I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the history of Donald Trump. Who he was as a child, what made him into the evil, vile person that we know and hate today. And as you’d expect, Trump has really never been honest about his youth, always making it sound much better than it was.

First, Trump’s dream was not to be in real estate…he wanted to be a Hollywood producer. And that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Yes, he eventually followed in his father’s footsteps with real estate, because it was handed to him and Hollywood didn’t work out. But Trump has always loved being the center of attention, and this was evident when he pitched and made The Apprentice. The show was a success, and made Trump a worldwide name, which of course he loved. Just a week ago Trump bragged that his Apprentice ratings were higher than the ratings for Biden’s recent Israel speech. Like that even matters? And it’s probably not true anyway.

If you hear Trump’s version of his college days, he went to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was either top in his class or first in his class.

Truth is, Trump wanted to go to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles so he could be a Hollywood bigwig. But he was rejected. So instead, he went to Fordham College at Rose Hill, which he commuted to as a day student from Queens, NYC. According to the Fordham Observer, “Trump himself, however, did not leave “footprints” at Fordham, despite playing squash, according to President of the Fordham College Alumni Association Paul F. Gerken, FCRH ’68, in The Chronicle.”

While at Fordham, a fellow student named Brian Fitzgibbon described Trump “as a bit of a loner all those years ago and I really can’t recall his being close with anyone. He complained to me on one of our rides to school that there were too many Italian and Irish students at Fordham. He wanted me to know that I was excluded from that comment.”

So yeah, Trump was already showing his ways and knocking people who weren’t WASPs. Of course Trump isn’t a WASP, but he sure likes to act like he’s one.

Trump was only at Fordham for two years, before he transferred to Wharton. But at the time, Wharton wasn’t the top school it is now. In fact, in 1966 Penn accepted over half of the people who applied, where as today, they accept just around 8%. And Trump got in because he had a connection. His brother Fred Trump Jr. had a friend James Nolan who worked for the admissions department, and he conducted Trump’s interview and Trump ended up being accepted.

Trump graduated with a degree in economics, but he did not graduate at the top of his class like he has repeatedly claimed. A few months ago, as Trump was dealing with all his legal problems and indictments, he told Kari Lake “Kari, I never thought this is what my future would look like, when I graduated first in my class at Wharton. I didn’t think they’d be indicting me and trying to call me a criminal.”

.@KariLake of her conversation with Trump tonight: "And he just said, 'Kari, I never thought this is what my future would look like, when I graduated first in my class at Wharton. I didn't think they'd be indicting me and trying to call me a criminal. But, but he's OK with it." https://t.co/4yL247FT9p

— YvonneWingettSanchez 🏜 (@yvonnewingett) June 9, 2023

First, that is just such a Trump thing to say. Second, it’s a lie. I know, what a surprise. And Trump has told this lie before in the past, so it’s been fact checked. Trump vacillates between being first in his class or top of his class with honors. Well, he didn’t do that either. Both records from the University of Pennsylvania and Trump’s classmates dispute these claims.

In 1968, The Daily Pennsylvanian published a list of the 56 students who were on the Wharton Dean’s List that year — Trump’s name is not among them.

“I recognize virtually all the names on that list, ” 1968 Wharton graduate Stephen Foxman said, “and Trump just wasn’t one of them.”

1968 Wharton graduate Jon Hillsberg added that there was no indication on the 1968 Commencement Program that Trump graduated with any honors whatsoever. A copy of the program acquired from the Penn Archives lists 20 Wharton award and prize recipients, 15 cum laude recipients, four magna cum laude recipients and two summa cum laude recipients for the Class of 1968. Trump’s name isn’t anywhere on those lists.

“If he had done well, his name would have shown up,” Foxman said.

There were 366 graduates in 1968, and the Dean’s List of 56 students represents approximately the top 15 percent of the class. Trump not being in the top 15% suggests that his academic record at Wharton wasn’t as outstanding as he has claimed, and he certainly wasn’t FIRST in his class.

Back in 2019, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that he had sent letters to Trump’s high schools, colleges and the College Board (creator of the SAT), threatening them with legal action and jail time if they ever released Trump’s academic records. Cohen provided a record of one such letter sent to the president of Fordham University. Trump’s high school has confirmed receiving an identical letter, while the University of Pennsylvania and the College Board declined to comment.

Michael Cohen says Trump directed him to threaten his high school, colleges, and the College Board to never release the president’s grades or SAT scores pic.twitter.com/TQyFEdAzgo

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 27, 2019

Now if Trump was at the top of his class, or FIRST, why the need to threaten the schools? It’s like, the lies are so unreal and unnecessary. Wharton/Penn is a great school. Obviously we know he didn’t get in on his own merits, but he did graduate and that’s all that matters. Why lie? As a non-sociopathic person, it’s hard to understand.