During a campaign stop in July of 2015, then-candidate Donald Trump told the crowd in Arizona, “I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I’m like, a really smart person.”

The president brings up his Wharton education frequently, often to dispel any notion that he’s not intelligent. During an interview with Meet the Press, Trump described Wharton as “maybe the hardest school to get into.”

@DanilluHermman The Wharton School of Finance is the best! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2013

Unfortunately for Trump, however, his beloved alma mater published a study that eviscerates the tax plan he’s been pitching for weeks.


The study, released Monday by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School on Monday, found that the proposed GOP-Trump tax plan would increase the deficit by $1 trillion to $3.5 trillion over the course of the first ten years. By 2040, the plan would cost between $2 trillion and $10.6 trillion.

According to the GOP budget approved last week, the Republican tax plan is only allotted $1.5 trillion to add to the deficit before violating the reconciliation rules that would allow the Senate to fast-track the bill with 51 votes instead of 60.

This will test the loyalty of Republican deficit hawks in Congress like Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) who told The New York Times, “Every Republican I know of is concerned about the deficit. Every Republican I know of is concerned about tepid growth, too.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in an interview with Bloomberg this week said she would oppose any tax bill that would increase the deficit.

The Wharton study also found that the administration’s claim that the average American family would receive a four thousand dollar raise under their tax plan is false, echoing a number of academic studies that conclude cutting taxes for corporations does not raise wages for workers.

According to the Wharton study, the tax plan would only increase workers wages 1.3 to 1.4 percent over a decade, and would only grow the country’s economy 0.2 percent each year over the first decade, well below what the administration has promised.


This miscalculation on Trump’s part, however, isn’t the fault of Wharton. Donald Trump spent only two years there, transferring from Fordham University in New York. Trump family biographer Gwenda Blair reports Trump was only able to transfer to Wharton because of “an interview with a friendly Wharton admissions officer who was one of [Trump’s older brother’s] high school classmates.”

Also having one of the wealthiest New York real estate developers as his father certainly didn’t hurt his chances either.