Ivy League schools silent as Trump packs his Cabinet with their grads

The incoming Trump Cabinet has a decidedly Ivy League flavor, contrary to elite opinion.

Donald Trump himself is an Ivy, with an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School, not that the institution has ever congratulated him.

Another four of his Cabinet nominees are Ivy grads, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Yale (1984); Vice President J.D. Vance, Yale Law (2013); and Department of Government Efficiency co-head Vivek Ramaswamy, Yale Law (2013). Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth is a double Ivy: Princeton and Harvard, not that either school has acknowledged his political ascension.

Yale should be extra proud, with three alumni in the future Trump Cabinet.

But, alas, the elite university has remained conspicuously taciturn about its high-flying grads.

That’s in stark contrast to its previous expressions of gushing pride in the political achievements of such Democrat alums as failed presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor.

Hillary has regularly been invited to share her “insights” with the Yale community, bestowed with awards and praised as an example of “transformational leadership.”

In 2016, Yale Law School issued a statement congratulating Hillary “on her historic nomination for President of the United States.”

Yet there was no such congratulatory message when Yale alum Vance was elected vice president this year. The best effort was a link in the newsletter Yale Today to a USA Today story pointing out that Vance was “one of the youngest vice presidents in US history.”

This subdued attitude was in contrast to the exuberance of Vance’s other alma mater Ohio State, in an X post: “Congratulations to Vice President-elect JD Vance, an alumnus of The Ohio State University and native Ohioan.”

The Yale Daily News did note in the eighth paragraph of a dour story about Trump’s victory that Vance “will become the fourth Yale graduate to hold the vice presidential seat.”

But it poured cold water on the achievement: “Despite Vance’s ties to Yale, however, few in the community . . . are likely to celebrate his political ascend [sic].”

Bessent’s nomination for such a high-ranking Cabinet position you might think would merit a flash of pride.

After all, when Yale alum Jake Sullivan was appointed to the lesser role of then-VP Biden’s national security adviser in 2013, a laudatory article in the Yale Daily News was dedicated to this marvelous occurrence, including a long recitation of his career highlights. In 2020 when Sullivan and John Kerry were named to Biden’s national security team, Yale Alumni Association executive director Weili Cheng boasted of the “long and proud history of service among Yale alumni — for country, community, and fellow Yalies. We’re delighted to see that continue with the incoming administration, and we wish them, and everyone who will serve and continues to serve, all the very best in months and years to come.”

No such warm statement from the Yale Alumni Association lauding Bessent, Vance or Ramaswamy.

Yet Bessent has been a big donor to Yale and served as an adjunct professor for five years. He and his sister donated the Bessent Library to Yale and he has endowed three scholarships.

Yale was perfectly happy to take his money and bask in the reflected glory of his achievements as a billionaire hedge fund manager. But once Bessent and Vance and Ramaswamy joined forces with Trump, the Ivy League snobs decided to ignore them.