Posted on 02/27/2016 12:19:21 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Many people believe that higher education is a de facto scam. Trump University, Donald Trump's real-estate institution, was a de jure one.
First thing first, Trump University was never a university. When the "school" was established in 2005, the New York State Education Department warned that it was in violation of state law for operating without a NYSED license. Trump ignored the warnings. (The institution is now called, ahem, "Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.") Cue lawsuits.
Trump University is currently the defendant in three lawsuits - two class-action lawsuits filed in California, and one filed in New York by then-attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who told CNN's New Day in 2013: "We started looking at Trump University and discovered that it was a classic bait-and-switch scheme. It was a scam, starting with the fact that it was not a university."
Trump U "students" say the same. In his affidavit, Richard Hewson reported that he and his wife "concluded that we had paid over $20,000 for nothing, based on our belief in Donald Trump and the promises made at the [organization’s] free seminar and three-day workshop." But "the whole thing was a scam."
In fact, $20,000 is only a mid-range loss. The lead plaintiff in one of the California suits, yoga instructor Tarla Makaeff, says she was "scammed" out of $60,000 over the course of her time in Trump U.
How could that have happened? The New York suit offers a suggestion:
The free seminars were the first step in a bait and switch to induce prospective students to enroll in increasingly expensive seminars starting with the three-day $1495 seminar and ultimately one of respondents’ advanced seminars such as the "Gold Elite" program costing $35,000.
At the "free" 90-minute introductory seminars to which Trump University advertisements and solicitations invited prospective students, Trump University instructors engaged in a methodical, systematic series of misrepresentations designed to convince students to sign up for the Trump University three-day seminar at a cost of $1495.
The Atlantic, which got hold of a 41-page "Private & Confidential" playbook from Trump U, has attested to the same:
The playbook says almost nothing about the guest speaker presentations, the ostensible reason why people showed up to the seminar in the first place. Instead, the playbook focuses on the seminars' real purpose: to browbeat attendees into purchasing expensive Trump University course packages.
To do that, instructors touted Trump's own promises: that students would be "mentored" by "handpicked" real-estate experts, who would use Trump's own real-estate strategies. Here’s Trump making the pitch himself:
But according to the New York complaint, none of the instructors was "handpicked" by Trump, many of them came from fields having nothing to do with real-estate, and Trump "'never' reviewed any of Trump University's curricula or programming materials." The materials were "in large part developed by a third-party company that creates and develops materials for an array of motivational speakers and seminar and timeshare rental companies."
Furthermore, Trump's promises that the three-day seminar ($1,495) would include "access to 'private' or 'hard money' lenders and financing," that it would include a "year-long 'apprenticeship support' program," and that it would 'improve the credit scores' of students were empty.
Those empty promises are the subject of a new series of anti-Trump ads by superPAC American Future Fund:
According to Bob, "I never heard from anybody about giving me a list of hard-money lenders":
Kevin, another Trump U "student," says Trump University "ruined" his credit score:
And according to Sherri, a single mother who participated in Trump U: "It was all supposedly supervised by Donald Trump, run by Donald Trump. All of it was just a fake."
In fact, Sherri isn't alone. No student ever met the Donald. Despite hints from Trump University instructors that Trump was "going to be in town," "often drops by," or "might show up," he never did. As Matt Labash recounted in The Weekly Standard: "At one seminar, attendees were told they’d get to have their picture taken with Trump. Instead, they ended up getting snapped with his cardboard cutout." Bob.., had such an "opportunity":
There could be many more ads to come. The New York lawsuit alone represents some 5,000 victims.
Meanwhile, Trump - who maintains that Trump University was "a terrific school that did a fantastic job" - has tried to bully his opponents out of the suit. Lawyers for Tarla Makaeff have requested a protective order from the court "to protect her from further retaliation." According to court documents, Trump has threatened to sue Makaeff personally, as well as her attorneys. He's already brought a $100 million counterclaim against the New York attorney general's office.
But it's not working. Trump himself will have to take the witness stand in San Diego federal court sometime during the election season - and because of the timeline of the cases, a "President Trump" would be embroiled in these suits long after November.
Meanwhile, if there is any doubt that Trump U was designed to be a scam, The Atlantic puts that to rest with a few other choice tidbits from that "Private & Confidential" playbook used by Trump presenters:
Every university has admission standards and Trump University was no exception. The playbook spells out the one essential qualification in caps: "ALL PAYMENTS MUST BE RECEIVED IN FULL." Basically, anyone with a valid credit card was “admitted” to Trump University....
If a member of the media happened to approach the registration table, Trump staffers were instructed not to talk to him or her under any circumstance. "Reporters are rarely on your side and they are not sympathetic," the playbook advises.
And:
At one point, the playbook advises Trump staffers: "If a district attorney arrives on the scene, contact the appropriate media spokesperson immediately."
Sounds legit.
He’s a good snake oil salesmen and if he wins, America’s been hoodwinked once again.
“The reason for Trump going bankrupt is as blatant as 5 minutes of observation will immediately reveal, he went bankrupt because his ego drove him to it.”
5 minutes of observation?
The only conclusion that one can arrive at with a mere 5 minutes of observing Trump is that he has been unusually successful.
It is good that you put that sentence at the beginning of your post, because it is a witness mark for everyone that you pulled the whole thing straight out of our ass. You have no idea what you are talking about.
You are trying to clothe mindless hate and venom with a facade of reason.
Happy to see you finally got some real justice.
Nobody is drinking kool-aid (other than the usual number of fanbois). The deal with Trump is he is not afraid to attack anyone including the GOP. That is his sole value.
I have. Cruz will get my vote here in proportional Virginia. If it were winner-take-all I would vote for Trump.
Who are you?
Bankruptcies
divorces
fraudulent universities
strip clubs
wrestling impresario
beauty pageants
gambling casinos
intimate of mafioso
prize fighting impresario
failed football league
serial litigation
failed businesses
serial lying
bombast, braggadocio, bullying
intimate relationship with Democrats
financing of Democrats
financing of rinos including Mitch McConnell and his ilk
hiring illegals
lying about opposition to Iraq war
lying about opposition to a Libya
Perhaps the most damning allegation of all, he causes his supporters to ape his worst characteristics by cheapening the debate and debasing discourse with phrases like:
you pulled the whole thing straight out of our (sic) ass 
Straight from your bag of cut-and-paste...
Parting fools with their money is an educational learning experience universities perform every day!!!
"If this man is the President, having been the Democratic winner, on the stand in court, being cross-examined about whether he committed had sex with THAT woman; Monica Lewinsky, "Don't you think the mainstream media will go crazy on that?"
http://www.trumpuniversitylitigation.com/Content/Documents/Cohen%20Answer%20to%20Complaint.pdf
Pg 17 of 19 PDF FILE
SIXTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE
(Fraud/Misrepresentation)
The Complaint, and the cause of action contained therein, is barred due to
Plaintiff’s own intentional and/or negligent misrepresentations. Defendant is
informed and believes and thereon alleges that on or about May 8-10, 2009,
Plaintiff attended a Fast Track to Foreclosure Training program (”Training
Presentation”). During or shortly after the Training Presentation, Plaintiff
represented to Trump University and its staff members, among other things, that (1)
the quality of the presentation was excellent; (2) the information was very useful;
(3) the instructor exceeded his expectations as a subject matter expert, that he
“already had very high expectations” and the instructor “did a great job!”; and (4)
the remaining staff members were professional, approachable, and answered his
questions. Plaintiff also represented to Trump University and its staff members that
he would attend another Trump University seminar, that he would recommend
Trump University seminars to a friend, and that he had the opportunity to meet with
a Trump University Team Member to discuss his personal goals. Indeed, the only
suggestion that Plaintiff offered to improve the seminar was to “[Nave lunch
sandwhiches brought in” and to make lunch 45 minutes.
You just can't stop posting stuff that has been refuted over and over; can you?
If what you say is true, then I remember a similar situation where I worked in a restaurant.
We received mage-orders from a church. Took a lot of work to cook it all in a hurry so that everything was fresh.
But they complained and brought back a few scraps so that it could all be replaced for free. Naturally, they wanted it replaced during their next picnic.
This went on time and again. When the General Manager rebelled, they complained to the home office, and we had to cater to them even more for a while.
Back then I was utterly baffled. A church? Didn’t know about black liberation theology back then.
They hurt our restaurant, hurt our careers, and enjoyed really good food for free.
I believe there are 4 other unhappy students.
Trump supporters might resent you posting this, but he MUST be vetted.
But please be forewarned ~~ last minute zingers tend to be more tricky and less-than-honest.
Sounds to me like any real estate investing seminar group. They always push you to buy more but that doesn’t make it a fraud. Like anything some folks probably did it and made money and some didn’t and looks like a handful that didn’t decided to sue.
If Trumps attys can find just one student who was happy and made money using their program it’s hard to see how the state can win a fraud case.
Who is dumb enough to fall for this hard sell? What about our universities charging tens of thousands of dollars a year to teenagers for what?
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