So much to unpack about Trump University. Never a university. No longer in existence, like so many other Trump ventures. Huge promises from Trump to people desperate for good news, but the most reliable result was people spending $35,000 to $60,000 with little or nothing to show for it. Lawsuit by scammed “students,” which Trump says is groundless. Release of Trump U documents ordered by the judge, who Trump vilifies in a 12 minute tirade.

Bottom line: Trump is a showman, a pitch man, a carnival barker, a con man. Whether he’s selling Trump steaks, Trump wine, Trump University or President Trump, the product may change, but the pitch remains the same, as do the insults hurled at anyone who dares to stand in his way.

Let’s start with the most recent development. A judge ordered that documents about Trump University pertaining to the lawsuit should be unsealed. (Monday morning, the judge made them public.) Last Friday during a rally in San Diego, Trump devoted 12 substance-free minutes of his 58 minute address to how awful the judge is.

“I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd of several thousand booed. “He is not doing the right thing.”

Not much there. Here’s a tad more information.

“We’re in front of a very hostile judge,” Mr. Trump said. “The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he’s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.”

So. The judge should recuse himself because he was appointed by Obama and he’s ruled against Trump. What’s more, the judge, according to Trump, is “Mexican.” In fact, Curiel was born in Indiana.

“Trump University” was never a university. It was one of those get-rich-quick cons that begin with free promotional seminars about how to make millions in real estate designed to convince people to buy increasingly more expensive coursework. The first three day seminar costs $1,495. The “Gold Elite” programs cost $35,000.

Trump touted the value of the “university” in a promotional video. You’ll recognize his sales pitch if you’ve watched any of the Trump for President Show.

“At Trump University, we teach success. That’s what it’s all about. Success. It’s going to happen to you. . . . Trump University is about knowledge, about a lot of different things. Above all, it’s about how to become successful. . . . We’re going to have professors and adjunct professors that are absolutely terrific, terrific people, terrific brains, successful. We are going to have the best of the best. . . . These are all people that are hand picked by me [No, he didn’t handpick the instructors, nor did he review the curriculum or the materials] . . . The biggest step toward success is going to be a signup for Trump University. We’re going to teach you about business, we’re going to teach you better than the business schools are going to teach you, and I went to the best business schools. We’re going to teach you better, it’s going to be a shorter process.  . . . It’s going to be what you need to know. . . .  We’re also going to make sure that no matter what you do, as I said before, you’re going to love it.”

According to many of the people who went through the program, it was basically worthless. As Trump might say if Trump U was run by one of his opponents and he tweeted about it: Weak. Bad. Really pathetic. Crooked. Dishonest.

The Donald’s Tweets BONUS FEATURE: For your viewing pleasure, from the New York Times, A Complete List of “The 224 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter.”

This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2016.

8 replies on “What Trump University Promised, and What It Delivered”

  1. The average 4 year college grad has nearly 30k in debt and a degree which does not distinguish them from their peers (out of the top ten most popular degrees, not a one is in the sciences or engineering).

    On top of this we have millions of students who drop out before they can graduate, no degree but still the debt. Mostly these kids were unprepared for college or did not belong there in the first place but we have a system that pushes all kids to get college educations, and provides few alternatives.

    In a culture of easy debt, pressure to ‘go to college’, few alternatives and shitty degrees, are we really surprised that places like Trump-U exist? How many for profit colleges do we have in Tucson that have been sued for not preparing their students properly? (Brown-Mackie is one)

    Businesses across the country have been complaining for years that 4 year grads are unprepared for the work place. If we include the graduates of private degree programs like University of Phoenix (who have made billions using public money to ‘educate’ people and are not really any different than what Trump was trying to build) the preparedness drops even more.

    Is Trump-U different from the norm? Or is it just a microcosm of the norm? I would argue for the later. Trump tried to capitalize off of the system that was already in place, this does say things about him as a business man and his ethics. He is willing to make money anywhere he sees money to be made, even if it means playing into a system that is obviously flawed.

  2. David: Thanks for taking the time and trouble (?) needed to attack such an easy target. There really is no need for commentary here. All you have to do is quote extensively from Trump’s own ridiculous verbiage — as the NYTimes continues to do as it publishes his offensive tweets — and the substance-less verbal diatribes undermine themselves beautifully, without any additional analytic work required from the media.

    How about taking on a more challenging topic: what has happened to the cost of and funding mechanisms for higher education in this country? You make such beautiful graphs. You could make some graphs showing fifty year trends in the costs of public and private universities and the amount of loans students with different FAFSA profiles are being asked to take on to finance the cost of their educations. You might want to add some nice bar graphs with average loan debt for graduates with various types of degrees. How much various financial institutions are profiting from selling non-dismissible debt to students and how much these institutions have given to political campaigns (and which campaigns) at the national level would also be of interest.

    Here’s an eye-opening article to get you started on your research:
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2014/07/30/the-invisible-force-behind-college-admissions/#6b291476efbc

    I look forward to reading your commentary on this topic.

  5. For profit education is a bad idea especially those ‘schools’ that promise degrees. Students think they are getting ready for life and are not and often end up with nothing and in debt. Scammed. What is so bad about Trump U is he doesn’t promise anything but a way to get rich through real estate and he didn’t produce that for many. I am glad he is being sued and I hope those people get their money back. He is a scam artist in all areas of life and stands alone in being able to convince a 25-40% of our country that he is the real deal. He has nothing to offer the U.S. Sadly, when he is gone, there will still be the 25-40% who believe racism and misogyny are the answers to our problems and they just need someone like Trump to help them prevail. The fact the the ‘Donald’ is the GOP nominee demonstrates what the GOP has come to stand for.

  6. “He is a scam artist in all areas of life.” Really? You must not remember when Hillary Clinton pushed her Healthcare and said she can’t worry about every under funded business.

    Could we agree that she is at least worthy of the same criticism?

  8. …and just now we hear about the ripoff they called Clinton U? In case you missed the news, the FBI released the names of the non profits that the IRS targeted for Obama. Remember when Obama said “no laws were broken?”

    He lied.

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