory, with Whitehouse tweeting, "Can’t help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard."

Breaking from family tradition, Barron opted for NYU over the University of Pennsylvania, where Trump and several of his children attended. In a 2023 interview, Trump praised Barron’s academic achievements, stating he had been accepted to "a lot" of schools but chose NYU because he "liked it."