Trump's Financial Failure

Most know of Donald J. Trump because of his presidential campaign ticket for the 2016 presidential election. Others, know of him because of his wealth, which is correlated to his real-estate empire as well as his books about investing and gaining what he calls “financial independence”. Many however, don’t know much about some of his entrepreneurial failures. According to Rolling Stone Magazine’s article on Donald Trump’s 13 Biggest Financial Failures, Mr. Trump has defaulted on many of his payments and has filed for bankruptcy three times.
His most notable business failures, according to Rolling Stone Magazine and Forbes Magazine include Trump Airlines, which upon failure, made him default from a 245 million dollar loan, Trump Steaks, which
sold only $50,000 worth of product, Trump Magazine, and the famous Trump University. Trump University, now known as the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, was originally categorized as an American for-profit education company that ran a real estate training program from 2005 until 2010. After multiple lawsuits, filed against the “University”, it is now defunct and has been re-named Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. According to The Telegraph, the most recent lawsuit which was originally brought in 2013 by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, stated that “Donald Trump was leading students to believe they were paying for programs at a licensed university”. The truth however, was that the online courses in real estate, asset management, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation were run by Trump's for-profit corporation and had no transferrable or actual academic value.
Trump University, which was charging its 7,611 enrolled students anywhere from $1,500 to $35,000 as per The Telegraph, has been called one of the “biggest business frauds in education history” by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in his recent tweets about the case.
The Republican presidential candidate has denied the allegations, and has reacted angrily when his political rivals have repeated them on the campaign trail. One example of this is during the Republican presidential race, when Marco Rubio stated the following statement during one of the debates: "There are people who borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they're suing now - $36,000 to go to a university that's a fake school, and you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump." This was not the only incident, or lawsuit case that Trump has had to deal with in regards to Trump University, however. According to The Huffington Post, in 2005, the New York State Department of Education sent Trump and his business partners Michael Sexton and Jonathan Spitalny, a letter stating that they were violating state law by using the word "University" when in fact “Trump University was not actually chartered as one, and did not have the required license to offer live instruction or training.” Even though Mr. Sexton promised that the organization would stop instructing students in New York State, and would stop using the word “University”, the New York Attorney General later said
that such instruction had not ceased.
Later, in March 2010, Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education, Joseph Frey, sent a letter to Trump which read: "Use of the word 'university' by your corporation is misleading and violates New York Education Law and the Rules of the Board of Regents" according to the information the New York City Appeals Court released. In June 2010, Trump University changed its name to The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative to be in accordance with the court.
According to The New York Times, on August 24, 2013 the State of New York filed a $40 million civil suit against Trump University alleging illegal business practices and false claims made by the company. Mr. Trump out rightly denied the allegations, claiming the school had over a 95% approval rating, something which could not, and had not been proven. The Republican presidential candidate stated that the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, was "a political hack looking to get publicity” and mentions that Mr. Schneiderman was bias in suit because he “was sided with Hillary Clinton” in recent statements. Trump followed up by filing a complaint stating that the state Attorney General's investigation was “accompanied by a campaign donation shakedown.” The complaint was dismissed in August 2015 by a New York Ethics Board. On October 2014, a New York judge found Trump personally liable for operating the company without the required business license. Most recently in Florida however, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi released the decision on not to pursue legal action against Donald Trump for Trump University.
This is despite having received a number of complaints as per CNN. The problem with the recent decision however, is that Pam Bondi might of have been bias in her decision. Pam Bondi endorsed Trump in 2013 through a political action committee which aimed at raising money for her re-election. The committee was successful in securing not only Bondi’s election as Attorney General, but also a $25,000 donation from Mr. Trump himself. Even though Mrs. Bondi denies that the donation Mr. Trump gave influenced her decision of not pursuing Trump University, some believe that her decision is questionable and potentially bias due to her connection with Trump.
Trump University is just one out of many financial schemes, frauds, and crimes that Mr. Trump has committed as per articles posted by Rolling Stone Magazine, statements from the Attorney General, and other trustworthy news and governmental documents and statements. Donald J. Trump however, believes that Trump University and all of his business failures have made him “a better person” as well as a “more capable leader” and has decided that instead of running companies and taking money from students, he would do a good job at running our country as President of the United
States.