August 29, 2019
PA Images/SIPA USA
Donald Trump Jr. said at a political rally in Kentucky that he understands the working class because of the time he spent at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump Jr. appeared at a rally for Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on Thursday, where Trump invoked Pottstown, Pennsylvania, of all places.
While discussing his upbringing, Trump talked about his time attending boarding school in Pottstown, which he said helped him understand working class issues, according to Kentucky Public Radio reporter Ryland Barton:
Trump Jr says he partly grew up in the rust belt because he went to a boarding school in Pottstown, PA, understands working class issues
— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) August 29, 2019
"This not your grandfather's Democrat Party, this is socialism"
The school Trump was referencing is The Hill School, a boarding school located 40 miles outside of Philadelphia in Montgomery County. Trump attended The Hill School as a teenager, before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Penn in 2000.
Trump's classification of Pottstown as part of the Rust Belt is up for debate, but since the easternmost border of the loosely-defined region often ends around Allentown, we won't haggle.
His use of The Hill School as a beacon of working-class values, however, has far less wiggle room.
The year Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, Business Insider named The Hill School the 34th-most elite boarding school in the country.
The current annual tuition at The Hill School is $61,410 for boarding students, and $42,370 for day students. Median household income in the United States in 2017 was $61,372, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While the school says roughly 40% of the student population receives financial assistance, an average U.S. household using 69% of its total income — or, in the case of boarding students, 100% of its total income, along with an extra $38 — for secondary school tuition wouldn't make much sense.
Ultimately, the realities of The Hill School's demographics don't at all align with Trump's working-class message.
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