As the ugly but hardly unexpected details spill about “Trump University” and its $40 million in largely useless seminars, with TD’s deep involvement, NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman has called it “straight-up fraud.” There is no evidence that any real value was ever intended in return for the enormous fees, and less evidence that anything of value was ever given.
So: compare and contrast deliberate, blatant fraud of gullible individuals swayed by Trump’s largely self-defined reputation with… oh, say, rogue use of an unsanctioned email server.
I made a post about this over in the Donald’s election thread. You know that video he released, supposedly with three supporters praising his “University”? Turns out it’s a scam, too.
Jesus, Trump is like the dude in the Halloween movies. Nothing kills him. To be exposed as the perpetrator of utter and complete fraud should kill any candidate. But then should have ragging on a POW, calling Mexicans rapists, making fun of a disabled reporter, accusing a reporter of being on her period, wanting to stop Muslims from entering the US, etc. ad infinitum. His supporters don’t give a flying fuck about any of this any more than they care about facts. He’s totally got them mesmerized and incapable of telling right from wrong.
Btw, you said in the other thread “Red State, of all places…” but from what I’ve seen they’ve been strongly #NeverTrump over there throughout the primaries.
Elendel’s Heir posted this link in another thread, but it really helps explain why this fraud continues to thrive even with all the evidence he’s completely unfit for the presidency.
These points stand out to me:
and
The people voting for Trump don’t give a shit about some university they never attended, could never afford or even heard of until this week. They are just sick of being victimized by Muslims, feminists, Mexicans, immigrants in general, liberal media, gays and pussy-ass Republicans who can’t win against the anti-Christ Moslem socialist colored guy who hates America. And now DT is standing up for them with a vengeance.
At least half the problem at this point is that it’s not just his idiot fans. The Republican establishment (which should have shut him down at the start) are still telling themselves that hey - he’s still better than Obama and Hillary. That the Republicans are all rushing to support him just betrays their moral bankruptcy.
That’s a bit harsh. You’re stuck in a low paying, dead end job and this fabulously rich guy offers you in on his secrets and you can be just like him. A lot of people figured that was their chance up the ladder. Doesn’t make them stupid or deserving of being defrauded, just desperate.
That would actually work in Trump’s favor. If the promises were mere puffery, or salesmanship, then he can argue that they weren’t meant to be taken literally, and it wasn’t reasonable for anyone to do so.
It’s the difference between, “This is a great opportunity to learn about how to buy and sell real estate so you, too, can be a wheeler and dealer” versus, “Take this course and you will be able to make a profit by flipping houses.”
A lot of poor people sure had a lot of money to attend TU.
If people believe, “Hey give me thousands of dollars and I’ll tell you a real estate secret that will make you a billionaire like Trump.” Then yes, they are stupid.
I think a lot of them maxed out their credit cards or took second mortgages to attend Trump U. I still think it’s unfair to call them stupid when Trump U was designed to take advantage of their gullibility.
Trump is a huckster, but I don’t see much that distinguishes him from all sorts of other promoters promoting various get-rich-quick investment-seminar schemes. They’re all over the place.
This seems like a misleading article, and an invalid cite on your part. You’re discussing how people could afford to pay for the TU fees, but the quotes from the seminar literature are primarily about how people could afford to finance their real estate investments.
Not that I recommend high-interest or penalty laden sources of funds for RE investments, but you have to spend money to make money, and if you are a talented person and inclined to high risk investing you can make it work.
[It’s particularly odd to impugn their recommendation that you “Check with a tax attorney …” as being an attempt to convince people to do something stupid. If it’s stupid, then the tax attorney would say that. FWIW, my BIL is a tax attorney and when he left his law firm for a corporate job he - if I understood him correctly - rolled over his 401k into an IRA and then used that money to buy investment real estate “inside an IRA” So it’s not like this is something that can’t be done, if you know what you’re doing.]
All that said, I would scoff at the notion that it would have been worthwhile for people to attend TU - or any of these other seminars of that sort. Still, I’m skeptical of whether it was criminal. Advertising and salesmanship.