LEVIN REPORT

Junior more than likely had his tuition to the University of Pennsylvania paid in full by his billionaire dad, allowing him to focus on more pressing issues like earning the nickname “Diaper Don.”

BY BESS LEVIN

AUGUST 25, 2022

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, on Wednesday, Joe Biden announcedthat the government will forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for Americans making under $125,000 a year individually, or $250,000 a year as a married couple. While the move is projected to overwhelmingly benefit the middle class—the White House estimates that almost 90% of the relief will go toward people earning less than $75,000 annually—Republican lawmakers reacted to the news as though Biden had declared that starting Friday, members of his Secret Service detail will be going house-to-house to shoot blue-collar workers in the face. Also having a meltdown about the whole thing? Donald Trump Jr., who we’re guessing has never had to live under the weight of crushing educational debt on account of the whole born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-ass business.

“Canceling student debt is a tax on the most responsible people in the country,” Junior, whose tuition to the University of Pennsylvania was presumably footed in full by his father, tweeted on Wednesday. (At Penn, my colleague Emily Jane Foxreported in her book, Born Trump, the ex-president’s namesake was nicknamed “Diaper Don,” on account of the frequency with which he would get drunk and wake up in strangers’ beds “covered in piss.”) He similarly suggested that the loan forgiveness plan is ”nurturing incompetence and irresponsible behavior while penalizing hard work and fiscal responsibility,” asking, “How long can this continue before we collapse as a society and a nation?” (As Don is presumably unaware, many countries actually allow their citizens to go to college for free and are somehow doing just fine.) Responding to Congresswoman Cori Bush’s statement about the startling disparity between the debt held by Black borrowers versus white ones, the ex-president’s eldest son sneered that Biden’s loan program “discriminate[s]” against “Those that saved their money, skipped cool toys/trips and already paid their debts” and “those that went to work rather than getting a $300K gender studies degree.” (For those of you keeping up at home, the “gender studies” line is a popular one among the MAGA crowd.)

Of course, Junior himself did not have to worry about the cost of college because he was born into generational wealth, at least some of which was allegedly accrued through outright fraud. Nor has he ever had to worry about money in general, given that he’s worked for the company owned by his father since he was in his early 20s and, as of 2019, was reportedly worth an estimated $25 million.

Speaking of Donny’s dad, before he became president, Trump the elder was probably best known for basically never paying his debts, with his businesses filing for bankruptcy a whopping six times. And not only did he habitually not pay back his loans, he was deeply proud of it. After The New York Times revealed that the real estate developer had $287 million in debt forgiven by lenders—after he went into default—Trump tweeted that getting out of paying what he owed made him a “smart guy.” Which begs the question, is Trump, in little Donny’s mind, an irresponsible deadbeat? Or is it simply that it’s okay for the very wealthy catch a break, but the middle class, not so much?