Are Donald J. Trump's college transcripts from Fordham or Wharton publicly available
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Executive summary
Donald J. Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania; neither school has publicly released his official transcripts and an image circulating online purporting to be a Fordham report card has been called a forgery by Fordham [1] [2]. Multiple reports describe efforts by Trump’s lawyers to threaten schools and the College Board to prevent release of his grades and SAT scores, and FERPA generally bars schools from releasing student records without permission [2] [3] [4].
1. Why the question matters: transparency, reputation and politics
Trump’s college records became a political flashpoint because he publicly challenged others about their academic records while keeping his own private; that contrast fueled media scrutiny and political attacks, making the availability of his transcripts a subject of public interest rather than mere curiosity [4] [2].
2. What the universities say — Fordham’s and Wharton’s roles
Public reporting establishes the basic enrollment facts: Trump spent two years at Fordham’s liberal arts college and then transferred to Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania [1]. Available sources do not publish or link to any official Fordham or Wharton release of Trump’s full academic transcripts [1] [2].
3. Legal barrier: FERPA and routine privacy protections
Student records are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which generally prohibits disclosure of academic records without a student’s written permission; reporting notes that this legal framework is why institutions decline to release transcripts and why letters from Trump’s counsel were legally unnecessary but effective as deterrence [4] [3].
4. Allegations of legal intimidation to block release
Reporting and sworn statements say Trump directed lawyers to send letters threatening civil and criminal action to his high school, colleges and the College Board to prevent disclosure of grades and SAT scores; his former lawyer Michael Cohen testified about such letters and that they were sent at Trump’s direction [2] [5]. Forbes and other outlets explain those letters were redundant under FERPA but served to intimidate [3].
5. The bogus Fordham transcript and fact-checking
An image circulated online claiming to be Trump’s Fordham report card; Fordham called that image a forgery and Reuters fact-checked the claim as unsupported, with Fordham’s spokesperson stating the document was not authentic [1]. That undercuts any assertion that authentic transcripts are already in the public domain via leaked images [1].
6. What journalists, biographers and insiders report about grades
Several sources, including journalists and biographers cited in reporting, describe contemporaneous impressions that Trump’s academic performance was unremarkable and that friends and professors recalled low engagement; such character assessments are reported but do not equate to released official records [2]. These accounts are background reporting, not formal transcript publication [2].
7. Competing viewpoints and limits of available reporting
Some outlets frame the story as a privacy/legal matter — FERPA protects student records and institutions comply — while others emphasize the political irony of Trump’s demands of other public figures and his team’s attempts to suppress his own records [4] [3]. Available sources do not mention any court orders, lawsuits, or authoritative releases that produced certified, complete transcripts for public inspection; they instead document threats, denials and a fake Fordham document [1] [2] [3].
8. How a reader can verify or pursue the records
FERPA makes schools unlikely to release records without the subject’s permission; the reporting suggests the most realistic ways transcripts would become public are: voluntary release by Trump, a legal process compelling disclosure (not mentioned in current reporting), or authenticated leaks subject to institutional confirmation (current reporting documents forgery, not authentic leaks) [4] [1] [3]. Available sources do not mention any ongoing litigation that has compelled release.
9. Bottom line and caveats
There is no authoritative public release of Donald Trump’s official Fordham or Wharton transcripts in the provided reporting; Fordham has explicitly labelled a circulated Fordham “report card” image a forgery, and multiple accounts document legal threats to prevent release while FERPA protects such records [1] [2] [4]. If you need primary documents or new developments, consult official statements from Fordham, the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton or court filings — current sources do not report certified transcripts in the public domain [1] [2].