I really hope that no one who reads this blog (assuming that anyone does read this blog) is taken in by the headline, since in fact this story is about an event that should come as no surprise to anyone with the intelligence of compost: several disgruntled former students are suing Trump University, claiming that the high-priced online program is a scam. It was one of those occasions when mere sarcasm failed me, as I stared at the San Francisco Chronicle story about people who signed up for the course believing that the material would have been written by (or at least read and approved by) Donald Trump himself and that their $1,500 investment would bloom into millions, only to find out that the course has no useful information whatsoever and is mostly just a high-pressure sales pitch for the company’s $35,000 “Gold Elite” course on the same subject…
Of course, if any of these folks had bothered to research Trump University, they would have quickly realized that it has no accreditations of any kind, can not offer any degrees at any level, and in fact does not bother trying to issue college credits, since no known institutions would accept them. They might also have encountered dozens of online comments about the complete lack of value these programs have, the almost total non-involvement of Trump himself, or the previous times the “university” has taken flack from various critics for being nothing more than a publicity stunt, not teaching anything of consequence, or not actually being a school (let alone a university) in the first place. It’s one of those times when even a little due diligence might have saved the plaintiffs in these cases $35,000 (or at least $1,500), although we must acknowledge that it would also have cost them some very lucrative opportunities to sue a public figure just before he declares his intention to run for President…
It’s another one of those cases where I have trouble figuring out exactly who is scamming whom. On the one hand, the idea that there are any grown adults in this country who could actually believe that something called “Trump University” wasn’t just another attempt by The Donald to make money trading on his celebrity is so absurd that it’s getting dozens of comments on Fark.com even as we speak. On the other hand, even if making money off of the credulous, the naïve and the stupid isn’t technically illegal, it’s also not very ethical – and during the current economic crisis many Americans who wouldn’t otherwise fall for this sort of malarkey are responding to the Trump University ads, on the grounds that it’s got to be better than whatever it is they’re pinning their hopes on currently…
It will be interesting to follow the progress of the court cases. I won’t offer any predictions – and I must caution my readers (assuming I have readers) once again in the strongest possible terms NOT to take the word of bloggers without legal degrees or licenses to practice law about legal matters – but I think that a lot of this may come down to how serious Trump himself is about running for office. If he’s serious, then he needs to either be exonerated by the courts (by winning the lawsuit) or play the generous white knight (by buying off a few of the plaintiffs and then having them record glowing testimonials or some such thing). On the other hand, if all he wants is more public attention, then there are two grand old American truisms that come into use here: “There is no such thing as bad publicity” and, of course, “There’s a sucker born every minute – and two to take him…”
Apparently, sometimes the two are billionaire real estate moguls and their websites – but the principle is otherwise the same…
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