Former Trump U Students Describe Lofty Promises, Paltry Results

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On the campaign trail, Donald Trump often touts his business record as a presidential qualification. But one of the real estate mogul’s ventures has come under harsh scrutiny recently, as former participants in his Trump University online education company have filed class-action lawsuits against him, alleging fraud. John Yang talks to Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News for more.

JOHN YANG: Trump University was promoted as a way for aspiring real estate developers to learn the business from top instructors. As many as 7,000 people signed up, paying an estimated $40 million in fees.

The now-defunct for-profit seminars are the subject of three lawsuits, one brought by the state of New York, and two class-action suits in California brought by former students who say they were defrauded, because the high-priced classes didn’t deliver on the promises.

Investigative reporter Michael Isikoff has been looking into this for Yahoo News, and he joins us now from New York.

Michael, welcome.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Good to be with you, John.

JOHN YANG: Michael, we talk about the promises and what they lived up to.

They offered handpicked instructors, handpicked by Donald Trump, and access to Trump secrets. Now, you talked to students who took these classes. What do they say actually happened?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, they say they didn’t’ get their money’s worth.

You know, in the promotional literature, there was language from Trump about how he would teach them to make a living--make a killing--I’m sorry--in the real estate market, he would teach his secrets to them, they would learn from the best of the best.

And what Trump University turned out to be was a series of ballroom seminars where people got sort of basics from these instructors, and then they were encouraged to put more money down, to max out their credit cards to the tune of $35,000, to pay for mentoring from these handpicked experts of Donald Trump.

And many of those who have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau, with the state of New York, with other attorneys generals say they got very little for that. The handpicked experts seemed to know very little about thee real estate business, gave them bum advice, and in many cases seemed to fade away and they were unable to even get in touch with them.

So you had a lot of angry consumers out there who have brought these lawsuits.

JOHN YANG: Were you able to talk to any students who were satisfied? Donald Trump, of course, said that there were course evaluations. People said they were very satisfied. His attorneys say the same thing. Were you able to talk to any students who said that?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: I didn’t personally talk to students who fit into that category.

The evaluation forms basically were based--came off the seminars, which were just a couple of hours and sort of routine forms that were handed out at the time. The real complaints came afterwards from those who went through the process of this mentoring, and that’s where they say they didn’t get their money’s worth.

Now, I’m sure we will hear in the upcoming trial---and it is important to note that there is a trial scheduled for this year on this matter--from people who will testify that they did have good experiences with Trump University.

But Trump’s lawyers have tried to make that point in a number of motions in these cases, and the — those motions for summary judgment to have these suits thrown out have so far being unsuccessful.


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