slate - "President Con Artist...Donald Trumps budget is his biggest fraud since Trump University"
by Jamelle Bouie
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/05/donald_trump_s_budget_is_his_biggest_fraud_since_trump_university.html
Donald Trump’s pitch for his Trump University promised a world of possibility to potential students. “At Trump University, we teach success. That’s what it’s all about. Success,” he tells his audience. “It’s going to happen to you.” In one advertisement promoting free seminars for the school, Trump guaranteed results. “In just 90 minutes, my hand-picked instructors will share my techniques, which took my entire career to develop. Then, just copy exactly what I’ve done and get rich,” he said.
Leaning on an image of wealth and expertise—drawn less from reality than from reality television—Trump promised an easy path to prosperity, and people believed him. At least 5,000 people bought into Trump University, paying as much as $35,000 each to participate in live seminars and mentorship programs. These students bought in expecting they would learn Trump’s real estate investment skills, and receive special financing and close mentoring that would help them recoup the cost of their training and then some.
Trump didn’t just fail to deliver; the entire thing was a scam. Far from “hand-picked,” his instructors had little knowledge of real estate. Many customers would later allege that they paid for services never received. Finally, he pushed his employees to target the elderly and uneducated, pushing vulnerable people to take on thousands of dollars in debt and exploiting their hope for a better life to line his pockets. Ultimately, the law caught Trump, forcing him to pay a $25 million settlement for this fraud.
Trump University was an exercise in cruelty and predation. It is also a useful episode for thinking about President Trump’s $4.1 trillion budget proposal, released on Tuesday. Like all presidential budgets, this document isn’t a forecast. Congress still holds the power of the purse—and lawmakers have already declared it “dead on arrival.” Still, it’s a statement of purpose—a glimpse into the values of the administration and a guide to its vision of the good.
snip....worth the read - see the link above
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