Melania Trump Debunks Barron-Harvard Rumor as Trump Targets University Funding

Melania Trump’s team has squashed a wild rumor claiming President Donald Trump is locked in a personal vendetta against Harvard University over his son Barron’s alleged rejection from the Ivy League giant. According to spokesperson Nicholas Clemens, Barron never even applied to Harvard, rendering the theory “completely false.” The 19-year-old is happily studying at New York University, far from the Cambridge drama.

The buzz started online, with speculation that Trump’s push to slash federal funding to Harvard was fueled by a snub to Barron. Instead, the administration’s actions seem tied to a broader clash over Harvard’s handling of foreign student records and campus policies. Trump has publicly called the university “very antisemitic” on Truth Social, suggesting its federal grants—worth $3.2 billion—could be better redirected to trade schools nationwide. He’s not wrong that skilled trades need a boost, but the optics of targeting an elite institution raise eyebrows.

Harvard’s in hot water with the Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, who accused the school of fostering an “unsafe campus environment” for Jewish students while dragging its feet on sharing foreign student data. This led to a temporary freeze on Harvard’s ability to enroll international students under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. A federal judge, appointed by Barack Obama, granted Harvard a temporary restraining order to keep the program intact, but the fight’s far from over.

Trump’s rhetoric paints Harvard as a slow-moving, elitist machine hiding something in its foreign student lists. “Radicalized lunatics,” he called them, claiming the government will ultimately “win.” Whether this is about national security or political posturing, the saga’s exposing deeper tensions between the administration and academia. Stay tuned—this one’s got more twists than a reality TV finale.