Trump no ‘super genius,’ says Ivy League admissions officer who interviewed him
The man who interviewed Trump to get into the University of Pennsylvania said he did so as a favor to Trump’s brother — and that Trump wasn’t a very impressive candidate.
Trump often brags about his Ivy League education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business, saying it was the “the hardest [school] there is to get into” and that he had to be a “super genius” to get in.
However, the University of Pennsylvania admissions officer who interviewed Trump as part of the application process disputed Trump’s claims in an interview with the Washington Post published on Monday.
James Nolan told the Post that he initially interviewed Trump as a favor to Trump’s brother, Fred Trump Jr., who was his best friend growing up.
Nolan said the interview was unremarkable, and that Trump’s claims of superior intellect are overblown.
“I certainly was not struck by any sense that I’m sitting before a genius,” Nolan told the Washington Post. “Certainly not a super genius.”
Nolan noted that Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., tagged along to the interview and tried to “ingratiate” himself.
Nolan also pointed out that, contrary to Trump’s claims, Wharton wasn’t even that hard to get into at the time. More than half of the people who applied as transfers, like Trump, were able to earn admission.
“It was not very difficult,” Nolan told the Post of the admissions process when Trump applied back in 1966.
There’s ample evidence to support Nolan’s observation that Trump wasn’t the smartest person he ever met.
Just last week, Trump said that the Continental Army “took over the airports” during the Revolutionary War. In fact, airplanes would not be invented for more than 100 years after the American Revolution.
Trump is also notoriously bad at spelling, often having to delete tweets because he misspells a word. Infamous errors include calling England’s Prince of Wales the “Prince of Whales” and claiming that China conducted an “unpresidented act” when he meant “unprecedented.”
He’s not great at civics, either. He talks about Puerto Rico as if it’s not part of the United States, and he doesn’t understand very basic political terms.
Even though Trump got into Wharton, the education didn’t seem to do him much good.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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