Those aren't Trump's grades from Fordham. Image in video is a 'forgery' | Fact check
The claim: Video shows Trump’s college report card
A Sept. 30 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a woman speaking to the camera along with images of what appears to be former President Donald Trump's college report card from Fordham University.
“So when he went to Fordham, this was his grades,” the woman in the video says at one point. The report card shows three Cs, one D and one F.
On-screen text reads: "Trump's Grades 1.28 GPA."
The Instagram post received more than 1,900 likes in three days. Similar versions of the claim also circulated widely on Threads and on X, formerly Twitter.
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The image of the report card is fabricated. Fordham University identified it as inauthentic in a social media post.
Image in Instagram video is 'forgery'
Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree from the Wharton School. He has frequently touted his educational credentials – even bringing them up during the Sept. 10 presidential debate to give his economic proposals added credibility – but has never released his academic records.
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Contrary to the post's claim, the Instagram video does not show his authentic report card. It’s a years-old fabrication that Fordham has described as a “forgery.”
The image purported to show Trump’s report card includes three C-minus grades along with a D-plus in English literature and an F in statistics. It has circulated on social media since 2019, shortly after former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen told a House committee that in a 2015 letter he threatened to sue Fordham if Trump’s grades or test scores were made public.
In a March 2019 post to X, formerly Twitter, the university said the image is a “forgery, not an authentic Fordham University transcript” and that the institution follows federal privacy laws that protect student education records.
One clue the image is fabricated: an inaccuracy in the address in the upper-left corner of the purported transcript. When he was in college, Trump did not live at the listed address in Jamaica, New York. He only lived there until he was 4 years old, when the Trumps moved to another home in the neighborhood, according to multiple reports.
USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims that Trump was recorded speaking to Sean “Diddy” Combs about getting away with crimes, that he posted to social media that his would-be assassins have a record of “0-2” and that he lost a lawsuit over the use of an Isaac Hayes song at his rallies.
USA TODAY reached out to several social media users who shared the claim but did not immediately receive any responses.
Snopes previously debunked a version of the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Fordham University, March 8, 2019, X post
Google Maps, accessed Oct. 3, 85-15 Wareham Pl, Jamaica, New York
Michael Minn, accessed Oct. 3, Trump's Childhood Home: 85-15 Wareham Place
Michael Minn, accessed Oct. 3, Trump's Childhood Home: 85-14 Midland Parkway
The New York Times, Jan. 17, 2017, Donald Trump’s Childhood Home Goes to Auction
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: That's not Trump's Fordham report card. It's fabricated | Fact check