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.
I am now convinced that TU or some other criminal charge will be what knocks Trump out.
I used to think Trump’s inspirations were from his growing up listening to his church pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, but after opening my eyes I can now better see he was a study of PT Barnum.
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”.
The similarities a coincidence? Not likely, Trump being a master marketer and promoter.
Call it by any name a tax at the point of sale is ripe for abuse. How many enforcement persons does it take to mange the European VAT system? I will grant you that the “Flat Tax’ is not a European style vat but it is still a “consumption” tax.
BTW I will make a ton of money if the Flat VAT Tax is put in place. I learned for some of the best in Europe how to beat the system.
I still oppose it on principle.
Lol!!!
Doesn’t Disney also have a “ university”?
Ted may get the votes of the people who filed this “ class action” lawsuit
All 4 of them
In the case of Trump University and other like “educational institutions” the scam is that they promise very specific things in their advertising and prospectus and then do not deliver.
Same as if you pay for gold bars and get gold painted lead.
Simple.
Class action lawsuits are intended as a way for individuals with the same grievances to band together to seek restitution or relief who would not otherwise be able to do so due to limited resources.
They do provide a path to justice in many instances. Have unethical individuals made a living misusing them? Yes, but that does not mean that a class action suit is automatically a fraud.
“I think twenty-one allegations which is my count of the allegations I listed would take up quite a lot of room probably more room than can be accommodated in anybody’s ass
You must have had a mental lapse. What I said you originally got out of your ass was the pseudo-psychoanalytical drivel that you posted. That probably originated from you.
The long list is probably something you lifted off the internet.
NR to Trumpbots, that’s for sure. Don’t be trying to confuse em with facts, their minds are made up.
The Pipers sound is so sweet as we gleefully march toward the cliff.
The possibilities were interesting, the basis being research the property market, find properties in tax arrears , buy tax liens on the best properties , collect interest when the lien is redeemed or resell the lien or cut ally take the property if the lien is not paid
Then flip the property to a speculator, or take possession fix it and flip it yourself
The seminar service, for extra fees, offer more intense workshops, access to their research on property tax bases, access to their network of lenders and Realtors and speculators looking to buy and flip
Of course they make it sound east and it could be- if you devoted your time to doing the research and finagling the deal. Starting small is perfectly possible but getting greedy is probably a major issue with some folks
The room was full of what we would politely call Low info voters who looked like the only real estate experience they ever had was with section 8.... Plus quite a few gray heads looking for a retirement profession
So it is really amazing that 98% of the folks at the Trump pony show said they were satisfied.... The 3 day money back guarantee was also standard so if you didn't like what you heard, take your money and go home
I would have to call this a politically motivated witch hunt vs Trump
It is Donald Trump who truly needs a colonoscopy.
BINGO!
Yeah,that’s why Texas shut it down 6 years ago and why NY state is prosecuting him.
Tramp University was shut down in the classic sense of a crime.
Where are they today?????
Suit file fees are just chump change for Chump Trump.
You have taken a lot of flack on this site for taking a stand for doing what is right and for the truth. In case I don’t get a chance to say it later, THANK YOU for doing so. I’ve been reading about Trump university and have no doubt that it was a get rich quick scam, and that it cost a lot of people, who were just wanting to better themselves, a lot of their hard-earned money. Trump is now doing the same thing to America. We are giving our country to a serial fraudster. His very slogan, “Make America Great Again” was stolen from Reagan. Reagan used it to promote the idea that the American people would make America great again. And in the 1980’s, under his leadership, we rose up and did just that. Trump uses this slogan to promote the false notion that we can only “win” if he and big government do it for us little people. It’s all about HIM winning and about what HE is going to do, or force others to do, i.e. Mexico “paying” for the wall. His road to success involves crushing everyone who gets in his way—no wise defense of his own positions, just ridicule and false accusations aimed at his adversaries. I pray with all my heart that America awakes and rejects the fraud that is Trump.
So it is really amazing that 98% of the folks at the Trump pony show said they were satisfied.
I am very skeptical of the statistic, it is trumped up by Trump's people, I think. In any event if only one person was defrauded it is still a fraud.
The 3 day money back guarantee was also standard so if you didn't like what you heard, take your money and go home
As I understand the factual allegations, the initial weekend affair was really only an infomercial designed to pressure the "low info" attendees into springing for the next more expensive lecture.
As one with some experience in property myself, the first reality to be faced is that these homes were foreclosed upon usually because there are problems with the property. Rare is the example when the problem is with the owner of the property. That is because in a mortgage foreclosure the bank will take it by bidding in its balance so that leaves, normally, tax sales. It leaves tax sales also because that is where the property is available for a very cheap price. But there is a reason for that. Usually the property is undesirable in both location and condition.
The free market bids the price of these properties up to a point where very experienced experts whose sole occupation is to invest in these properties for a living know when the lines cross when it does not pay to buy them and improve them or even buy them and hold them. It is not a question of someone without experience walking into a tax sale in the courthouse and picking low hanging fruit.
Because the properties are not contiguous, it is more expensive to improve and maintain them, moreover, the entrepreneur finds that he does not have the economies of scale that lead to a profit.
As you point out, he is ignorant of the law, ignorant of real estate values, ignorant of tax and mortgage procedures and foreclosures, incompetent to fix and repair, often finding many obstacles to success even if he learned all there was to learn from Donald Trump. Trump, by the way, probably knows very little about this business because it has nothing whatever to do with golf courses or Taj Mahals. (Which, as it turns out, he didn't know very much about either.)
Even a witchhunt can be true. Ask Richard Nixon, ask Bill Clinton, and we will soon see with Hillary.
Many of us consider that as long as the current system of finance of the federal government is in place no real reform is possible and America simply cannot be made great again. Tinkering around the edges with the brackets, or the deductions, or the rate of tax simply rearranges the deck chairs. Fundamental restructuring of the tax system in such a way that it takes fundamental power away from the federal government and the power to extort campaign contributions away from Congress must be enacted or we will simply go down this path and over the cliff.
I don't think Donald Trump is doing anything but tinkering with the edges but I think that Ted Cruz gets it and has more in mind than merely fixing taxes. If you can fix taxes you can fix the country if you don't fix taxes you can't fix the country.
“Hi! We’re *still* Cucks!” — NR
.gov is broken at all levels and one president is not going to fix it.
As far as Cruz goes. Truth be told the flat tax is stillborn. Makes me question his judgment.
I like Huck too. Just read his latest book.
I realize he’s poison on FR, but a decent guy in my book.
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