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.
The course had a 98% approval rating from its students. Check out the background of the lawyer going after Trump. He could have settled this years ago and is fighting it out. He does not surrender like the spineless junior senators.
“Exactly. That it was not an accredited institution of higher learning is rather obvious in that it was a series of a few lectures by successful people on how to develop real estate.”
Just because an institution may be “accredited” doesn’t mean it isn’t a scam. So far I hear of folks spending money and not getting what they expected and being bitter about it.
Just like an accredited university. I think more students of “accredited” institutions should sue on the same grounds.
As for this....they’ll have their day in court.
I’m for Trump based on his immigration stance and plans.
Yeah, this is probably fair criticism. But really, who would even “attend” Rubio University, or Cruz University?
People buy what Trump sells. They don’t buy what Rubio and Cruz are selling.
Day with a Y.
NRO hit piece.
Schedule maintained.
Bingo. Here’s the link ...
TRUMP UNIVERSITY HAS A 98% APPROVAL RATING
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3402515/posts
Smashing success at a practical level.
Looks to me that we have universities using cronies to make unfair laws that keep upstart colleges from competing with them.
I believe history will reveal trump to be a fascist. And as he strips the first amendment if he is elected by the mindless minions salivating for the trump version of “hope and change”, they will be as blind to his tyranny as the obots currently are.
In my life I’ve never seen the intellectual suicide in politics that I’ve seen these past years.
140 characters or less of communication has turned the planet into intellectual dolts that only George Orwell could fully articulate.
I may be wrong about trump. And if it turns out later that I am wrong, I’ll publicly apologize here, but he appears too be the “strong man” like Israel cried for and ended up with Saul, or Germany cried for and got Hitler, or that the leftists wanted and we for Obama “WE are the ones WE have been waiting for” narcissism, or...(fill in the blank).
The writing is on the wall.
Mr. Cruz was my first choice. I will no longer vote for him for any reason. Primarily due to the fact of him actions over the last couple of months, and more specifically due to his effectively endorsing and preferring Rubio over Mr. Trump. That in and of itself speaks volumes to me of his “convictions”.
Another reason I no longer want anything to do with Mr. Cruz, although not reason enough in and of itself to stop supporting Mr. Cruz, is that I've grown weary of what I'm reading here on FR from those who rabidly support Mr. Cruz. There is bile coming from both sides of the aisle, but what I'm seeing from Cruz supporters is astonishing.
Referenced your Hillary research at Digging Deep.
God bless you, Liz.
No.
"Once you go Trump, your brain takes a dump."
There is literally nothing that TheDonald®can do, could do, or has done, that his blind followers will not make an excuse for all facts and logic be damned. The rational arguments are to save any fence sitters who may be reading, lest they fall into the Trumplight Zone, and cease to be thinking creatures forever.
That’s the drill.
It was only three hours for us, but we were happy we went as well, in part because it was an education in pressures but also because we'd never heard of points system timeshares, which is a concept we really liked the minute we heard about -- but of course, anyone who knows anything about timeshares ought to be able to figure out there's a second hand market(because so many people buy in a regret it, let alone the fact that a lot of people love it for a decade or so and then want to move on), so while we were excited about the product, we weren't about to commit without considerable more research.
a real education in "you deserve it,"
That, and when our first salesman figured out that approach wouldn't work, it was, "Your wife and family deserve it; don't you love your family?" I nipped that in the bud by telling him that if hubby loved me, he wouldn't saddle me with maintenance fees I'd have to pay every year if he suddenly got hit by a bus and I was in charge of supporting the family.
Apparently most wives don't worry about their husbands keeling over in the next year or ten....
I am just amazed that timeshares can be profitable to sell, but it's the kind of people who buy timeshares who'd buy into Trump's school. They're buying the fantasy, is all I can figure. While we hear the most from the unhappy timeshare buyers, a fair percentage of them are perfectly happy with their purchase -- even some people who discover within the first few years what their unit is worth on the secondary market (next to nothing, in mist cases), will shrug and say, "Well, we've had some great vacations, and we never would have gotten it without that push."
When it comes to this sort of thing, the difference between scamming someone and selling a dream is paper thin, it seems, and from what I can tell, Trump was on the legal side of that divide. Trump University was not a business I'd take pride in, but whatever.
"Most of Donald Trump’s return fire in the Trump University litigation has been directed at Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat who was elected New York State attorney general in 2010. It’s a smart strategy.
Schneiderman didn’t file his case until August 2013, over two years after he began a heavily leaked investigation and three years after the initial civil class action was filed in San Diego, the allegations of which Schneiderman largely piggybacked on. A trial-court judge has now ruled that as a result, most of the alleged victims whom Schneiderman claims to represent are barred from asserting claims because the statute of limitations has expired. The attorney general has appealed the decision."
Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum was an American showman and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and FOR SOME TIME A POLITICIAN, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me", and his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers". Barnum is widely credited with coining the phrase "There’s a sucker born every minute".
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That sounds like the Paula White Ministries (mega church) and such - the "prosperity gospel" doctrine - friends and business associates of Donald Trump.
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..."White, who hosts a TV show called Paula White Today on The Word Network and pastors New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida… took the helm at that church after its former shepherd died of a heroin and cocaine overdose. Trump and White have been friends for years, which makes sense because they have a lot in common. In addition to having their own popular TV shows, they're on their third marriage—Trump's to former model Melania Trump, and White's to the keyboardist for Journey.
Trump has been a guest on her programming numerous times, and they seem to be big fans of each other. He's called her "a beautiful person, both inside and out," and recommended that viewers read her book You're All That: Understanding God's Design For Your Life so they would “be ready for great success." White has compared him to "a diamond that reveals a new facet each time it is turned in the light," ..
White, like Trump, is also a big fan of cash. She's typically characterized as a proponent of the prosperity gospel-a theologically suspect approach to Christianity whereby pastors (often before huge congregations or on TV broadcasts) tell listeners that God wants them to become very wealthy, and that if they just give "a seed" to said pastors' ministries, they'll reap great financial returns and be #blessed. White"s e-store features a sermon called “Why God Wants You Wealthy." Of course, Donald Trump wants people to be rich as well, which is why White once offered her viewers-for a ministry contribution of $25—a copy of Trump's book Why We Want You to Be Rich. Everyone wants you to be rich! Praise the Lord!
White's website has…interesting deals. One (your correspondent's personal favorite) is called the "2015 Atonement Package."... Source
Well I am never voting for him anyway so this makes no difference to me. I see no reason to trust him especially with his constant lies, progressive record, Alinsky to so many on the right, character assassinations, intemperate nature, only praise for his friends on the left outside of Hill and lack of even basic civics knowledge.
Tell me the Flying Spaghetti Monster & pastafarianism isn’t a real religion and all my illusions will be shattered.
Huge thank you for posting the truth.
Obviously this Trump U lawsuit is a feeble attempt by the egregiously corrupt political/media machine to destroy Trump’s candidacy, as they know he means death to their chokehold on this country.
LOL!
"Once your brain takes a dump; then you're free to go Trump."
Oh?
Not even a live boy or a dead girl?
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