Trump University was a scam, and an expensive one for its victims, newly unsealed court documents show. The “university” charged tens of thousands of dollars for classes with unqualified teachers, luring students with false promises of Donald Trump’s involvement. Sucking money out of people, however little they could afford it, was priority number one:
One sales manager for Trump University, Ronald Schnackenberg, recounted how he was reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class, despite his conclusion that it would endanger their economic future. He watched with disgust, he said, as a fellow Trump University salesman persuaded the couple to purchase the class anyway.
“I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme,” Mr. Schnackenberg wrote in his testimony, “and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”
Trump University wasn’t overpriced but legit, either. It was filled with lies:
Of course, Mr. Trump and the promise of his engagement with the school was the biggest draw of all. In the documents released Tuesday, instructors described themselves as “hand-selected” by Mr. Trump. But in a deposition related to the lawsuit, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he did not pick the instructors.
The false claims of Trump’s actual involvement with the company spell fraud, as opposed to just milking people for money on something worthless. (Trump University would have been useless with Trump’s direct involvement, but at least people would have been getting a little more of what they thought they were paying for.)
University-related lawsuits will be dogging Trump for months to come. Will his supporters care? Probably not. But undecided voters are unlikely to be like “high-pressure tactics selling something useless based on lies? Awesome! I want to vote for this man.”
