Did wharton professor say trump was stupid
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Executive summary
A widely circulated claim holds that longtime Wharton marketing professor William T. Kelley called Donald Trump “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had”; that attribution rests entirely on the account of attorney Frank DiPrima and surfaced only after Kelley’s death, and no contemporaneous primary source has been produced to independently verify Kelley ever spoke or wrote that line [1] [2]. Major summaries and fact-checking outlets report the quote as second‑hand and posthumous rather than documented in class records or contemporary interviews [1] [2].
1. The claim and where it came from
The specific phrasing—often rendered as “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had”—is attributed to William T. Kelley and was publicized by Frank DiPrima, an attorney who said Kelley told him the remark repeatedly over decades; that account was cited in Philadelphia Magazine’s reporting and subsequently repeated in other summaries of Trump’s Wharton years [1] [2]. Variants of the allegation have circulated in the press and on social media for years, sometimes used to challenge Trump’s repeated boasts about his academic standing at Wharton [3] [4].
2. How reporters and fact‑checkers treated the attribution
Reporting outlets that examined the anecdote—The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Magazine among them—treated DiPrima’s retelling as second‑hand testimony and noted the unusual nature of such a blunt professor comment, especially since it emerged only after Kelley’s death and not from Kelley himself [2] [1]. Fact‑checking summaries and aggregation pieces flagged the lack of direct evidence, emphasizing that the claim relies on DiPrima’s memory and that no academic records or contemporaneous statements by Kelley have surfaced to corroborate the exact wording [1] [2].
3. How the quote spread and how it’s been used
Once reported by local outlets and later amplified online, the anecdote has been quoted in retrospectives of Trump’s Wharton years and in pieces scrutinizing his academic claims; some outlets present it as an illustrative rumor or reputed quote about Trump’s performance at Penn rather than a proven fact [3] [5]. Additionally, examples of the claim’s reuse show how such second‑hand anecdotes can become treated like documented history in later summaries unless rigorously sourced [4].
4. Limits of the available evidence and alternative views
There is no published classroom record, recorded interview, letter, or contemporaneous source attributed directly to Kelley that confirms he uttered or wrote the line; Kelley’s death eliminated the possibility of a direct interview, leaving only DiPrima’s testimony and later retellings to underpin the claim [1] [2]. Alternative possibilities noted in reporting include that DiPrima may have paraphrased Kelley’s sentiment, that memory and emphasis change over decades, or that the remark—if uttered—was colorful oral commentary not intended as a formal evaluation; investigative accounts make clear these are plausible explanations given the absence of primary documentation [2] [1].
5. The cautious conclusion: what can be said, and what cannot
Based on the reporting assembled, it is accurate to say a Wharton professor—identified as William T. Kelley—has been widely reported, via Frank DiPrima, to have called Trump “the dumbest goddamn student” he’d had, and that this report has been repeated in multiple outlets as part of the lore about Trump at Wharton [1] [2] [3]. It is not possible, from the available reporting, to declare with documentary certainty that Kelley literally said those exact words in a verifiable contemporaneous record; the attribution is second‑hand and posthumous, and no primary evidence has been cited by the outlets that retold the anecdote [1] [2].
6. Why the distinction matters
The story matters because it feeds two larger narratives—one about Trump’s academic credentials and one about the persistence of oral anecdotes in shaping public reputations—and the difference between an eyewitness contemporary quote and decades‑old retelling affects how strongly the anecdote should be treated as evidence [2] [3]. Readers should treat the Kelley line as an oft‑reported but unverified second‑hand allegation: useful as color in biographical sketches but insufficient as a primary documented judgment of Trump’s abilities absent new corroboration [1] [2].