Joe Shapiro: Who is the Man Accused of Taking President Donald Trump’s SAT Exam?

Trump rally

Getty Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BOK Center.

Joe Shapiro is the name of a man who has been accused of taking the SAT exam for President Donald Trump.

Mary Trump, the president’s niece, made the claim in her upcoming book, “Too Much and Never Enough, How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” which is slated for release on July 14, according to ABC News.

In a copy obtained by ABC, the younger Trump indicates that her uncle hired a man to take the exam to boost his chances at transferring from Fordham University to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“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,” she writes, ABC said. “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 did not provide proof or attribution, ABC continued.

Now, the widow of a man named Joe Shapiro is going public to refute the allegation, which she says references her late husband.

ESPN Tennis analyst Pam Shriver said on Twitter that, although Shapiro was a friend of Trump’s, the two did not meet until after he transferred to Pennsylvania.

She assured that the accusation is false, saying journalists have approached her in the past with the rumor.

“He always did the right thing, and that’s why this hurts,” Shriver expressed.

The former professional tennis player explained that her husband was an undergrad at Wharton when he met Trump, who transferred for his junior year.

Shriver said she frequently ran into Trump at tennis events over the years, and that he always greeted her. Trump would tell her, “Joe Shapiro was the smartest man I ever met,” she continued.

“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 her video.

“It feels unfair,” she added.

The White House has since denied Mary’s statement in a response to the Daily Mail, calling it an “absurd SAT allegation” that is “completely false.”

Here is everything you need to know about the late Joe Shapiro:


1. Shapiro & Trump Shared a Love of Golf

Golf

GettyGolf.

Shriver recalled that the two men both  relished the sport.

Shapiro and Trump kept in touch for a while over the years, she said. Shapiro even visited him at the Trump Tower in New York City, Shriver added.

Trump “joins a long list of presidents with a love of the game,” according to CNN. The outlet created a tally claiming president spent 1 of every 5 days in 2019 at a golf club.


2. Shapiro was an Attorney & Former Executive of the Walt Disney Company

disney

GettyDisney logo.

Variety Magazine reported that Shapiro joined Walt Disney in 1985 and was “instrumental in strengthening the company’s law department.”

He worked as the company’s general counsel under the leadership of CEO Michael Eisner, according to the magazine. Shapiro specialized in the negotiation of major contracts.

Variety cites one of Shapiro’s most memorable influences at Walt Disney as the “chief negotiator for Disney in the construction, financing and operation of Disneyland Paris.”

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1971 and was a partner at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine prior to his association with Disney, the outlet added.


3. Shapiro Died in 1999 After a Battle With Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

cancel cells

GettyCancer cell.s

Shapiro was 52 when he died on Sept. 23 in Santa Monica, California, Variety Magazine reported.

The former attorney left his job at Disney in 1994 while battling his cancer. He then began working as a California State University professor in the finance and law department, the magazine stated.

Variety said that “in lieu of flowers,” Shapiro’s family encouraged donations to be made in his honor to the John Wayne Cancer Institute.


4. Shriver Started Dating Shapiro in 1996

pam shriver

GettyPam Shriver of the USA takes a backhand shot Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

The pair began dating the year Shriver retired from professional tennis, the Daily Mail disclosed.

Shapiro was in remission from non-Hodgkins lymphona at the time. They married in 1998 and he died shortly after, the outlet stated.

The Daily Mail said Shriver then married former James Bond actor George Lazenby, in which they had three children together.

She filed for divorce from Lazenby after six years of marriage in 2008.


5. Mary Trump’s Friend Says Joe Shapiro is Not the Man Cited in the Book

Mary’s friend Alice Hafter-Frankston, who has been handling press interviews on her behalf while Mary is under a gag order, told CNN that Shriver’s Shapiro is not the same man from the book.

“That’s not the Joe Shapiro,” Frankston said to CNN’s Erin Burnett. “The media has kind of zeroed in on Pam Shriver’s late husband.”

Frankston offered a timeline that discredits claims that Shriver’s Shapiro is the man accused of taking the exam.

“The timeline doesn’t match up, and it wouldn’t be logical because the incident would have happened when Mary’s uncle was at Fordham. And this Joe Shapiro and Mary’s uncle would have been at Penn at the same time. It doesn’t really match up, and that’s not the one.”

Adding, “Joe Shapiro is a very common name on the East Coast.”

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