Former President Donald Trump was criticized after reposting a blatantly false quote attributed to one of his professors, William T. Kelly of Wharton, on Truth Social.
The post falsely claimed Kelly said:
"Donald Trump was the smartest student I ever had."
You can see Trump's post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
In reality, Kelly never said that. What Kelly actually reportedly said was:
"Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had."
The anti-Trump liberal political action committee MeidasTouch highlighted the lie, noting that Trump had shared a manipulated version of the original meme.
As Meidas Touch posted:
The original meme can be seen below.
@MeidasTouch/X
The quote originates from Frank DiPrima, a personal friend of the Kelleys who, according to a piece in Philadelphia Magazine, said Kelly repeated this observation about Trump "100 times over the course of 30 years." MeidasTouch called Trump's decision to post an altered meme "disgraceful, but this is what we've grown to expect from the GOP presumptive nominee."
The Republican Accountability Project, via its X account @RpsAgainstTrump, also called out the lie, noting in a post of its own that "Kelly also said that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything, that he was arrogant and he wasn’t there to learn."
You can see the post below.
Trump has a pattern of sharing fabricated quotes about himself on Truth Social. He controls what his followers see and has even shared screenshots of articles with any negative content removed.
Social media users were hardly surprised by Trump's spreading of disinformation.
Trump has repeatedly made bold claims about his own intelligence and once said he "heard" that he was first in his class at the University of Pennsylvania, but has declined to release any of his academic records.
In 2019, The Daily Pennsylvanian confirmed that, while Trump finished his undergraduate degree at the university's Wharton business program, his name doesn't appear on the school's dean's list or on the list of students who received academic honors in his class of 1968.
At the time, The Washington Postpublished a story of its own that appears to confirm former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Cohen said that Trump ordered him "to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores" as part of an effort to defend Trump's reputation.