Back in 2019—three years into his first term as U.S. President—Donald Trump took an extraordinary step by instructing a lawyer to warn officials from his high school, college, and the College Board that they could face jail time if they ever disclosed his academic records.
Since then, details of Trump’s grades, achievements, and possible shortcomings from his student years have remained completely hidden, with institutions unwilling to risk legal consequences.
But how did Trump manage to enforce such an order? Why has it remained in place for so long? And most importantly—what exactly is he trying to keep secret?
Trump’s orders
It was Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who first disclosed six years ago that he had been ordered to warn Trump’s past schools about the consequences of revealing his academic records.
Cohen, now 58, made the revelation during his testimony before Congress, even presenting a copy of one of the letters he had sent on Trump’s behalf.
In the letter, Cohen explicitly threatened the president of Fordham University—where Trump studied for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to complete his bachelor’s degree.
Trump’s high school representatives also testified that they had received a similar letter. Meanwhile, both the University of Pennsylvania and the College Board refused to comment on the matter at the time.
That said, it’s worth noting that these legal threats were largely unnecessary.
In reality, revealing a student’s academic records without their consent has been illegal in the U.S. for decades, thanks to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974.
That doesn’t mean leaks never happen, though.
And for someone as high-profile and polarizing as Trump, perhaps his concerns weren’t entirely unfounded—especially given the many inconsistencies about his educational background that have already surfaced over the years…
Comparisons to Obama’s record
In the past, Trump has mocked former Democratic representative and 44th President Barack Obama for what he claimed was a lack of academic credentials.
However, their educational paths aren’t all that different. Both Trump and Obama, now 63, started at less competitive institutions before transferring to Ivy League universities—Trump to the University of Pennsylvania and Obama to Columbia—to complete their bachelor’s degrees.
Neither graduated with honors, but Obama, a father of two, went on to earn his law degree from Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. Trump, on the other hand, did not pursue graduate studies.
Over the years, Trump has openly questioned how Obama managed to get into an Ivy League school—despite widespread speculation that his own admission to Penn was helped along by his father’s business connections.
Could the Republican leader be projecting? Well, that’s for you to decide…
First class ‘lies’
The father of five has repeatedly boasted about being “first in his class” at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. However, the reality is quite different—he didn’t even graduate with honors.
At Wharton, academic honors are based on GPA (grade point average, for those in the UK), and only students who achieve a 3.40 or higher receive this distinction.
This means Trump didn’t even reach that threshold, let alone top his class.
Ordinarily, this small exaggeration might not seem like a big deal. But it becomes more ironic given that the former Apprentice host once mocked Barack Obama over his GPA—despite having no idea what it actually was.