Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP/REX/Shutterstock
President Donald Trump has long boasted about his academic prowess,telling theWashington Postin 2016that, during his time at a New York military school as a teenager, “I became one of the top guys.”
But as with many other Trump claims, his stories of excelling as a student are difficult or impossible to verify.
“When I say con man, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores,” Cohen said. “The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades.”
(Trump has dismissed Cohen as a “convicted liar” and “fraudster”.)
The effort to hide Trump’s NYMA transcript came shortly after he called then-PresidentBarack Obamaa “terrible student” and demanded that he “show his records” in 2011, according to thePost.
They wanted to keep the records out of the public eye, Jones told the paper.
“[Coverdale] said, ‘You need to go grab that record and deliver it, to me because I need to deliver it to them,’ ” Jones recalled.
Coverdale told the paper that he didn’t hand over the records, even though the private school’s board of trustees requested him to.
Instead, he said, “I moved them elsewhere on campus where they could not be released. It’s the only time I ever moved an alumnus’s records.”
Thomas Imo/Photothek/Getty
At the time, the school was struggling financially, so the administrators were in a precarious situation. Coverdale refused to tell thePostwho wanted him to hand over the files.
“I don’t want to get into anything with these guys,” he said. “You have to understand, these were millionaires and multimillionaires on the board, and the school was going through some troubles. But to hear, ‘You will deliver them to us?’ That doesn’t happen. This was highly unusual.”
The New York Military Academy, which President Trump attended for five years, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Cohen.MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty
TheNew York Timesput togethera collection of documents that track Trump’s transactions with Cohen, one of which is a letter Cohen sent to Trump’s alma mater Fordham University.
Dated May 5, 2015, Cohen said he was prohibiting the institution from releasing Trump’s records, which can’t be released without the former student’s consent under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Cohen wrote to the university’s president, Rev. Joseph McShane, that if the records were released without Trump’s written consent then “we will hold your institution liable to the fullest extent of the law including damages and criminality,” per theTimes.
Cohen wanted confirmation that the records were “permanently sealed.”
Bob Howe, a spokesperson from Fordham, confirmed in a statement that a Trump campaign staffer called the university, according to TIME. He also confirmed that a letter was sent to the university on his behalf.
After two years at Fordham University, Trump transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree, according to TIME. TheDaily Pennsylvanianpublished a list of students who made the 1968 Wharton Dean’s List — andTrump wasn’t among them.
Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and also waselected as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
In January 2018, Trumpboasted of his intelligence—as he is wont to do — after his mental fitness for office was questioned.
“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” he tweeted at the time, according toThe Hill. He also described himself as “a very stable genius.”
And in October 2017, Trump defended his smarts again.
“I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student,” he said,according to TIME and NBC. “I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person.”
source: people.com
