Donald trump gpa in college
Executive summary
There is no publicly verified college GPA for Donald J. Trump; academic records from his time at Fordham University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania have not been released, and multiple outlets report that Trump or his lawyers actively sought to prevent their disclosure [1] [2] [3]. Independent checks of contemporaneous honors lists and dean’s lists show he did not graduate with academic distinction from Wharton, and several journalistic accounts and former instructors describe unimpressive classroom performance, but none provide a confirmed numeric GPA [4] [5].
1. What the record actually shows: degree but not grades
Donald Trump transferred from Fordham to the Wharton School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics—his degree is a matter of public record, but the underlying transcript and GPA have not been released to the public [6] [7]. Journalists who checked Wharton commencement programs and the Daily Pennsylvanian’s 1968 dean’s list found that his name does not appear among students who graduated with honors, indicating he did not graduate summa, magna or cum laude and was not on that published dean’s list [4].
2. Why the numeric GPA remains private: legal threats and privacy rules
Multiple outlets report that Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-personal lawyer, warned Trump’s schools and the College Board not to release grades or SAT scores, a claim the schools and Cohen’s testimony before Congress corroborated; federal student privacy rules also limit institutions from releasing transcripts without the student’s consent [2] [3]. In one widely circulated instance, Fordham publicly called a purported Trump transcript a forgery and reiterated it would not release private records because of privacy laws, underscoring that images floated online are not reliable evidence of a GPA [1].
3. Conflicting accounts and color from classmates and faculty
Anecdotes from former professors and classmates vary from deriding his academic engagement to noting he wasn’t among the school’s top students; for example, long-tenured Penn faculty and several contemporaneous recollections described Trump as an unimpressive student, but these personal impressions do not equate to a documented GPA [5]. Journalistic efforts that piece together “proof by omission”—not finding his name on merit lists—are useful but cannot substitute for an official transcript, leaving room for speculation despite consistent signals that he did not graduate with academic honors [4].
4. Disinformation risks: forged documents and speculative figures
Several fake or altered grade documents have circulated online; Fordham itself labeled one widely shared image a forgery and pointed to errors that exposed it as inauthentic, highlighting how easy it is for false GPA claims to spread on social media [1]. Conversely, some later web posts and sites claim specific GPAs—ranging from high to middling numbers—but those claims are not corroborated by reliable evidence provided in the public record and should be treated as conjecture rather than fact [8].
5. Context and competing narratives about why GPA matters
Observers who defend the secrecy argue that GPA decades after graduation is of limited relevance to assessing a public figure’s abilities and accomplishments, while critics contend that the refusal to release records amid threats to institutions suggests an effort to hide weak academic performance—an interpretation supported by Cohen’s testimony that he was instructed to block disclosure [3] [2]. The debate therefore turns less on a precise numeric average, which remains unavailable, and more on what the secrecy implies about transparency and character.
6. Bottom line—what can be stated with confidence
No verified college GPA for Donald Trump is publicly available; he earned a Wharton degree in 1968 but did not graduate with honors or appear on the published dean’s list that year, and courts of privacy plus reported legal threats from his camp prevented academic institutions from releasing transcripts—so any specific GPA number circulating without direct documentary proof should be treated as unverified or false [6] [4] [2].