The widow of a man who was alleged to have taken the SATs for President Trump denies the claim.
Pam Shriver, an ESPN tennis analyst, denied any knowledge that her late husband, Joe Shapiro, took the standardized test for Trump. The allegation surfaced in the upcoming tell-all written by the president’s niece, Mary Trump.
“When you put somebody’s name in print in a book, you want to make sure the facts around it are correct, especially if they are not living because it’s not like Joe is here and he would have known how to deal with this,” Shriver said in a video posted to social media on Wednesday.
She also said her late husband met Trump during their time at the University of Pennsylvania, which would have been years after the president had taken the SATs, because he originally went to Fordham University for two years before transferring.
“My late husband Joe Shapiro passed away 21 years ago. He was a man of great integrity, honesty; he was a hard worker. He was literally the smartest person I ever met,” Shriver added.
The allegation in Mary Trump’s book, titled Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which is set for release next week and was obtained by the Washington Examiner, lacks evidence to support the allegation.
“To hedge his bets, he enlisted Joe Shapiro, a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker, to take his SATs for him. That was much easier to pull off in the days before photo IDs and computerized records. Donald, who never lacked for funds, paid his buddy well,” Mary Trump wrote.
The White House called the allegation “completely false.”
