First Lady Melania Trump has dismissed a widely circulated internet rumor that President Donald Trump’s administration is targeting Harvard University because it reportedly rejected their son Barron Trump.
“Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any claim that he or anyone on his behalf did is completely false,” a spokeswoman for Melania, 55, told PEOPLE.
PEOPLE contacted Harvard University admissions but did not receive an instant response.
Barron, 19, is presently enrolled at New York University. His college admissions have been a topic of curiosity since the Trump administration’s decision on Tuesday, May 27, to cut all remaining government funds to the Ivy League university. The decision occurred after Harvard declined to comply with the administration’s list of requests announced in April, which included DEI programs, foreign student admittance, and other issues.
The New York Times reports that the remaining government funds amount to $100 million. Over the previous month, the Trump administration has suspended around $3.2 billion in grants and contracts with Harvard, according to the site.
The most recent letter sent to Harvard authorities requires the Ivy League college to react to contract cancellations by June 6. The New York Times reports that other companies will receive any important information.
Last week, the Trump administration tried to prevent overseas students from attending Harvard. On Friday, May 23, the university sued the administration, and a federal court issued a temporary restraining order, according to the Times.
A Harvard researcher warned in April that cuts in federal funding could potentially lead to the death of their study monkeys. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a stop-work order to researchers that month.
Sarah Fortune, the main scientist on a Harvard TB research team, told The Boston Globe in April, “It’s such a heavy responsibility to work with them and to just be asked to kill them halfway through the study…”
While Harvard has sued the Trump administration, Columbia University, another Ivy League school, consented to the administration’s requests in March, enabling expanded federal control for its Middle East studies department, among other things.
The Trump administration claims that these demands on higher education institutions are intended to reduce anti-Semitism and discrimination against female sports, while critics of such measures accuse them of being anti-Palestinian and anti-transgender athletes.