First lady Melania Trump quashes Barron Trump conspiracy theory amid Harvard defunding attack
First lady Melania Trump has issued a rebuke of a theory that her husband’s persecution of Harvard is motivated by their son, Barron, being rejected by the university.
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First lady Melania Trump shot down a viral rumour Tuesday that her son Barron had applied to Harvard University and been rejected, with a spokesman calling the assertion “completely false.”
“Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false,” said Nicholas Clemens, the first lady’s communications director, the New York Post reports.
The 19-year-old’s college admissions status had been the subject of speculation on social media amid his father’s repeated verbal attacks — and cancellation of grants and other federal funds — to the Ivy League institution.
President Trump on Tuesday pulled another US$100 million from Harvard, adding to roughly US$3 billion in grant and contract terminations since taking office.
The funding termination — as well as moves to boot foreign students from the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus — have drawn multiple legal challenges.
Barron Trump completed his freshman year at New York University earlier this month after graduating from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, in spring 2024.
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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HALTS ALL FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS
It comes as the Trump administration has ordered all US embassies to halt interviews for foreign student visas as it moves toward implementing mandatory social media vetting as part of the application process.
According to a leaked document obtained by Politico, US embassies around the world have been instructed to pause all new interviews for student visa applicants.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued (in a separate telegram), which we anticipate in the coming days,” the order signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio reads.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce did not comment directly on the document but said that “we take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country.”
“It’s a goal, as stated by the president and Secretary Rubio, to make sure that people who are here understand what the law is, that they don’t have any criminal intent, that they are going to be contributors to the experience here, however short or long their status,” she said.
More than one million foreign students are enrolled at American universities.
Almost 4500 Australians attend higher education facilities in the United States.
Since returning to office, Donald Trump has used funding and administrative levers to exert pressure on a number of universities.
The leaked Telegram comes hours after another government document was leaked ordering federal departments to cancel contracts with Harvard.
The government is expected to write to all federal agencies today urging them to cancel all contracts, estimated to be worth $100 million USD (A$160 million), and find alternate vendors.
It comes days after the Department of Homeland Security announced it would revoke Harvard’s right to enrol international students.
That decision has been temporarily halted by a judge but has thrown the future of thousands of foreign students into turmoil.
That case will return to court later this week.
About 7000 international students attend Harvard including more than 100 Australians.
On Monday, Mr Trump again hit out at the institution, warning he was considering redirecting billions of dollars to other education facilities.
“I am considering taking three billion dollars of grant money away from a very anti-Semitic Harvard, and giving it to trade schools all across our land,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!”
The administration has been critical of the university and what he alleged was “woke” ideology, liberal bias and allowing antisemitism on campus.
‘SCUM’: TRUMP’S ASTONISHING MEMORIAL DAY SLEDGE
US President Donald Trump blasted out a fiery Memorial Day message first thing Monday — ripping the “scum” Biden administration for allowing scores of violent illegal migrants into the United States.
“Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds,” he raged in a lengthy all-caps Truth Social post.
President Trump blasted the prior administration for its open border policy put in place by an “incompetent president.”
His holiday greeting also took aim at the judges who are “on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members and released prisoners from all over the world in our country” so they can commit crimes again.
“All protected by these USA hating judges who suffer from an ideology that is sick and very dangerous for our country,” he said.
“Fear not, we have made great progress over the last 4 months and America will soon be safe and great again!”
President Trump paid tribute to fallen US service members and took a dig at his predecessor during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
“We certainly know what we owe to them,” the US president said during his address. “Their valour gave us the freest, greatest, and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the Earth, a republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years.”
“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss. But the republic is now doing so very well.”
In between honouring departed service members, Mr Trump touted America’s 250th birthday, which will be celebrated on July 4, 2026; next year’s World Cup jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico; and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We’re going to have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years,” Mr Trump, 78, said. “In some ways, I’m glad I missed that second term [by losing to Biden in 2020] where it was because I wouldn’t be your president. In addition, we have the World Cup, and we have the Olympics.”
“Can you imagine? I missed that in four years, and now look what I have — I have everything,” he continued. “God did that.”
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Originally published as First lady Melania Trump quashes Barron Trump conspiracy theory amid Harvard defunding attack
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