Declare:
Former President Donald Trump has not attended any of his kids’s highschool or school commencement ceremonies, as of April 2024.
Score:
Context:
With one doable exception, Trump has been current at every of his kids’s highschool and school graduations, in line with contemporaneous experiences and the recollections of different attendees.
Within the early days of Donald Trump’s New York legal fraud trial in April 2024 — associated to alleged hush-money funds made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels — the previous president falsely claimed the decide had knowledgeable him he wouldn’t be capable to attend his son Barron’s highschool commencement.
Trump’s assertion resulted within the widespread declare, captured in “copypasta,” that Trump by no means attended any of his different kids’s graduations. Many of the copy-and-pasted textual content made the declare about solely highschool occasions:
In ’96 Don Jr graduated from the Hill College. His Father did not attend commencement. In ’00 Ivanka graduated from Choate. Trump did not attend commencement. In ’02 Eric graduated. Trump did not attend commencement. In ’12, Tiffany graduated from Viewpoint College. Trump did not attend…
Different variations of the declare included school graduations, as properly.
These claims had been false. They’re contradicted by experiences that appeared in print on the time of the graduations, by the revealed recollections of former college students and by the memoirs of Trump relations.
An intensive search by Snopes offers documented proof of Trump attending all of his kids’s highschool and school graduations, with the doable exception of Donald Trump Jr.’s 1996 highschool commencement.
In that case, nonetheless, Donald Trump — who could have been busy with an event celebrating the launch of Trump’s World’s Truthful On line casino — did go to his son’s faculty throughout his remaining semester, earlier than his commencement, to present a Profession Day speak. In her memoir, Trump’s first spouse, Ivana, wrote about faculty occasions that “my rule was that somebody — me, Donald, the nannies, my dad and mom, or a mixture — needed to be at each one.”
Donald Trump Jr.
Donald Trump Jr. attended a non-public Pennsylvania boarding faculty named The Hill College and graduated in Might 1996. Snopes has but to determine any reporting inserting the elder Trump on the commencement ceremony, however a broadly syndicated Might 1996 column important of him exhibits that he was a speaker for the college’s Profession Day that spring:
A quarterly newspaper referred to as Hill Ties, is usually dedicated to Profession Day ’96, and quotes from the keynote deal with, delivered by “Mr. Donald Trump, father of Don ’96.”
On its first web page, the newspaper took what it apparently thought of essentially the most worthwhile (for it quoted no different) passage from the speech: “I believe I do know just a little one thing about life,” stated Trump, who inherited a reported $7-million from his father and went onward and upward from there.
“You may’t surrender,” Trump continued. “You’ll have occasions whenever you really feel there isn’t any gentle on the finish of the tunnel. I had occasions like that and I had a selection: I might sit within the nook with my thumb in my mouth, or I might combat. My recommendation to you is: Punch like hell and do not take no for a solution.”
Donald Trump Jr. graduated from the College of Pennsylvania’s Wharton College in Might 2000. Donald Trump’s attendance was noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Donald Trump, ex-wife Ivana, their youngsters Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric plus six others limoed to Previous Metropolis’s Novelty for Sunday brunch after Junior’s commencement from Dad’s alma mater, the Wharton College. Donald the Lesser picked Bruce Cooper’s new joint as a result of he appreciated hanging on the market.
Ivanka Trump
Ivanka went to The Choate College for highschool — a non-public boarding faculty in Connecticut. A Choate scholar information publication from 2016 recalled Donald Trump’s attendance at her commencement ceremony, citing classmate Stephen Farrell:
The one time I noticed Donald Trump on campus was at commencement together with his safety guard. He conveyed the very same picture he does now as a presidential candidate, of significance and self-satisfaction.
Ivanka graduated from the College of Pennsylvania’s Wharton College in Might 2004. The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported on Donald Trump’s attendance at this commencement:
Wharton grad/former mannequin Ivanka Trump will probably be leaving her house on the Left Financial institution for one which her father, Donald, purchased her a couple of months again. The Donald and ex-wife Ivana attended a Wharton ceremony Sunday at which their daughter acquired her diploma. The proud dad and mom additionally took in Penn’s graduation Monday at Franklin Area.
Like Don Jr., Eric Trump attended The Hill College, graduating in 2002. Trump’s attendance at this commencement ceremony was described in 2017 in a Metropolis & State New York report about Eric Trump’s life:
When Donald and Ivana dropped him off in 1997, as understanding dad and mom whispered and giggled on the celeb sighting, Donald Trump requested Eric’s 13-year-old roommate, “Are you going to care for my boy?”
College students recall he would not return to Hill till Eric’s commencement day in 2002, an occasion his mom missed, apparently for the Cannes Movie Competition and the Monaco Grand Prix, a scholar recalled and information experiences recommend.
Eric Trump went to Georgetown College, graduating in 2006. Trump attended this ceremony as properly, in line with a wire report revealed in a wide range of newspapers:
Flash! Eric Trump (sure, these Trumps) graduated Saturday from Georgetown College with (what else?) a enterprise diploma, and the prolonged clan turned out en masse for the festivities: proud pop Donald and spouse Melania, mother Ivana, older brother Donald Jr. and his bride Vanessa, and sis Ivanka.
Tiffany Trump attended the personal Viewpoint College in Los Angeles, graduating in 2012. In a Los Angeles Occasions opinion piece published in November 2016, a classmate recalled Trump’s attendance on the commencement:
Pricey Donald,
I am certain you do not bear in mind me. You sat within the third row of my highschool commencement sporting a loud salmon pink tie. Your daughter Tiffany and I had spent six years collectively at Viewpoint College, a small bastion of privilege nestled alongside Mulholland Freeway. As you watched the ceremony, you most likely did not suppose it was even doable that an undocumented scholar could be receiving the identical prestigious diploma as your daughter.
Tiffany Trump additionally graduated from the College of Pennsylvania, receiving her diploma in Might 2016. Her commencement, occurring throughout her father’s 2016 presidential run, was coated broadly by the press, together with this report from Yahoo Information:
Donald Trump’s youngest daughter is formally a university graduate. Tiffany Trump, whose mom is Marla Maples, obtained her bachelor’s diploma from the College of Pennsylvania on Sunday. …
Ivanka shared a photograph of the siblings on Instagram with the caption: “So happy with my stunning and sensible sister @tiffanytrump on her commencement at present. All of us love you very a lot.” Along with Ivanka, Tiffany’s mom, Marla Maples, was in attendance, in addition to the presidential candidate, his present spouse, Melania, and their son, Barron.
As a result of Donlad Trump’s presence is documented in any respect however considered one of his kids’s commencement ceremonies, we price claims that he didn’t attend any such ceremonies as “False.”
Sources:
Cornejo, Diana Delgado. “Opinion: To Donald Trump, from the Undocumented Immigrant Who Graduated alongside Your Daughter.” Los Angeles Occasions, 8 Nov. 2016, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-undocumented-donald-trump-tiffany-20161108-story.html.
“Flash! Eric Trump.” Democrat and Chronicle, 24 Might 2006, p. 2. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/article/democrat-and-chronicle-flash-eric-trump/145548553/.
Hagan-Brown ’18, Amy. “Choate Dad Runs for President.” The Choate Information, 8 Apr. 2016, https://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2016/04/08/choate-dad-runs-for-president/.
“Ivanka Headin’ Again To New York.” Philadelphia Every day Information, 19 Might 2004, p. 39. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/article/philadelphia-daily-news-ivanka-headin-b/145547724/.
“Regionally Related.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 Might 2000, p. 42. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-locally-connec/145479490/.
“So Wealthy, but Nonetheless so Clueless.” Tampa Bay Occasions, 5 Might 1996, p. 105. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/article/tampa-bay-times-so-rich-yet-still-so-cl/145602295/.
“The President’s Son: How Eric Grew to become a Trump.” Metropolis & State NY, 29 Sept. 2017, https://www.cityandstateny.com/personality/2017/09/the-presidents-son-how-eric-became-a-trump/181794/.
“Tiffany Trump Wore Ivanka Trump Flats at Her Faculty Commencement.” Yahoo Life, 16 Might 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tiffany-trump-wore-ivanka-trump-flats-to-her-173354396.html.
Trump, Ivana. Elevating Trump. Simon and Schuster, 2017.
“Trump World’s Truthful Open.” Press of Atlantic Metropolis, 15 Might 1996, p. 29. newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-trump-worlds-fai/145602688/.