Donald Trump has
promised to make Americans great before, and as multiple lawsuits allege, it
didn’t work out so well. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has
vowed on the campaign trail to use his personal prowess and business savvy to
help set the country on a better path. But he’s made similar promises in the
past, which have not appeared to come true, multiple lawsuits claim. And now
those accusations may come back to haunt him in his race for president. It’s
possible that Trump will have to take a break from the campaign trail before
the final primaries in the Republican race to testify in a class-action lawsuit
filed against the now-defunct Trump University in 2010. Court documents, first
reported by Yahoo Politics, indicate that both parties have listed the
billionaire mogul on their witness list to testify in the case. Though no date
has been set for the trial, a pretrial conference is now scheduled for May 6.
In the court documents, former students accuse Trump University of luring them
into spending tens of thousands of dollars to better their lives through
courses on real-estate investment and access to mentors. But the promises never
came to fruition, the suit alleges. Trump’s lawyer and a spokeswoman for his
campaign didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, but Trump has
previously denied the allegations.
Trump University first
launched in 2005 and it wasn’t a university in a traditional sense. Instead it
functioned more as a series of business and real estate-focused seminars — some
online — and mentorship programs. In 2010, the company changed its name to the
Trump Entrepreneur Initiative after years of pressure for the New York State
Education Department, which argued that it was misleading. The program later
shut down in 2010. The court documents, filed in federal court in California,
claim that Trump University used radio and newspaper ads to draw students to
free seminars with radio and newspaper ads promising access to instructors and
information that made Trump a success. Once they got there, they were urged by
speakers flanked by banners of Trump to sign up for a “one year apprenticeship”
program, offering “a comprehensive real estate education” as well as access to
mentors for a year, at the cost of $1,495, the documents claim. The one-year
program turned out to be a three-day seminar aimed at convincing students to
pay $34,995 for a “full education,” the lawsuit alleges. During the program,
students were told to raise their credit card limits by four times so they
could purchase property. However, the students were then asked to use the
increased credit to buy the “Gold Program” seminar, the documents claim.
Students were told that participating in this program would give them access to
mentors and deals that would teach them how to earn up to tens of thousands of
dollars a month doing real-estate investing, the lawsuit claims. Instead, few
deals materialized and mentors disappeared after two days looking at properties
and a half day trip to Home Depot, according to court documents.
Tarla Makaeff, the lead
plaintiff in the case, spent nearly $60,000 to pay for Trump University
products over the course of one year, the lawsuit claims. What she got in
return were two offers for real estate deals that were “flawed” and “appeared
unprofitable,” the lawsuit says. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
also filed a $40 million suit against Trump in 2013 over Trump University.
Shortly after filing the suit, Schneiderman claimed Trump University used
“Trump’s name recognition and celebrity status to take advantage of consumers
who believed in the Trump brand.”
