Barron’s College Choice Will Anger Trump

In the grand scheme of the various problems Trump is facing this might seem trivial.  However when it comes to image, as in everything about Trump and those (ostensibly) close to him image is everything. It has to be “the best.” “Beautiful.” I could go on but you get the point. That goes for educational credentials. For Trump, nothing less than the Ivy League will do. If it takes shelling out a couple million in bribes to get his kids into those schools (just as his own dad had to pay through the nose to get HIM into Penn’s Wharton School of Business) so be it. Even with all this other money troubles he wouldn’t think twice about a payoff (if needed – in this case we don’t know) for one of his offspring to attend a vaunted Ivy League school. It seems son Barron has something else in mind!

According to sheknows it seems Barron’s top choice is NOT Ivy League.  The article describes the speculation in recent months about where Barron might go to college. Penn/Wharton like his siblings? Maybe over in mom’s home country of Slovenia? (there’s been other suggestions) However the article says the young man might be deciding for forge his own path:

A recent report from the Daily Beast said that New York University is actually at the top of Barron’s list, meaning he’d be back in his hometown and be only a few miles away from Trump Tower.

Barron wants to go to New York University!  I can imagine Trump’s yelling and screaming over that one. First of all it’s NEW YORK University, right there on the edge of Greenwich Village. Trump tried his entire adult life to be accepted as one of NYC’s elite, and polite society there, the “Masters of the Universe” pretty much regarded him as a nouveau riche interloper from Queens (of all places!) with a bad smell. Well, we are told that part is truer than we knew. In 2016 and 2020 Trump lost the state of New York decisively. Worse, he lost New York City by a whopping, downright humiliating margin. Staten Island was the only Borough he carried and not by an overwhelming margin.  The point is that having been so publicly rejected in his hometown, the one he’d tried so hard to be the “face” of he packed up his bags and decamped from his formerly beloved Trump Tower and moved to Florida.

New York University? To the average American it just doesn’t have the ring of an Ivy League institution, or even another elite one like University of Chicago, M.I.T, Georgetown, Stanford, Duke and some other smaller private schools most Americans have heard of (i.e. William and Mary) – the kind of place they associate with the Ivy League. Or often think actually ARE Ivy League. Hell, most Americans can’t, off the top of their heads even name the eight schools that actually do make up the Ivy League.  For the record they are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale.

New York University sounds, well (horrors!) common and for someone like Trump that alone would means it simply won’t do. Not for a Trump kid. It doesn’t matter that NYU actually IS an elite academic institution. It’s the largest private university in the country with over 50k students roughly split between undergrad and a number of renowned graduate programs.

But again, to the average American it just sounds common. And it’s f**king New York which Trump, who so wanted to be the unofficial leader of now hates. Oh, but it gets better.  Remember when I mentioned Fred Trump had to shell out big bucks to get Penn to accept Donald transferring from Fordham to Penn and it’s Wharton School? He had to cough up big bucks to get Don Jr. into Penn//Wharton. Ivanka? Maybe, maybe not but I wouldn’t be surprised to one day learn if not as much Trump had to grease the admission skids so his little darling could attend his alma mater. Hell, he probably had to shell out some (just not as much) to get doofus Eric into Georgetown. Tiffany was likely able to make it on merit but then for much of her upbringing her mom managed to keep her mostly away from Trump world.

What I’m driving at though is that according to the linked article Trump has been expecting Barron to attend Penn/Wharton:

Back in Sept 2023, Donald claimed that The University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, was a possibility for Barron during an interview with Megyn Kelly.

“Barron’s very tall – about six-eight. And, he’s a good kid. He’s a good-looking kid. He’s a great student, very good student,” Donald said, adding that he and Melania are “looking at” the possibility of Barron attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ok, let’s take a look at that. It’s one of those unfair things about life but being good looking often gives people an advantage over average looking or less than average looking folks. That’s reality.  I’m not as tall as Barron Trump (I’m only 6’4″) but I also know in some, but not all matters being taller than average can be an advantage. How height, especially given how tall Barron Trump is however means nothing in the college admissions process. Unless one is an athlete and a coach wants them on the team. (Penn, being an Ivy League school does participate in inter-collegiate athletics but like other Ivy schools they aren’t known for their sports teams)  To Trump Barron’s height and looks might be reasons Penn should beg Barron to attend Wharton but for THEM those traits mean zip. Regardless, when it comes to height and Barron maybe playing basketball (or some other sport) for Penn there’s no indication he’s taken part in sports in high school. If he had, and especially if he was any good you can damn well believe we’d know about it!

As for smart, who the hell knows? Maybe the young man is smart and has worked hard in school. Maybe even enough to qualify on merit (SAT scores he got taking the test himself, grades he actually earned etc.) to get into such a selective school. Stranger things have happened. I’m willing at this point to give him the benefit of the doubt on this and frankly think so should everyone else. Just like we would or at least should for any kid who had to spend four (or more) years of their school years growing up in the WH.

Let’s instead focus on some harsh realities. Like the fact that at elite schools thousands of qualified applicants, most in fact do NOT get admitted. That’s where pedigree, such as being a “legacy” and/or having rich parents comes in.  For Uday and Qusay, I mean Beavis and Butthead, no I mean Fredo 1 and Fredo 2, oh wait… Don Jr. and Eric and (maybe, probably) wannabe Princess Ivanka too Trump had to shell out a lot more than tuition. (At least Eric at Georgetown wouldn’t have required nearly as much as Penn/Wharton)

That’s not the best part however. NYU isn’t just any university. It IS an elite school. Also, despite it’s huge enrollment it’s also one of the most selective in the country. As much so as an Ivy League school and more so I gather than some.  With over a hundred-thousand applicants every year the past couple of years the acceptance rate is only 8%.  Yep, Barron might be (unlike the sperm donor his mom contracted with) really, really smart and have “a very fine brain” tens of thousands of applicants deserve a spot in NYU and will get turned down for tiny, even arbitrary reasons. Should that happen in Barron’s case what then?

Donald can’t be happy at the thought of shelling out just as much money for NYU as for Penn or other Ivy League schools. However, that might be only part of the equation. As I said Barron Trump may well be as qualified and/or deserving as thousands of candidates who also seem no better or worse than those offered admission, yet get a rejection letter. What if Trump DOES have to pay a “bigly” bribe to get Barron in? On top of all his other financial problems?  Every time Trump thinks about it it will drive him bat-sh*t insane! Better still, from where I sit this is clearly where Barron intends to go to college. Or Melania wants him to go (easy to “follow” him there) or some combination of the two. The fact this story is out there and now being talked about is likely Melania’s doing. She’s boxing Trump in.  HER son will make his own way unlike the other Trump spawn. And let’s face it, in a city the size of NYC and a university as large as NYU the young man would probably have at least some ability to avoid being in the spotlight.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. For now I’m entertaining myself with thoughts of Trump’s tantrums over “son” Barron letting it be known he does NOT want to be a “good little Trump” and attend Penn/Wharton or some other school most Americans would recognize and instantly think “Ivy League” – most can’t even name the eight actual Ivy schools and think places like Georgetown are part of that group!

In any case, I don’t want this to sound like I’m ripping on Barron Trump because I’m not. He’s a freaking teenager and I have a lot of sympathy for any kid that has to spend part of their formative years growing up in the WH.  My instinct is to cut him the same type of slack I once gave to Tiffany Trump who’s mom tried SO hard to keep out of the Trump orbit. Yet who in the end chose to grab the easy money at some make-work job at the Trump Org. Marla Maples is the one I feel sorry for. She really did try to set her daughter Tiffany up to have a life mostly untainted by her infamous “father.”

Will Melania succeed with Barron where Marla failed with Tiffany? Time will tell. But it’s clear the young man has a chance. IF his P.O.S. “father” will cough up the money for him to attend NYU. Personally I think Trump balked, and that’s why we’re now reading about how NYU is Barron’s top choice.  No matter how furious it makes him Trump knows how bad it will look if Barron doesn’t get into the school of his choice AND that the choice is now public.  Anything that torments/pisses off Trump is a good thing in my book. So I say Bravo Barron, and maybe to Melania too for boxing Trump in.