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Donald Trump’s Greatest Scam

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Also known as the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, Trump University (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC) was an American for-profit education company that ran a real estate training program from 2005 until 2010. It was owned and operated by The Trump Organization.  Trump University was a series of wealth-building seminars for which students paid as much as $34,995 for mentorships that would supposedly get them access to Trump’s secrets of success. Instead of the hand-picked instructors Trump promised, the seminars were delivered by motivational speakers, often without degrees, and sometimes with criminal records.

Trump was the subject of two class-action lawsuits in California related to Trump University, and a third suit, for $40 million, brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. On November 18, 2016, just after he was elected president Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle the two class-action lawsuits and the New York suit to 6, 000 students.

Of all of Trump’s ventures, if he had teamed with a well-known business school or university, he might have been immensely successful, but he simply decided to scam people.  His victims were lucky to get restitution because of his presidential ambitions. The tragedy of Donald Trump is that he could have done better but chose to give in to his basest instincts and whims.

NYC Walks Blog 83 Donald Trump’s Greatest Scam © 2019 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg

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