Trump University Debacle: Why The Donald Loses His Mind When It Is Brought Up
There aren’t many things that get under Donald Trump’s skin more than the mention of Trump University. Trump was forced to address the controversy stemming from his allegedly fraudulent real estate venture in the recent Republican debate, which didn’t go over well for the presidential candidate. While his competition hammered him on the topic, there is a good reason why Trump struggled to keep his cool.
According to National Review, a lot of things went wrong with Trump University. The real estate school was started back in 2005 despite not having the proper license for an educational institute. The school changed its name to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, but not before thousands of former students filed a lawsuit against Trump and his associates.
According to the former Attorney General of New York, Trump University was little more than a scam that offered people little in return for their hard-earned money.
“We started looking at Trump University and discovered that it was a classic bait-and-switch scheme,” he explained in 2013. “It was a scam, starting with the fact that it was not a university.”
Apparently, students were recruited to the school via free seminars. From here, they were encouraged to enroll in seminars that ranged from $1,495 to as much as $35,000. In return for their payment, Trump University promised to teach them all the secrets to success in real estate and hook them up with apprentice programs with the top real estate agents in the country.
However, Trump University failed to follow through on many of its promises to students. Even with the most basic of promises, like having an opportunity to meet and talk with Trump himself, the school did not deliver.
In response to the empty promises, over 5,000 former students have filed a lawsuit in New York. For his part, Trump refused to admit that he did anything wrong. Even though Gawker is reporting that he made some $5 million from the school, Trump still believes it was a philanthropic institution.
Meanwhile, his fellow Republican candidates for the presidency made sure to bring up the topic of Trump University during the latest GOP debate. While moderator Megyn Kelly hammered Trump about his school by making reference to Bernie Madoff’s scandalous scheme, Huffington Post is reporting that Marco Rubio really got under his skin.
“They signed up. Paid $15,000. You asked for additional money for the course. If they wanted the real secrets of success, they had to pay more money, so they did. You know what they got in the courses? Stuff you can pull off Zillow,” Rubio stated in the debate. “When they realized what a scam it was, they asked for their money back and refused to give their money back.”
Trump was quick to take to the defense and responded by stating that he actually issued refunds for “many people.” However, for the most part, Trump attempted to side step the issue and told Rubio to wait and see what goes down in court.
“We will see who’s right at the end of a few years. Almost all of the people, many, many people signed what’s called the report at the end, did you like the course, how did you like it? Almost all of them said it was terrific, okay?” Trump added.
The student evaluations Trump cited were actually addressed by Kelly. Considering how the evaluations were done by Trump University while the students were still attending seminars, Kelly brought in a quote from Madoff’s criminal case: “Victims of con artists often sing the praises of their victimizers until the moment they realize they’ve been fleeced.”
Tell us! Are you shocked by the allegations that Trump University was one big scam? Let us know in the comments below.
[Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty]
