Barron Trump became the punchline of a joke around the White House before Melania Trump put the story to bed, author Michael Wolff told The Daily Beast podcast. The first lady issued a rare statement via her spokesperson on Monday,

Mama bear mode has been activated for Melania Trump. The First Lady recently spoke out to defend her 19-year-old son Barron Trump from messy rumors that all started with her husband President Donald Trump's recent bizarre attacks on Harvard University.

A whispered joke in the corridors of power snowballed into a viral conspiracy theory—one that Melania Trump has now publicly shut down. Claims that Harvard University rejected her son Barron have been doing the rounds,

A first lady spokesperson shut down “completely false" theories that the president is warring with Harvard because their son, Barron, was supposedly not accepted to the school.

Barron Trump did not apply to or get rejected from Harvard, according to the first lady's office. Trump is in an ongoing fued with Harvard after it refused to comply with federal directives.

Some social media speculation is that the president is cutting billions of dollars in funding to the Ivy League institution because it rejected his son as a student.