Trump University freshmen could expect the hard sell. Some former employees describe the organization’s program as con-game rather than an educational course.
At a free 90-minutes TU seminar, you’d be buttered up — “this is not something we offer to just anyone” — and pitched to enroll in the paid program. Short of cash? Just use your credit card; Mr. Trump’s real estate hints will make you profitable so quickly that you’ll be able to pay it back right away. It’s Mr. Trump’s system, and you know who he is. He can help you get out of that nine-to-five job you hate and become wealthy in real estate.
Worried about forking over more than two months’ wages for the course? There’s an answer for that: “Do you like living paycheck-to-paycheck? …Mr. Trump will not listen to excuses, and neither will we.”
If you think this sounds like a shady sales pitch for a time-share, maybe that’s because Trump University’s materials and sales pitches were actually run and developed by a third-party company that does time-shares.
The elite course levels at Trump U cost as little as $10,000, but some victims paid more than $35,000 on the promise that Trump’s advice could make them into tycoons. According to one former employee, Trump University’s curriculum “only provided enough information to get students to sign up for the next seminar or program.” Another, who resigned after refusing to sell the $35,000 program to someone who clearly couldn’t afford it, called it a “fraudulent scheme” that “preyed on the elderly and uneducated.”
Many of the students (or victims) are now suing for fraud in two California lawsuits, and New York’s attorney general is pursuing a $40 million case against Trump University as well. This comes at an awkward time for the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump can’t afford to slough this off but he is trying to. He has attacked the judge in one of the California lawsuits during his campaign events. When asked why he would antagonize a judge in his own fraud case, referring to him as “unfair” in part because he’s “a Mexican,” he answered, “Because I don’t care.”
But this is a more serious matter than Trump seems willing to admit. Courts will decide the merits of the fraud cases. But even assuming he beats them, as he says he will, the facts and allegations released in court documents are very damaging. They portray a classic get-rich-quick scheme in which Trump was the one amassing the riches.
It’s a safe bet that dozens of Trump U customers have already filmed commercials for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her super PACs. We’ll be hearing about all this until Election Day.
Trump treats it as unimportant. His only defense so far is to mislead people about Trump University’s rating with the Better Business Bureau. It was a D-minus when Trump University was still active in 2010. It improved as all the old complaints gradually rolled off BBB’s rating system after three years.
If Trump has any big success stories from his school to bring forward to counter the complainers, or a serious analysis showing that the courses were genuinely beneficial for most or many of those who took them, now would be a good time to bring it up.
If he doesn’t, Republicans can only wait and watch what Hillary Clinton will do to their nominee over the next five months.
