On Tuesday, real-estate and reality TV mogul Donald Trump announced he will enter the Republican primary as a contender for the 2016 presidential nomination.
“So, ladies and gentlemen,” the business magnate told a crowd gathered at one of his gleaming, eponymous towers on New York City’s Fifth Avenue Tuesday, “I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again,” said Trump, whose net worth is valued around $9 billion, according to some reports.
Trump brings to his candidacy an extensive backlog of business ventures, some of which are troubling. In August, 2013, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the he was filing a lawsuit against Trump for the dubious promises of his higher education endeavor, Trump University. Schneiderman’s lawsuit alleged that the school’s real estate program, which was unlicensed as an actual university, was complicit in “persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct” towards its students, who were often saddled with debt from expensive seminars in lieu of brimming with the promised insider secrets from “Donald Trump’s handpicked instructor[s],” most of whom turned out to have emerged from real estate-derived bankruptcy, or have little background in real estate at all.
Schneiderman claimed that more than 5,000 people paid around $40 million to Trump U, a quarter of which was funneled directly into Trump’s pockets, going against claims that Trump U was founded “solely for philanthropic purposes”––Trump netted around $5 million in profit, according to the suit. Many of the allegations read like a pyramid scheme pamphlet, such as the multiple claims that Trump himself would make an appearance (“‘he is going to be in town’ or ‘often drops by’ and ‘might show up’ or had just left,” the suit reads), and student evaluations required for getting a certificate that “‘pleaded for a favorable rating so that ‘Mr. Trump would invite [them] back to do other retreats.” On top of Schneiderman’s case, a class-action lawsuit in California was filed against the university, which now lists itself as the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.
Trump himself pushed back hard against the allegations, calling Schneiderman a publicity seeking “lightweight” with “gross incompetence,” and filed ethics complaints against him, according to reports at the time.
What the Trump University scandal says about Trump the candidate isn’t necessarily obvious or clear––many candidates often have blighted pasts. But it should also be considered instructive when it comes to how Trump might look at some of the most important issues for young voters––particularly student debt. In that realm, anyone with a mind to run a de facto for-profit college would be a tough sell for debt-saddled millennials.
ATTN: has reported extensively on the troubling practices of many for-profit universities, the majority of which get their revenue from federal student loans and grants, despite having lackluster graduation rates and skyrocketing default rates. Last fall, comedian John Oliver called for-profit colleges and their business model “a first-class education in[to] the depths of human depravity.”
If the connection seems tenuous, look to a recent answer to a question on mounting education costs Trump gave in April at Simpson College in Iowa. When asked his thoughts on making higher education affordable, Trump launched into a garrulous discussion about how jobs were being sucked by China and Mexico––”Mexico is the new China”––and that students saddled with high levels of debt are emerging into a jobless market. We need a strong leader, he said, to bring back those jobs in order for college students to pay off their loans, all but sidestepping the prohibitive tuitions many consider the root cause. Job availability for recent graduates is certainly a factor for students worried about paying off student debts, but Trump’s approach, characteristically, seems out of touch.
Westcoaster
June 22, 2015 4:19 pm
Trump is a leech. What a suit full of shit. I can’t believe some of you guys would actually support or vote for him.
Anonymous
June 22, 2015 5:41 pm
I can’t believe anyone would support any of the professional politicians on either side, but they seem to have lots of support including yours Westcoaster.
If anything is going to change, the status quo of the professional politician that answers only to the PTB and does what he is told by them has to change,
Trump could do this (but would he live any longer than Kennedy if he did?).
Bob
June 22, 2015 6:02 pm
Everyone is “a publicity seeking “lightweight”” in comparison to ‘The Donald’. And why would he want to be just another guy in a long line called ‘Mr. President’, when he will always and forever be the one and only ‘The Donald’?
I say he should be appointed ambassador to Mars, and dispatched immediately…
Made me smile; yes, his ego is incredible.
The Donald Trump Scandal Nobody Is Talking About
On Tuesday, real-estate and reality TV mogul Donald Trump announced he will enter the Republican primary as a contender for the 2016 presidential nomination.
“So, ladies and gentlemen,” the business magnate told a crowd gathered at one of his gleaming, eponymous towers on New York City’s Fifth Avenue Tuesday, “I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again,” said Trump, whose net worth is valued around $9 billion, according to some reports.
Trump brings to his candidacy an extensive backlog of business ventures, some of which are troubling. In August, 2013, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the he was filing a lawsuit against Trump for the dubious promises of his higher education endeavor, Trump University. Schneiderman’s lawsuit alleged that the school’s real estate program, which was unlicensed as an actual university, was complicit in “persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct” towards its students, who were often saddled with debt from expensive seminars in lieu of brimming with the promised insider secrets from “Donald Trump’s handpicked instructor[s],” most of whom turned out to have emerged from real estate-derived bankruptcy, or have little background in real estate at all.
Schneiderman claimed that more than 5,000 people paid around $40 million to Trump U, a quarter of which was funneled directly into Trump’s pockets, going against claims that Trump U was founded “solely for philanthropic purposes”––Trump netted around $5 million in profit, according to the suit. Many of the allegations read like a pyramid scheme pamphlet, such as the multiple claims that Trump himself would make an appearance (“‘he is going to be in town’ or ‘often drops by’ and ‘might show up’ or had just left,” the suit reads), and student evaluations required for getting a certificate that “‘pleaded for a favorable rating so that ‘Mr. Trump would invite [them] back to do other retreats.” On top of Schneiderman’s case, a class-action lawsuit in California was filed against the university, which now lists itself as the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.
Trump himself pushed back hard against the allegations, calling Schneiderman a publicity seeking “lightweight” with “gross incompetence,” and filed ethics complaints against him, according to reports at the time.
What the Trump University scandal says about Trump the candidate isn’t necessarily obvious or clear––many candidates often have blighted pasts. But it should also be considered instructive when it comes to how Trump might look at some of the most important issues for young voters––particularly student debt. In that realm, anyone with a mind to run a de facto for-profit college would be a tough sell for debt-saddled millennials.
ATTN: has reported extensively on the troubling practices of many for-profit universities, the majority of which get their revenue from federal student loans and grants, despite having lackluster graduation rates and skyrocketing default rates. Last fall, comedian John Oliver called for-profit colleges and their business model “a first-class education in[to] the depths of human depravity.”
If the connection seems tenuous, look to a recent answer to a question on mounting education costs Trump gave in April at Simpson College in Iowa. When asked his thoughts on making higher education affordable, Trump launched into a garrulous discussion about how jobs were being sucked by China and Mexico––”Mexico is the new China”––and that students saddled with high levels of debt are emerging into a jobless market. We need a strong leader, he said, to bring back those jobs in order for college students to pay off their loans, all but sidestepping the prohibitive tuitions many consider the root cause. Job availability for recent graduates is certainly a factor for students worried about paying off student debts, but Trump’s approach, characteristically, seems out of touch.
Trump is a leech. What a suit full of shit. I can’t believe some of you guys would actually support or vote for him.
I can’t believe anyone would support any of the professional politicians on either side, but they seem to have lots of support including yours Westcoaster.
If anything is going to change, the status quo of the professional politician that answers only to the PTB and does what he is told by them has to change,
Trump could do this (but would he live any longer than Kennedy if he did?).
Everyone is “a publicity seeking “lightweight”” in comparison to ‘The Donald’. And why would he want to be just another guy in a long line called ‘Mr. President’, when he will always and forever be the one and only ‘The Donald’?
I say he should be appointed ambassador to Mars, and dispatched immediately…