Donald Trump is clearly suggesting here that Barack Obama got into Harvard (and Columbia before that) because of his skin color:
Trump openly questioned how Obama, who he said had been a “terrible student,” got accepted into Columbia University for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law School.
“I heard he was a terrible student, terrible,” Trump told the Associated Press in an interview, a claim he’s made in the past but one he doubled down on by suggesting he’s probing that area of the president’s life.
“How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I’m thinking about it, I’m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records,” he said, without providing backup for his claim.
Trump added, “I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can’t get into Harvard.”
He heard Obama “was a terrible student, terrible”? He HEARD? As the Politico article goes on to point out, Obama held the top editorial position at Harvard Law Review — an extremely prestigious accomplishment — and graduated from Harvard magna cum laude. In other words, according to Trump, Obama did not simply get admitted to Columbia and Harvard despite being unqualified. No, in addition: Harvard Law Review selected him for the most exclusive, competitive, and prestigious position any law student can achieve, and he graduated magna cum laude — and all despite being a “terrible student, terrible.”
Obviously and of course, the very first thing that springs to mind is George W. Bush, who got an undergraduate degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard University on the wings of his wealthy and very well-connected father — with an academic record that he himself has admitted was mediocre. I realize that Obama is running for reelection and GWB is not, but this is not about whether anyone questioned GWB’s having gone to Yale and Harvard when GWB was actually running for POTUS. It’s about Trump questioning Obama’s academic qualifications to have gone to Columbia and Harvard now, in this 2012 presidential race, when the objective record doesn’t even support such a claim, when George W. Bush absolutely unarguably did not have an academic record that justified his admission to Harvard and Yale. It’s that glaring contrast that makes the racism so obvious.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.