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University of New Brunswick investigating how Trump ally was awarded PhD in 2013
HALIFAX — A high-profile ally of former U.S. president Donald Trump is at the centre of an academic controversy at the University of New Brunswick, where the administration has promised an independent review of how he received a PhD in 2013.
Doug Mastriano, a retired U.S. army colonel, was a little-known state senator in Pennsylvania until he took an active role in the movement to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. In May, with Trump’s support, he won the Republican nomination to run for state governor, catapulting his far-right campaign into the national spotlight.
On Sept. 9, Mastriano’s academic credentials from UNB were called into question when The Associated Press reported allegations from scholars asserting that his doctoral dissertation was plagued by factual errors and amateurish archeology.
Mastriano has yet to publicly respond to the allegations. Calls to his Pennsylvania offices — in Chambersburg and Gettysburg — were not returned.