Fact Check: Did Trump graduate first at Wharton despite not making the Dean's List?

WASHINGTON, DC: A viral claim about President Donald Trump’s academic record is gaining attention online, with users alleging that he ranked 364th out of 366 students at the Wharton School despite saying he graduated first in his class.

The claim has circulated online for years and has resurfaced again, sparking questions about Trump’s college record.

But where did the claim about Trump ranking near the bottom of his Wharton class come from, and what do the available records actually show?

Claim: Trump said he graduated first in his class

An X user shared a post about Donald Trump’s academic record along with a meme comparing Trump with a young graduate.

The post made the claim that Trump said he graduated first in his class, but Wharton records show he ranked 364th out of 366 students. It was shared with the caption, “BREAKING: Trump said he graduated first in class, but Wharton records show he ranked 364th out of 366.”

In April 2026, social media users claimed that Trump did not graduate at the top of his class at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1968. Instead, they claimed he ranked 364th in a class of 366 students.

One X post that received more than 2 million views said, “Trump bragged he graduated top of his class at Wharton… There were 366 students. He finished… wait for it… 364th.”

The claim spread across several social media platforms. The earliest post we found making the 364th-out-of-366 claim came from an X user who frequently posted anti-Trump content.

The account’s bio described the user as “Deeply blue, fighting for truth. Politics stripped of spin.” Earlier in Trump’s career, news outlets, including The New York Times, reported that he graduated “first in his class.”

Fact Check: The claim is misleading

The claim is false. The recent X post claimed that Trump said he graduated first in his class, but Wharton records show he ranked 364th out of 366 students.

However, no Wharton records support the claim that Trump ranked 364th. The University of Pennsylvania does not publicly disclose class rankings. Public records show that Trump graduated without honors and did not appear on the Dean’s List, which recognized top students.

In 2017, Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, reported that 366 students graduated from Wharton in 1968 and that Trump was not among the 56 students on the Dean’s List.

The list represented about the top 15% of the graduating class. Trump’s absence from the list suggests that he did not rank among the top students, but it does not establish his exact class position.

An archived 1968 commencement program also lists Trump as a graduate but does not show him receiving cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude honors. Therefore, there is no evidence that Trump ranked 364th in his class.

At the same time, the available records do not establish that he graduated first. Since the University of Pennsylvania does not release student class rankings, the specific claim that Trump ranked 364th out of 366 remains unsupported.