March 7, 2019 • 31 mins
In Part Two, Robert is joined again by Miles Gray (The Daily Zeitgeist) to discuss now-defunct Trump University.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's it's behind the bastards And I'm Robert Evans Miles
Gray as my guest today. How hi, I'm from Liverpool. Now. Uh,
let's talk about Trump University. Oh yes, that where were we?
All right? Part two? From mid two thousand seven to
two thousand ten, Trump University was essentially a series of
(00:24):
free classes that actually only taught you how to raise
your credit limit in order to pay tens of thousands
of dollars to Donald Trump. The instructors or teachers for
these classes were really salespeople who got of the revenue
from everybody who signed up for these paid programs. The
very best of these instructors was a fellow named James Harris.
According to Stephen Gilpin quote, he didn't have a background
in education or even a college degree when he was
(00:47):
hired at two thousand and eight. He had a felony
conviction for ramming into someone's truck with his own truck
eight years earlier, and according to two thousand eleven divorce
filings in Gwynett County, Georgia, Harris had threatened to kill
his ex wife and tried to have her Range Rover
repass us the day after she filed a restraining order
against him. Harris was so volatile, according to court records,
that his children's school went on lockdown one day when
(01:07):
he picked up the kids. This is Trump University's best professor. Also,
why are we still calling professor? Because he's so funny
that you would call that man a professor. He's professor
of Trump University did run a background check on Harris,
(01:30):
but the investigators did not flag his criminal record. They
were also apparently not able to verify whether he graduated
from high school, though Harris later told CNN that he
did graduate. The report didn't uncover any real estate experience either.
According to court records, there is no evidence that James
Harris ever held a real estate license. So James was
by far the best of the Trump He instructors. They
actually filmed some of his lectures to play for other
(01:51):
instructors because he was so good at like the goal
was to sell of the room on a package, a
new package with every one of these things, and he
always met or exceeded his goal. Wait, so how many
sales people would be working a given seminar? You know,
sometimes three or four it sounds like, but they knew
that they needed to sell one fourth of the people
who came say that as a as a sales team,
(02:13):
not like each individ It was different depending on I
think some seminars had multiple and some it was just
James coming in there, So I think it was different
each time, like they video different things. Now, James had
a number of tactics, but the most of them boiled
down to just repeatedly promising his audience on fathomubble riches.
His favorite line was apparently write this down your license plate.
When I'm done with you, was gonna say, paid for
(02:34):
got that? Wow? That's you know, That's not what I
would do. That's not what I would do. I can
see what it would work. I would go around and
I would say everybody to get out a piece of paper, okay,
and on it. And I don't tell anybody think in
your mind, right in your mind's eye, when you are
actually making all the millions of dollars with this Trump program,
(02:55):
what's the first car you're gonna buy? Now, don't It
doesn't have to be a new car, can be a
car you've always wanted, because no money can get you anything,
even an old Corvette your grandpa used to drive. Okay, now,
I want you to write down the make and model
that car. Okay, now put it in your pocket, because
what I want you to know isn't about let's say
what's today February. Let's just call it February seven. Okay.
(03:17):
In one month from today, March seven, you are going
to be pulling out that piece of paper and looking
in the rear view mirror of that car. One month,
and I congratulate all of you. Boom sold, sold half
the room, Jesus Christ Miles. I just love I love
(03:39):
these this again the balls. Like anyone else would feel
so terrible to be like, I'm charging these people, so
I'm selling you nothing. And then on top of it,
you know they're desperate and you're saying you're gonna have everything.
Don't worry, don't worry. I mean, anyone who isn't a
total like you would have to know that some of
these people are in like pretty bad situations because you
trump seminar. If your everything is perfect, yeah, yeah exactly.
(04:02):
Or I mean some people might things might be perfect,
but they just don't know that there are seventy thousand
dollars away from blowing it on the wind. All right, yeah, okay,
what was the name Jesse Miller, James Harris, I'm sorry. Uh.
Once Trump University collapsed spoilers the Washington Post. The Washington
Post set down with Harris. His name came up more
than just about any other name and complaints about Trump
(04:24):
University because he built the most people out of the
most money. Quote from Harris, I was told to do
one thing, and that one thing was to show up
to teach, train, and motivate people to purchase Trump University
products and services, to make sure everybody bought. That is it? Wow?
Sullying the term products and services. Really that hurts me
to hear as a products and services guy. I know,
(04:46):
I know, but you have to look past that. It's
the bigger picture. Because you're looking at products and services
is sort of your I guess life raft or life
vest in a sea of debt and uncertainty. Yeah, well,
let me tell you something. I'm coming by the fucking
Titanic and that's see, and I'm swooping my hand down
to pull you aboard the s s opulence, the SS.
Let's just call it abundance, okay. And I'm not afraid
(05:09):
to share because when wealth is infinite, it doesn't matter
how many ways you cut that up, it's still going
to generate. Oh boy, oh boy. Okay. So the Chicago
Tribune reported that during one session, quote Harris scolded an
eighteen year old who said he might not be able
(05:31):
to make the class starting on a Friday because he
was still in high school. Take the day off, he
told the high schooler. This is more important. This is
a billionaire and I work for him, and I'm going
to show you how to buy and sell real estate. Wow,
take the day off, skip school kid. As the most
successful sales teacher for Trump University, Harris' strategies relied heavily
(05:51):
on bringing Donald Trump's name into it. Here's Gilpin's book quote.
Harris's upsell rate was so good the Trump University executives
distributed a transcript of one of his sessions so that
others could learned his secrets, especially from the crucial elements
of his unscripted Q and A at the end where
the master pitchman closed his sales. Among the highlights of
Harris's winning presentation was his promise that Trump quote only
wants to leave a legacy. He does not need your
(06:12):
fifteen hundred dollars. He did not have to start this university.
He does not need the money. He does not get
a dime of it. Does everyone understand this? Please say yes,
he does not need the money. Wow. Trump profited an
estimated five to ten million dollars from outside of that.
Harris's pitch seems to have been a pretty standard one
in the world of multi level marketing and pyramid schemes.
(06:32):
There are three groups of people. People who make things happen,
people who wait for things to happen, and people who
wonder what happened? Yeah? Yeah? The which are you? Questions
are always big in these and again listen to the
Dream Great podcast on pyramid schemes, multi level marketing Awesome podcast,
Donald Trump shows up a few times. Clearly good podcast now.
(06:53):
One of the people taken in by James Harris was
Kevin Scott, a forty six year old employee of a
pharmaceutical company. He was drawn in by quote the picture
Harris painted of making money quickly by flipping distressed and
folk closed property using other people's money. That was a
major promise Harris and other sales teachers and Trump You
promotional material all made. Donald Trump himself was a huge
fan of talking about using other people's money to finance
(07:15):
real estate investments games, although he put his own money
into Trump University enough, I'm sure he did things like, oh, guys,
get ready because you're gonna be hooked on op M
other people's money. Good. That's good. That's really good. Thank you. Kevin.
Scott started with a ninety minute free class and then
paid four dollars for a course by Harris, which turned
(07:37):
into a twenty dollar elite package. Now, that level of
commitment entitled him to a number of benefits, including three
days of one on one instruction with his mentor, James Harris.
Here's the Chicago Tribune quote. Scott said his mentor accompanied
him on a weekend tour of properties in Westchester. At
first he was impressed, but when he tried to make
a deal to buy and flip the houses, he was
told each time by the banks that owned the properties
(07:57):
that he had to have financing in place before they
would consider his offers. And the non bank hard money
learners who Harris had promised would be made available to
him by Trump University were nowhere to be found. He said.
It all amounts, Scott said, to a whole lot of nothing.
He adds that because he tapped out his credit cards
to pay the tuition. I ended up being one of
those distress properties. I now have to rent out my
house and live in a small apartment. Scott is one
(08:18):
of what are likely to be nearly seven thousand plaintiffs
in the class actions. Yeah, it's a bummer Wow. Another
person who swore in affidavit against Trump University was Kathleen Meese.
She paid for a three day workshop in Malta, New York.
This conference included several sales teachers, one of whom was
a guy named Stephen Goff. Mees later a called quote.
While the other Trump instructor spoke to the class, Mr
(08:40):
Goff pulled people aside one by one and told us
that we would make money faster if we enrolled in
Trump Elite programs and worked with a personal mentor. Mr
Goff asked if I could come up with twenty five
thousand dollars to sign up for the gold Elete program.
I told him I had a credit card with a
thirty thousand dollar limit, but I did not want to
pay that much for the Trump gold Elete program. I
told Mr Goff that I could not fly to the
Trump Elite seminars because I have a done with down
syndrome who needs to be close to a hospital in
(09:02):
case he needs to receive his medical treatments. Goff, wanting
the five thousand dollars he'd be guaranteed for such a
sale because he gets a quarter of it, promised Kathleen
that she would make her dollars back in sixty days.
He also promised to be her personal mentor, and eventually
she agreed and charged the program to her card. Three
days after this, Stephen Goff called her up and told
her that alas he'd be unable to mentor her and
(09:23):
she instead wind up working with some guy she'd never
heard of. Kathleen meece demanded a refund, which he did
not get. Now I found that anecdote and Gilpin's book.
Since James Harris wound up being such a messed up guy,
I wanted to learn a little bit more about Steve
Goff to see if this was maybe a trend among
Trump university professors. But that they were lying, sniveling, little
well ratman criminals is more what I was interested in.
(09:44):
But hold on, man, hold on, I take offense. We
all get the odds. School shut down because we're so
violent and angry when we car is a deadly weapon now, like, yeah,
people were shooting each other with cars in the Civil War.
I found an l A Times article that talked a
(10:05):
little bit about Steve Goff's backstory. Journalist David Lazarus went
to one of those free seminars and actually talked to
golf Quote, who told me before things got started that
he had bought and sold about three houses since getting
into real estate eleven years ago. He said he had
never bought or sold a house in California, which is
where the seminar was. I asked Off if he's a millionaire.
He said no. He said he had been through bankruptcy,
to divorces and had his own home foreclosed upon. I
(10:27):
love helping people, Goff set of why he now works
for Trump University. I'm very passionate about helping people achieve success.
What I mean, I've been bankrupt and lost my house.
Now let me teach you how to flip houses. But
you don't even have money. I know I will if
you sign up for this corse. Yeah, let's see, I'll
teach you for lunch. I do imagine sounding like Gil
(10:53):
from the Simpsons come on other members of those class
actions and did. Bob and Alex Guilo, father and son.
Bob Guilo signed up for the thirty five tho dollar
Trump Gold Elite program, based largely in the promise that
this would put him in a very small in the
no group of insiders who would receive special secret real
estate knowledge. Mr Guillo explained in his affid David, for example,
(11:16):
where Mr Trump would be involved in building condominiums, we
would get first choice at purchasing an apartment and then
would be able to immediately sell it at a profit.
Once he actually tried to make use of the benefits
promised to him and his Trump Gold Elete membership, Wheelo
realized that the special secret listing he was supposed to
get access to was Zillo. No, they pulled the data
from Zillo. Yeah wow wow wow wow, and then like
(11:38):
probably put it in some other presents. I think they
put it in another thing. This is a hot, because
it's a hot. Nobody nobody can access this. No, nobody,
Donald Trump picks these. Nobody in North Korea can access this. Okay.
He attended every one of the seminars he was entitled
to and realized that even after paying thirty five grand,
he was still being viewed as a cash bigot rather
than a student. At every single seminar quote, they tried
(12:00):
to solicit more money from us. I got a picture
of myself with the Trump cut out and basically very
very little else Jesus, and we're people just trying to
give him, Like did they have like side hustles too,
or they're like, even, okay, you're you're doing the Trump
Elite program, but look for another thousand. I'm gonna show
you some secrets that isn't even in here. That happened
(12:21):
a bunch of times. The conversity actually cracked down on it,
just because they like, yeah, taking too many bites of
the apple. A number of these guys would like try
to sell their own scams. Yeah yeah, fell already buying that, Like,
let me just get a little five D on the
side drifter school. Uh. Bob demanded a refund, which he
did not receive. Vanity Fair spoke with the Trump University employee,
(12:43):
a guy named Suriol, who dealt with Bob's case. This
is what he said in two thousand and fourteen, right
as the class action suits were kicking off. I had
many conversations with Bob Whilow. He could not articulate one
thing that was wrong with the course, and I just
got the impression that this was a guy who read
about this frivolous lawsuit and was saying, hey, look I'm
gonna try and get some money back, especially because he
signed up for multiple horses in multiple years and had
multiple very positive evaluations. This brings us to the evaluations.
(13:06):
Like any good con Trump University came with a plan
to protect Donald Trump from lawsuits that would inevitably proceed
because he was fleecing people out of their life savings.
So we're going to get into how he did that,
but you know it's not a con. Miles the fine
services and or products. I feel bad about saying products
and services after that last guy. Well, let's call goods
and services the goods and services. Uh, barter your way
(13:29):
on down to engage in these capitalism enterprises. Ads. We're
back talking about products services we just did. Now we're
talking about Trump University, which was actually not a product
(13:49):
or a service. It was just a way for people
to throw money in a hole. So there was an
evaluation system set up in order to protect the companies
from lawsuits, because like, if these people sue us for
stealing their money, we can point out, well, you gave
us stars. He gave us five stars, like you gave
us a good they did. That was just a yeah.
They were inoculating themselves. They were inoculating themselves by being like, okay,
(14:09):
do this's and that's weird you said you loved it.
It's the scam equivalent of like when you have those
court cases where like the celebrity is accused of sexual
assault and someone's like, well, here's a picture of her
looking smiling next to him, right, Like that happened with
the Weinstein case where there is that they pointed out, like, well, no,
she sat next to him at the oscars. Yeah, like
she doesn't look trauma to like it's yeah, that's strange. Yeah,
(14:32):
it turns out it's a good strategy for a couple
of things, right, Yeah, if you have no soul. Stephen
Gilpin explained quote as noted on page forty the playbook.
Events staff were required to distribute surveys to all attendees
and collect once completed in exchange for certificates. That's right.
Each student was handed a survey to fell Out, and
he or she did not receive their course completion certificate
until the survey had been completed and turned in. The
(14:53):
exchange was clear, you fell out the farm, and then
we'll give you this your certificate. Students have stated that
the Trump team members would hover over them while they
filled out the forms, can get more awkward for them
to write anything critical. Trump University mentor Tad Lignell told
The New York Times that he asked students to fill
out the evaluations in front of him at restaurants and
coffee shops. At that moment, vulnerable students still needed and
expected his guidance as they filled out the forms. Their
(15:13):
mindset was I want my mentor to be my friend
and I need his help. Oh. In two thousand ten,
Trump University had its first legal trouble. Greg Abbott, the
Attorney General of Texas, opened an investigation into thirty complaints
made by Texans who had gotten fleeced by the scam.
According to Gilpin's book, we pulled out of the state
before the probe was completed. A few years later, Trump
made two contributions to abbott scubernatorial campaign, one for two
(15:36):
dollars in July and one another for ten thousand dollars
in May of two thousand and fourteen. It was Trump's
only substantial venture into Texas politics. The governor's critics and
the state Democratic Party said that Abbott was quote on
the corrupt Trump payroll. A former deputy chief of Abbott's
Consumer protection division, John Owens, claimed that his boss's torpedoed
their request to sue Trump University for illegal business practices.
A memo dated May eleventh, two thou ten, and provided
(15:58):
to the State Texas Tribute and other media organizations, revealed
that Owens and his colleagues wanted to ask the Trump
University for a five point four million dollar settlement. Owen's
now retired says his team had built a solid case
against Donald Trump at Trump University, but was told to
drop it after the school agreed to cease operations in Texas.
So bribe the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Which if
(16:18):
you're a Texan, you know that all of our governors
are grifters. I mean, look, you gotta kick it up.
You gotta kick it up. Man. Look you want to
run shit around here, Give me my taste, give me
my give me my cut of that pie. Thirty five
grand to forgive five point four million in scamming Texans
out of money. Yeah, I mean, but it's not a
lot of work for the government. Ship just says stop
it now. I got a little, a little fishing boat,
(16:40):
Greg Abbott, might can you get a fishing boat for
thirty five little Boston whalers and not a great one? Yeah? Yeah,
some you can take out. Something you can take out.
Not a John McAfee class yacht, but not a murder
ss murder. Someone's going to die on that boat journey
for sure. Every picture of him, he's got like multiple
(17:01):
guns in bed and his drinking. It's just a hammock
and making the background John McAfee. Now. Throughout all this,
Trump University continued to use the forty Wall Street address
as its corporate address, despite being told by the Department
of Education to stop doing that. Ship. After five years
of this, on June two, two ten, Trump University finally
changed his name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. Now, according
(17:22):
to Gilpin, this was all just cover for the fact
that Trump and Sexton were shutting down the university. Michael
Sexton quit his job and left the office without telling anyone.
It apparently took several weeks for the employees at Trump
University to realize the company no longer existed. Gilpin claims
he never got his last paycheck and no one told
them to stop working. Wow, just get the funk out.
(17:43):
Just get the funk out eventually when you realize we're
not paying you any right, right? Right? Yeah. In August
of two thirteen, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed
a lawsuit against Donald Trump under the grounds that Trump
University had engaged in quote persistent, fraudulent, illegal, and deceptive
conduct quote from Schneiderman. Some instructors claim that a Trump
degree is a bit of a college degree, and that
Trump offered graduate programs, postgraduate programs, and doctorate programs. Instructors
(18:07):
routinely referred to themselves as faculty and to the Trump
University program participants as students and then graduates after completing
a course and going through graduation. Instructors represented the three
Day Seminar would provide special instructions to students on how
to obtain private or hard money sources of financing rather
than traditional loans from banks. In fact, there's no evidence
that the Three Day Seminars contain substantial instruction on how
to raise private money, and the supposedly special database of
(18:30):
lenders turned out to be a list photo copied from
an issue of Scotsman Guide, a commercially available magazine photo off.
You didn't have the fucking time, didn't even retype it.
It's an old camera phone pick. Now, this is where
those satisfaction serveys come into play, because when the Attorney
General of New York announced a lawsuit against Trump University,
(18:52):
Trump launched a websitecent approval dot com, now defunct. The
website made the case that Trump University had acent approval
rating from its students. So why was this crooked attorney
general coming after them? Oh? Oh, I thought they said
they were in love. They said they were in love. Interesting,
they don't. Interesting, sounds like someone's trying to get money. Yeah,
it sounds like some sour grapes. They're actually wound up
(19:14):
being three big gas lawsuits over Trump University, one in
New York, one in California, and one in federal court.
If you remember the time Trump was racist to that
judge Gonzalo Curial, this is when that happened. The cases
were all settled in early two thousand and seventeen as
Trump took office, and the aggrieved parties won a total
of twenty five million dollars, which should mean that just
about everybody who got sucked over by Trump University will
get their money back down the line. Yeah million, that's
(19:36):
about what. So those people actually more than likely will
be made hold. It seems. It seems so, at least
the ones who signed on to the lawsuit. Yeah, and
which was like seven thousand people of an old billionaire,
Donald Trump's sucking quote unquote billionaire. So there's a happy
ish ending to this because they kind of Trump settled
kind of right around the time it was being inaugurated
(19:57):
because they were like, I just don't want this to
drag on right present, there like something going on where
like one person wasn't going to accept and it was
gonna like derail it was going to derail it. But
then the judge was like, no, I don't I don't
know the details, but it didn't do whatever that. They
didn't allow that that one person's decision to end up
sucking up everyone. They didn't let that fuck it up
for everybody else. So unlike most stories, particularly most stories
(20:20):
baby Donald Trump, this tale us have a happy ending,
or sort of, because Trump University was not the only
scam Donald Trump played in the mid oughts. In fact,
it seems to have been the nibble that led him
into a binge of scams. In two thousand nine, as
Trump You was winding down, he signed a deal with
Ideal Health, an MLM that sold you're in testing kits
that were supposed to help them formulate super multi vitamins
(20:41):
designed specifically for you. The reality of the situation is
that Trump Plan claimed to be like in on this investment,
that it was like a great opportunity, and I believe
this is going to be like they specifically talked about,
like the financial crash, and was like you know, in
an age when all of these promises have been proven
untrue and all these these the sketchy finance people have
screwed you guys over. I found a way for the
(21:02):
American dream to aid whole. And it's selling these p
testing kids to give people multivitamins wait, so that you
would pe on the thing and then they would like
give you a customized vitamin vitamin. Yeah. Trump claimed to
be intimately involved with the company involved in formulating the
programs and like claimed that he loves P. Yeah, they
I mean they called it the Trump Network. But he
loves P. He does love he loves P. He found
(21:25):
another P thing to do. Now this this company had
existed before him. But afterwards people thought that basically it
seemed kind of like the people in the ground like
he might have bought the company and was now running it.
And they're like, oh great, I just send him in
a big seven eleven big golf cup to my bedroom
and I will sip them boy. Okay. The reality of
the situation is that Ideal Health was just paying Donald
(21:47):
Trump to give speeches at conferences and let them use
his name for branding purposes. He had no actual hand
in the operations of the company, nor was any of
his money on the line in it. This is distinctly
not with the employees of Ideal Health were led to believe. Well,
I guess now, the Trump Network were led to believe.
Here's the Washington Post. Trump says he was not involved
with the company's operations, but statements by him and other
company representatives, as well as a plethora of marketing materials
(22:09):
circulating online, often gave the impression of a partnership that
was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity. In fact,
within a few years, the company fell on hard times,
leaving some of sales people in tough financial straits. It
ultimately was acquired by another firm, But when Trump joined
forces with Ideal Health, he was enthusiastic about his future.
When I did the Apprentice, it was a long shot.
This is not a long shot. Trump told a Trump
(22:30):
Network convention of at least five thousand people in Miami
in two thousand nine, his face projected onto a giant screen.
This is going to be something that's really amazing. It's
going to be our company as a group. So wow wow.
And then he's like, this is us. Everything is around,
this is the board. This is the board. We all
work together. You're working with Donald Trump, billionaire. Mm hmm. Anyway,
(22:51):
I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna leave. I don't know where
I am actually, but you're going to be rich. Congratulations.
There's more. Donald Trump signed a deal with a c N,
a telecommunications marketing firm that scammed people out of their
money by trying to convince them to sell video phones.
In the twenty teens. The president was sued for his
role in this last October. Complainants alleged that they were
(23:11):
once again led to believe Trump was actually involved in
the business and believed in it. He did not disclose
that he had been paid millions of dollars in order
to sell them on the company. A c N was
not the only company listed on this lawsuit. The lawsuit
complains that the Trump Foundation, which is ostensibly a charity,
was turned by the President and his family into essentially
a clearinghouse for scams. Here's the New York Times. Those
business entities were A c N, a telecommunications marketing firm
(23:33):
that paid Mr Trump billions of dollars to endorse its products,
the Trump Network of Vitamin Marketing Enterprise, and the Trump Institute,
which the suit set offered extravagantly priced multi day training
seminars Mr Trump's real estate secrets. That is a different
thing from Trump University, Trump Enterprise, Trump Institute Trump started
in the same time two thousand five. He had to
fake colleges running at the same time. And we've only
(23:56):
known about university. No one talks about the Trump Institute
of fakes to fake schools. Miles, Was it the same
thing to the exact same note, It was actually less
of a scam? How is it less of a cheaper?
So while Trump You was at least initially seated by
Trump's own money. The Trump Institute was a series of
(24:17):
expensive lectures run by Irene and Mike Millen, a couple
with a long history of shady get rich quick schemes.
Michael Sexton, CEO of Trump University, also helped to run
the Trump Institute. Trump's role in the Institute was basically
limited to licensing his name and claiming the business secrets
taught were all things he totally learned during his long
career as a businessman. A New York Times investigation later
found that huge trunks of the course books for the
(24:38):
institute were outright plagiarized from legitimate business books. Was at
least means there is a ghost of a chance that
someone got useful information. Now, the four plaintiffs, I do
want to read another quote from that Washington Post article
on the giant lawsuit against the Trump Foundation, because I
think it's interesting quote the four plaintiffs, who were identified
only with pseudonyms like Jane Doe to pick the Trump
organization as a racketeering enterprise that defrauded thousands of people
(25:01):
for years as the president turned from construction to licensing
his name for profit. The suit also names Donald Trump Jr.
Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump as defendants. Mm hmm. So
all of this is why in December of two thousand eighteen,
New York Judge Salient Scarpoola approved a deal to shut
down the Trump Foundation for good, citing its shocking pattern
(25:22):
of illegality. The judge ordered that the foundations remaining one
point seven million in assets be split up amongst legitimate charities,
which is where we stand now. There's still an investigation ongoing,
which means that the president and all of his kids
might get charged under the Rico statutes for racketeering like
which for all the talk about the Mueller investigation, which
(25:43):
I'm a fan of just because it put Paul Man
of Fort and Rogerstone and buying bars, and I think
that if that's all we get, but it looks like
what that might uncover is like no direct collusion with Russia,
but just like the president was racketeering enterprise the most
inept organized crime thing. It's uh yeah, I mean, I
think because also the charges that he's facing from the
(26:04):
Southern District of New York I think are far more
potentially scary than there's so many charges against him. It's
because they're not limited by like they're not handcuffed by
d o J policy or not indicating or whatever. They're like,
we're here to fucking burn this mother down. Yeah, I
didn't really I knew the Trump Foundation was a scam
because but I didn't know it was how he ran
(26:24):
multiple pyramid schemes, including to fake colleges the institute though
there's something just those two words together, two fake colleges.
I don't know why Trump University sounds more believable than
the Trump Trumps. It does sound scamming. I don't know why.
And I found this out near the end of my research.
I could have gone in more, but I think it's
just important to know that, like he had to fake
(26:45):
schools at the same time, to fake schools. Hey, look,
it's money, baby, the president of the United States. Everybody. Uh,
he's just more out there with it. That's all you's got. Scams.
It's just really really lame and predatory. Yeah. I hate
(27:05):
to say say this about Eric Prince, but at least
he ran a company that did a business. There was
at there was a product and yeah, he's like, look,
I'm selling chaos. But they made the wars work out
less well for everyone involved. But they did keep their
clients alive. Sure, that's technically all they were paid to do.
(27:26):
They followed through and that It's like, look, we might
fucking go outside the lines in a few more than
one way. We might make the whole war effort less
successful by murdering civilians, but the people were hired to
not get killed will stay alive. It's weird because I'm
almost like, yeah, Eric Prince building his fake warplane warms
my heart more than hearing about these confidence in intelligence.
(27:47):
This is just so lazy, such a lazy scam. Yeah,
tell desperate people they'll get rich if they give you money,
point blank. That's it. The end, Eric Prince scam is
spend years setting up a series of shell companies and
buying busin this is around the world to gradually assemble
a couple of warplanes because you just want to bomb
people that badly. Donald Trump scams. Yeah, let's start a
(28:07):
fake school and let's hire your criminals to teach. You.
Get a truck ram over here to be the top professor, Professor,
Professor Ram to truck into some much. It's just so
funny just to see those videos. Like if you have
those clips and just even the lower third for that'd
be like Professor Miller like, wow, that is okay, sure,
(28:31):
I gotta see his name was James Miller, James Harris.
I think, Miles. You want to plug a plug doble
in this the plug zone the pas Oh yeah, um
Belcon plug in surge protectors, oh man protect family because
I also have a two built in USB slots so
if you want to charge your phone and not worry
(28:52):
about any surges damaging your lifetow products, Belcon plug in Searcher.
You know I plugged in a Belkin search protector when
I was in Ireland once. It was one of those
adapt your things too. There's a huge spark shot Tride
the search protector instantly look like, uh, what's his name? Um,
let's see. Oh yeah. Just check out the Daily Zeitgeist
Daily News Politics Culture podcast that I co host with
(29:13):
Jack O'Brien every day on this network. Belcan is not
a supporter. Belkin is not a supporter. You know. That
was thirsty me. If Belkan does want to put some
money into this, I will claim that it was a
different search protector. Yeah, fantastic, fantastic. Um, that'd be a
good thing to talk about two because it's really to
power dynamic power dynamic anyway, speaking of power dynamics. Uh.
(29:34):
And also, you know, follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Miles of Gray. You can follow me on Twitter
at at at Bastards Pod. You can't follow me on
Instagram because it frightens and uh confuses me. Your posts
would be amazing, though, well I don't even know what
you do on it. You would you just show people
what you see through your eyes as you see Robert.
Know that's a bad idea spending this show. That is
(29:57):
a bad idea. Uh. You can find this show on
Twitter and Instagram, though at at Bastards pot. You can
find it on the internet at behind the Bastards dot com. Uh.
Download that Trump University playbook for yourself, give give some
of those seconds to read through. Don't start at the
beginning because it's kind of boring, but go go to
that sales section. Really pretty drinking in, pretty abusive. Yeah,
the tactics I'm curious to like. Actually, it's it's really
(30:20):
disturbing when you see it written now just sort of
just so plainly. Yeah, it's it's like a textbook written
by people who all hit their spouses. It's it's it's
like those same tactics though of Oh yeah, it's just abuse.
It's just about just making you feel out of touch
with your power or your own sense of agency. Yeah, yeah,
it's remarkable anyway. Uh go do something that makes you happy. Listen,
(30:43):
listen to a happy song. Uh, pet puppy. Uh, flip
a cop car, buy a T shirt on t public
Uh stickers, Uh cups, Uh crowbars they break police vehicle
windows pretty well, right, probably open the back, yeah, branded
behind the bastard's crowbar. I don't know. Uh, light a
(31:04):
courthouse on fire, whatever you want to do? Can we
can we ask people to do that. No, we can't.
Don't light a courthouse on fire. Hug a courthouse. Hug
a courthouse. Hug a courthouse. Hug your local courthouse today. Uh,
and go to Robert University, where I will teach you
my secrets for losing thousands of dollars in real estate. Uh,
(31:25):
hails are being honest. At least I'm being honest. If
you want to lose money. The Robert Evans way, you
know what, the episodes over. I I have a legend.
I'm I'm urging crimes, I'm selling nonsense. You gotta cut, Sophie,
You gotta just stop us.
It's it's behind the bastards And I'm Robert Evans Miles
Gray as my guest today. How hi, I'm from Liverpool. Now. Uh,
let's talk about Trump University. Oh yes, that where were we?
All right? Part two? From mid two thousand seven to
two thousand ten, Trump University was essentially a series of
(00:24):
free classes that actually only taught you how to raise
your credit limit in order to pay tens of thousands
of dollars to Donald Trump. The instructors or teachers for
these classes were really salespeople who got of the revenue
from everybody who signed up for these paid programs. The
very best of these instructors was a fellow named James Harris.
According to Stephen Gilpin quote, he didn't have a background
in education or even a college degree when he was
(00:47):
hired at two thousand and eight. He had a felony
conviction for ramming into someone's truck with his own truck
eight years earlier, and according to two thousand eleven divorce
filings in Gwynett County, Georgia, Harris had threatened to kill
his ex wife and tried to have her Range Rover
repass us the day after she filed a restraining order
against him. Harris was so volatile, according to court records,
that his children's school went on lockdown one day when
(01:07):
he picked up the kids. This is Trump University's best professor. Also,
why are we still calling professor? Because he's so funny
that you would call that man a professor. He's professor
of Trump University did run a background check on Harris,
(01:30):
but the investigators did not flag his criminal record. They
were also apparently not able to verify whether he graduated
from high school, though Harris later told CNN that he
did graduate. The report didn't uncover any real estate experience either.
According to court records, there is no evidence that James
Harris ever held a real estate license. So James was
by far the best of the Trump He instructors. They
actually filmed some of his lectures to play for other
(01:51):
instructors because he was so good at like the goal
was to sell of the room on a package, a
new package with every one of these things, and he
always met or exceeded his goal. Wait, so how many
sales people would be working a given seminar? You know,
sometimes three or four it sounds like, but they knew
that they needed to sell one fourth of the people
who came say that as a as a sales team,
(02:13):
not like each individ It was different depending on I
think some seminars had multiple and some it was just
James coming in there, So I think it was different
each time, like they video different things. Now, James had
a number of tactics, but the most of them boiled
down to just repeatedly promising his audience on fathomubble riches.
His favorite line was apparently write this down your license plate.
When I'm done with you, was gonna say, paid for
(02:34):
got that? Wow? That's you know, That's not what I
would do. That's not what I would do. I can
see what it would work. I would go around and
I would say everybody to get out a piece of paper, okay,
and on it. And I don't tell anybody think in
your mind, right in your mind's eye, when you are
actually making all the millions of dollars with this Trump program,
(02:55):
what's the first car you're gonna buy? Now, don't It
doesn't have to be a new car, can be a
car you've always wanted, because no money can get you anything,
even an old Corvette your grandpa used to drive. Okay, now,
I want you to write down the make and model
that car. Okay, now put it in your pocket, because
what I want you to know isn't about let's say
what's today February. Let's just call it February seven. Okay.
(03:17):
In one month from today, March seven, you are going
to be pulling out that piece of paper and looking
in the rear view mirror of that car. One month,
and I congratulate all of you. Boom sold, sold half
the room, Jesus Christ Miles. I just love I love
(03:39):
these this again the balls. Like anyone else would feel
so terrible to be like, I'm charging these people, so
I'm selling you nothing. And then on top of it,
you know they're desperate and you're saying you're gonna have everything.
Don't worry, don't worry. I mean, anyone who isn't a
total like you would have to know that some of
these people are in like pretty bad situations because you
trump seminar. If your everything is perfect, yeah, yeah exactly.
(04:02):
Or I mean some people might things might be perfect,
but they just don't know that there are seventy thousand
dollars away from blowing it on the wind. All right, yeah, okay,
what was the name Jesse Miller, James Harris, I'm sorry. Uh.
Once Trump University collapsed spoilers the Washington Post. The Washington
Post set down with Harris. His name came up more
than just about any other name and complaints about Trump
(04:24):
University because he built the most people out of the
most money. Quote from Harris, I was told to do
one thing, and that one thing was to show up
to teach, train, and motivate people to purchase Trump University
products and services, to make sure everybody bought. That is it? Wow?
Sullying the term products and services. Really that hurts me
to hear as a products and services guy. I know,
(04:46):
I know, but you have to look past that. It's
the bigger picture. Because you're looking at products and services
is sort of your I guess life raft or life
vest in a sea of debt and uncertainty. Yeah, well,
let me tell you something. I'm coming by the fucking
Titanic and that's see, and I'm swooping my hand down
to pull you aboard the s s opulence, the SS.
Let's just call it abundance, okay. And I'm not afraid
(05:09):
to share because when wealth is infinite, it doesn't matter
how many ways you cut that up, it's still going
to generate. Oh boy, oh boy. Okay. So the Chicago
Tribune reported that during one session, quote Harris scolded an
eighteen year old who said he might not be able
(05:31):
to make the class starting on a Friday because he
was still in high school. Take the day off, he
told the high schooler. This is more important. This is
a billionaire and I work for him, and I'm going
to show you how to buy and sell real estate. Wow,
take the day off, skip school kid. As the most
successful sales teacher for Trump University, Harris' strategies relied heavily
(05:51):
on bringing Donald Trump's name into it. Here's Gilpin's book quote.
Harris's upsell rate was so good the Trump University executives
distributed a transcript of one of his sessions so that
others could learned his secrets, especially from the crucial elements
of his unscripted Q and A at the end where
the master pitchman closed his sales. Among the highlights of
Harris's winning presentation was his promise that Trump quote only
wants to leave a legacy. He does not need your
(06:12):
fifteen hundred dollars. He did not have to start this university.
He does not need the money. He does not get
a dime of it. Does everyone understand this? Please say yes,
he does not need the money. Wow. Trump profited an
estimated five to ten million dollars from outside of that.
Harris's pitch seems to have been a pretty standard one
in the world of multi level marketing and pyramid schemes.
(06:32):
There are three groups of people. People who make things happen,
people who wait for things to happen, and people who
wonder what happened? Yeah? Yeah? The which are you? Questions
are always big in these and again listen to the
Dream Great podcast on pyramid schemes, multi level marketing Awesome podcast,
Donald Trump shows up a few times. Clearly good podcast now.
(06:53):
One of the people taken in by James Harris was
Kevin Scott, a forty six year old employee of a
pharmaceutical company. He was drawn in by quote the picture
Harris painted of making money quickly by flipping distressed and
folk closed property using other people's money. That was a
major promise Harris and other sales teachers and Trump You
promotional material all made. Donald Trump himself was a huge
fan of talking about using other people's money to finance
(07:15):
real estate investments games, although he put his own money
into Trump University enough, I'm sure he did things like, oh, guys,
get ready because you're gonna be hooked on op M
other people's money. Good. That's good. That's really good. Thank you. Kevin.
Scott started with a ninety minute free class and then
paid four dollars for a course by Harris, which turned
(07:37):
into a twenty dollar elite package. Now, that level of
commitment entitled him to a number of benefits, including three
days of one on one instruction with his mentor, James Harris.
Here's the Chicago Tribune quote. Scott said his mentor accompanied
him on a weekend tour of properties in Westchester. At
first he was impressed, but when he tried to make
a deal to buy and flip the houses, he was
told each time by the banks that owned the properties
(07:57):
that he had to have financing in place before they
would consider his offers. And the non bank hard money
learners who Harris had promised would be made available to
him by Trump University were nowhere to be found. He said.
It all amounts, Scott said, to a whole lot of nothing.
He adds that because he tapped out his credit cards
to pay the tuition. I ended up being one of
those distress properties. I now have to rent out my
house and live in a small apartment. Scott is one
(08:18):
of what are likely to be nearly seven thousand plaintiffs
in the class actions. Yeah, it's a bummer Wow. Another
person who swore in affidavit against Trump University was Kathleen Meese.
She paid for a three day workshop in Malta, New York.
This conference included several sales teachers, one of whom was
a guy named Stephen Goff. Mees later a called quote.
While the other Trump instructor spoke to the class, Mr
(08:40):
Goff pulled people aside one by one and told us
that we would make money faster if we enrolled in
Trump Elite programs and worked with a personal mentor. Mr
Goff asked if I could come up with twenty five
thousand dollars to sign up for the gold Elete program.
I told him I had a credit card with a
thirty thousand dollar limit, but I did not want to
pay that much for the Trump gold Elete program. I
told Mr Goff that I could not fly to the
Trump Elite seminars because I have a done with down
syndrome who needs to be close to a hospital in
(09:02):
case he needs to receive his medical treatments. Goff, wanting
the five thousand dollars he'd be guaranteed for such a
sale because he gets a quarter of it, promised Kathleen
that she would make her dollars back in sixty days.
He also promised to be her personal mentor, and eventually
she agreed and charged the program to her card. Three
days after this, Stephen Goff called her up and told
her that alas he'd be unable to mentor her and
(09:23):
she instead wind up working with some guy she'd never
heard of. Kathleen meece demanded a refund, which he did
not get. Now I found that anecdote and Gilpin's book.
Since James Harris wound up being such a messed up guy,
I wanted to learn a little bit more about Steve
Goff to see if this was maybe a trend among
Trump university professors. But that they were lying, sniveling, little
well ratman criminals is more what I was interested in.
(09:44):
But hold on, man, hold on, I take offense. We
all get the odds. School shut down because we're so
violent and angry when we car is a deadly weapon now, like, yeah,
people were shooting each other with cars in the Civil War.
I found an l A Times article that talked a
(10:05):
little bit about Steve Goff's backstory. Journalist David Lazarus went
to one of those free seminars and actually talked to
golf Quote, who told me before things got started that
he had bought and sold about three houses since getting
into real estate eleven years ago. He said he had
never bought or sold a house in California, which is
where the seminar was. I asked Off if he's a millionaire.
He said no. He said he had been through bankruptcy,
to divorces and had his own home foreclosed upon. I
(10:27):
love helping people, Goff set of why he now works
for Trump University. I'm very passionate about helping people achieve success.
What I mean, I've been bankrupt and lost my house.
Now let me teach you how to flip houses. But
you don't even have money. I know I will if
you sign up for this corse. Yeah, let's see, I'll
teach you for lunch. I do imagine sounding like Gil
(10:53):
from the Simpsons come on other members of those class
actions and did. Bob and Alex Guilo, father and son.
Bob Guilo signed up for the thirty five tho dollar
Trump Gold Elite program, based largely in the promise that
this would put him in a very small in the
no group of insiders who would receive special secret real
estate knowledge. Mr Guillo explained in his affid David, for example,
(11:16):
where Mr Trump would be involved in building condominiums, we
would get first choice at purchasing an apartment and then
would be able to immediately sell it at a profit.
Once he actually tried to make use of the benefits
promised to him and his Trump Gold Elete membership, Wheelo
realized that the special secret listing he was supposed to
get access to was Zillo. No, they pulled the data
from Zillo. Yeah wow wow wow wow, and then like
(11:38):
probably put it in some other presents. I think they
put it in another thing. This is a hot, because
it's a hot. Nobody nobody can access this. No, nobody,
Donald Trump picks these. Nobody in North Korea can access this. Okay.
He attended every one of the seminars he was entitled
to and realized that even after paying thirty five grand,
he was still being viewed as a cash bigot rather
than a student. At every single seminar quote, they tried
(12:00):
to solicit more money from us. I got a picture
of myself with the Trump cut out and basically very
very little else Jesus, and we're people just trying to
give him, Like did they have like side hustles too,
or they're like, even, okay, you're you're doing the Trump
Elite program, but look for another thousand. I'm gonna show
you some secrets that isn't even in here. That happened
(12:21):
a bunch of times. The conversity actually cracked down on it,
just because they like, yeah, taking too many bites of
the apple. A number of these guys would like try
to sell their own scams. Yeah yeah, fell already buying that, Like,
let me just get a little five D on the
side drifter school. Uh. Bob demanded a refund, which he
did not receive. Vanity Fair spoke with the Trump University employee,
(12:43):
a guy named Suriol, who dealt with Bob's case. This
is what he said in two thousand and fourteen, right
as the class action suits were kicking off. I had
many conversations with Bob Whilow. He could not articulate one
thing that was wrong with the course, and I just
got the impression that this was a guy who read
about this frivolous lawsuit and was saying, hey, look I'm
gonna try and get some money back, especially because he
signed up for multiple horses in multiple years and had
multiple very positive evaluations. This brings us to the evaluations.
(13:06):
Like any good con Trump University came with a plan
to protect Donald Trump from lawsuits that would inevitably proceed
because he was fleecing people out of their life savings.
So we're going to get into how he did that,
but you know it's not a con. Miles the fine
services and or products. I feel bad about saying products
and services after that last guy. Well, let's call goods
and services the goods and services. Uh, barter your way
(13:29):
on down to engage in these capitalism enterprises. Ads. We're
back talking about products services we just did. Now we're
talking about Trump University, which was actually not a product
(13:49):
or a service. It was just a way for people
to throw money in a hole. So there was an
evaluation system set up in order to protect the companies
from lawsuits, because like, if these people sue us for
stealing their money, we can point out, well, you gave
us stars. He gave us five stars, like you gave
us a good they did. That was just a yeah.
They were inoculating themselves. They were inoculating themselves by being like, okay,
(14:09):
do this's and that's weird you said you loved it.
It's the scam equivalent of like when you have those
court cases where like the celebrity is accused of sexual
assault and someone's like, well, here's a picture of her
looking smiling next to him, right, Like that happened with
the Weinstein case where there is that they pointed out, like, well, no,
she sat next to him at the oscars. Yeah, like
she doesn't look trauma to like it's yeah, that's strange. Yeah,
(14:32):
it turns out it's a good strategy for a couple
of things, right, Yeah, if you have no soul. Stephen
Gilpin explained quote as noted on page forty the playbook.
Events staff were required to distribute surveys to all attendees
and collect once completed in exchange for certificates. That's right.
Each student was handed a survey to fell Out, and
he or she did not receive their course completion certificate
until the survey had been completed and turned in. The
(14:53):
exchange was clear, you fell out the farm, and then
we'll give you this your certificate. Students have stated that
the Trump team members would hover over them while they
filled out the forms, can get more awkward for them
to write anything critical. Trump University mentor Tad Lignell told
The New York Times that he asked students to fill
out the evaluations in front of him at restaurants and
coffee shops. At that moment, vulnerable students still needed and
expected his guidance as they filled out the forms. Their
(15:13):
mindset was I want my mentor to be my friend
and I need his help. Oh. In two thousand ten,
Trump University had its first legal trouble. Greg Abbott, the
Attorney General of Texas, opened an investigation into thirty complaints
made by Texans who had gotten fleeced by the scam.
According to Gilpin's book, we pulled out of the state
before the probe was completed. A few years later, Trump
made two contributions to abbott scubernatorial campaign, one for two
(15:36):
dollars in July and one another for ten thousand dollars
in May of two thousand and fourteen. It was Trump's
only substantial venture into Texas politics. The governor's critics and
the state Democratic Party said that Abbott was quote on
the corrupt Trump payroll. A former deputy chief of Abbott's
Consumer protection division, John Owens, claimed that his boss's torpedoed
their request to sue Trump University for illegal business practices.
A memo dated May eleventh, two thou ten, and provided
(15:58):
to the State Texas Tribute and other media organizations, revealed
that Owens and his colleagues wanted to ask the Trump
University for a five point four million dollar settlement. Owen's
now retired says his team had built a solid case
against Donald Trump at Trump University, but was told to
drop it after the school agreed to cease operations in Texas.
So bribe the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Which if
(16:18):
you're a Texan, you know that all of our governors
are grifters. I mean, look, you gotta kick it up.
You gotta kick it up. Man. Look you want to
run shit around here, Give me my taste, give me
my give me my cut of that pie. Thirty five
grand to forgive five point four million in scamming Texans
out of money. Yeah, I mean, but it's not a
lot of work for the government. Ship just says stop
it now. I got a little, a little fishing boat,
(16:40):
Greg Abbott, might can you get a fishing boat for
thirty five little Boston whalers and not a great one? Yeah? Yeah,
some you can take out. Something you can take out.
Not a John McAfee class yacht, but not a murder
ss murder. Someone's going to die on that boat journey
for sure. Every picture of him, he's got like multiple
(17:01):
guns in bed and his drinking. It's just a hammock
and making the background John McAfee. Now. Throughout all this,
Trump University continued to use the forty Wall Street address
as its corporate address, despite being told by the Department
of Education to stop doing that. Ship. After five years
of this, on June two, two ten, Trump University finally
changed his name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. Now, according
(17:22):
to Gilpin, this was all just cover for the fact
that Trump and Sexton were shutting down the university. Michael
Sexton quit his job and left the office without telling anyone.
It apparently took several weeks for the employees at Trump
University to realize the company no longer existed. Gilpin claims
he never got his last paycheck and no one told
them to stop working. Wow, just get the funk out.
(17:43):
Just get the funk out eventually when you realize we're
not paying you any right, right? Right? Yeah. In August
of two thirteen, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed
a lawsuit against Donald Trump under the grounds that Trump
University had engaged in quote persistent, fraudulent, illegal, and deceptive
conduct quote from Schneiderman. Some instructors claim that a Trump
degree is a bit of a college degree, and that
Trump offered graduate programs, postgraduate programs, and doctorate programs. Instructors
(18:07):
routinely referred to themselves as faculty and to the Trump
University program participants as students and then graduates after completing
a course and going through graduation. Instructors represented the three
Day Seminar would provide special instructions to students on how
to obtain private or hard money sources of financing rather
than traditional loans from banks. In fact, there's no evidence
that the Three Day Seminars contain substantial instruction on how
to raise private money, and the supposedly special database of
(18:30):
lenders turned out to be a list photo copied from
an issue of Scotsman Guide, a commercially available magazine photo off.
You didn't have the fucking time, didn't even retype it.
It's an old camera phone pick. Now, this is where
those satisfaction serveys come into play, because when the Attorney
General of New York announced a lawsuit against Trump University,
(18:52):
Trump launched a websitecent approval dot com, now defunct. The
website made the case that Trump University had acent approval
rating from its students. So why was this crooked attorney
general coming after them? Oh? Oh, I thought they said
they were in love. They said they were in love. Interesting,
they don't. Interesting, sounds like someone's trying to get money. Yeah,
it sounds like some sour grapes. They're actually wound up
(19:14):
being three big gas lawsuits over Trump University, one in
New York, one in California, and one in federal court.
If you remember the time Trump was racist to that
judge Gonzalo Curial, this is when that happened. The cases
were all settled in early two thousand and seventeen as
Trump took office, and the aggrieved parties won a total
of twenty five million dollars, which should mean that just
about everybody who got sucked over by Trump University will
get their money back down the line. Yeah million, that's
(19:36):
about what. So those people actually more than likely will
be made hold. It seems. It seems so, at least
the ones who signed on to the lawsuit. Yeah, and
which was like seven thousand people of an old billionaire,
Donald Trump's sucking quote unquote billionaire. So there's a happy
ish ending to this because they kind of Trump settled
kind of right around the time it was being inaugurated
(19:57):
because they were like, I just don't want this to
drag on right present, there like something going on where
like one person wasn't going to accept and it was
gonna like derail it was going to derail it. But
then the judge was like, no, I don't I don't
know the details, but it didn't do whatever that. They
didn't allow that that one person's decision to end up
sucking up everyone. They didn't let that fuck it up
for everybody else. So unlike most stories, particularly most stories
(20:20):
baby Donald Trump, this tale us have a happy ending,
or sort of, because Trump University was not the only
scam Donald Trump played in the mid oughts. In fact,
it seems to have been the nibble that led him
into a binge of scams. In two thousand nine, as
Trump You was winding down, he signed a deal with
Ideal Health, an MLM that sold you're in testing kits
that were supposed to help them formulate super multi vitamins
(20:41):
designed specifically for you. The reality of the situation is
that Trump Plan claimed to be like in on this investment,
that it was like a great opportunity, and I believe
this is going to be like they specifically talked about,
like the financial crash, and was like you know, in
an age when all of these promises have been proven
untrue and all these these the sketchy finance people have
screwed you guys over. I found a way for the
(21:02):
American dream to aid whole. And it's selling these p
testing kids to give people multivitamins wait, so that you
would pe on the thing and then they would like
give you a customized vitamin vitamin. Yeah. Trump claimed to
be intimately involved with the company involved in formulating the
programs and like claimed that he loves P. Yeah, they
I mean they called it the Trump Network. But he
loves P. He does love he loves P. He found
(21:25):
another P thing to do. Now this this company had
existed before him. But afterwards people thought that basically it
seemed kind of like the people in the ground like
he might have bought the company and was now running it.
And they're like, oh great, I just send him in
a big seven eleven big golf cup to my bedroom
and I will sip them boy. Okay. The reality of
the situation is that Ideal Health was just paying Donald
(21:47):
Trump to give speeches at conferences and let them use
his name for branding purposes. He had no actual hand
in the operations of the company, nor was any of
his money on the line in it. This is distinctly
not with the employees of Ideal Health were led to believe. Well,
I guess now, the Trump Network were led to believe.
Here's the Washington Post. Trump says he was not involved
with the company's operations, but statements by him and other
company representatives, as well as a plethora of marketing materials
(22:09):
circulating online, often gave the impression of a partnership that
was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity. In fact,
within a few years, the company fell on hard times,
leaving some of sales people in tough financial straits. It
ultimately was acquired by another firm, But when Trump joined
forces with Ideal Health, he was enthusiastic about his future.
When I did the Apprentice, it was a long shot.
This is not a long shot. Trump told a Trump
(22:30):
Network convention of at least five thousand people in Miami
in two thousand nine, his face projected onto a giant screen.
This is going to be something that's really amazing. It's
going to be our company as a group. So wow wow.
And then he's like, this is us. Everything is around,
this is the board. This is the board. We all
work together. You're working with Donald Trump, billionaire. Mm hmm. Anyway,
(22:51):
I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna leave. I don't know where
I am actually, but you're going to be rich. Congratulations.
There's more. Donald Trump signed a deal with a c N,
a telecommunications marketing firm that scammed people out of their
money by trying to convince them to sell video phones.
In the twenty teens. The president was sued for his
role in this last October. Complainants alleged that they were
(23:11):
once again led to believe Trump was actually involved in
the business and believed in it. He did not disclose
that he had been paid millions of dollars in order
to sell them on the company. A c N was
not the only company listed on this lawsuit. The lawsuit
complains that the Trump Foundation, which is ostensibly a charity,
was turned by the President and his family into essentially
a clearinghouse for scams. Here's the New York Times. Those
business entities were A c N, a telecommunications marketing firm
(23:33):
that paid Mr Trump billions of dollars to endorse its products,
the Trump Network of Vitamin Marketing Enterprise, and the Trump Institute,
which the suit set offered extravagantly priced multi day training
seminars Mr Trump's real estate secrets. That is a different
thing from Trump University, Trump Enterprise, Trump Institute Trump started
in the same time two thousand five. He had to
fake colleges running at the same time. And we've only
(23:56):
known about university. No one talks about the Trump Institute
of fakes to fake schools. Miles, Was it the same
thing to the exact same note, It was actually less
of a scam? How is it less of a cheaper?
So while Trump You was at least initially seated by
Trump's own money. The Trump Institute was a series of
(24:17):
expensive lectures run by Irene and Mike Millen, a couple
with a long history of shady get rich quick schemes.
Michael Sexton, CEO of Trump University, also helped to run
the Trump Institute. Trump's role in the Institute was basically
limited to licensing his name and claiming the business secrets
taught were all things he totally learned during his long
career as a businessman. A New York Times investigation later
found that huge trunks of the course books for the
(24:38):
institute were outright plagiarized from legitimate business books. Was at
least means there is a ghost of a chance that
someone got useful information. Now, the four plaintiffs, I do
want to read another quote from that Washington Post article
on the giant lawsuit against the Trump Foundation, because I
think it's interesting quote the four plaintiffs, who were identified
only with pseudonyms like Jane Doe to pick the Trump
organization as a racketeering enterprise that defrauded thousands of people
(25:01):
for years as the president turned from construction to licensing
his name for profit. The suit also names Donald Trump Jr.
Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump as defendants. Mm hmm. So
all of this is why in December of two thousand eighteen,
New York Judge Salient Scarpoola approved a deal to shut
down the Trump Foundation for good, citing its shocking pattern
(25:22):
of illegality. The judge ordered that the foundations remaining one
point seven million in assets be split up amongst legitimate charities,
which is where we stand now. There's still an investigation ongoing,
which means that the president and all of his kids
might get charged under the Rico statutes for racketeering like
which for all the talk about the Mueller investigation, which
(25:43):
I'm a fan of just because it put Paul Man
of Fort and Rogerstone and buying bars, and I think
that if that's all we get, but it looks like
what that might uncover is like no direct collusion with Russia,
but just like the president was racketeering enterprise the most
inept organized crime thing. It's uh yeah, I mean, I
think because also the charges that he's facing from the
(26:04):
Southern District of New York I think are far more
potentially scary than there's so many charges against him. It's
because they're not limited by like they're not handcuffed by
d o J policy or not indicating or whatever. They're like,
we're here to fucking burn this mother down. Yeah, I
didn't really I knew the Trump Foundation was a scam
because but I didn't know it was how he ran
(26:24):
multiple pyramid schemes, including to fake colleges the institute though
there's something just those two words together, two fake colleges.
I don't know why Trump University sounds more believable than
the Trump Trumps. It does sound scamming. I don't know why.
And I found this out near the end of my research.
I could have gone in more, but I think it's
just important to know that, like he had to fake
(26:45):
schools at the same time, to fake schools. Hey, look,
it's money, baby, the president of the United States. Everybody. Uh,
he's just more out there with it. That's all you's got. Scams.
It's just really really lame and predatory. Yeah. I hate
(27:05):
to say say this about Eric Prince, but at least
he ran a company that did a business. There was
at there was a product and yeah, he's like, look,
I'm selling chaos. But they made the wars work out
less well for everyone involved. But they did keep their
clients alive. Sure, that's technically all they were paid to do.
(27:26):
They followed through and that It's like, look, we might
fucking go outside the lines in a few more than
one way. We might make the whole war effort less
successful by murdering civilians, but the people were hired to
not get killed will stay alive. It's weird because I'm
almost like, yeah, Eric Prince building his fake warplane warms
my heart more than hearing about these confidence in intelligence.
(27:47):
This is just so lazy, such a lazy scam. Yeah,
tell desperate people they'll get rich if they give you money,
point blank. That's it. The end, Eric Prince scam is
spend years setting up a series of shell companies and
buying busin this is around the world to gradually assemble
a couple of warplanes because you just want to bomb
people that badly. Donald Trump scams. Yeah, let's start a
(28:07):
fake school and let's hire your criminals to teach. You.
Get a truck ram over here to be the top professor, Professor,
Professor Ram to truck into some much. It's just so
funny just to see those videos. Like if you have
those clips and just even the lower third for that'd
be like Professor Miller like, wow, that is okay, sure,
(28:31):
I gotta see his name was James Miller, James Harris.
I think, Miles. You want to plug a plug doble
in this the plug zone the pas Oh yeah, um
Belcon plug in surge protectors, oh man protect family because
I also have a two built in USB slots so
if you want to charge your phone and not worry
(28:52):
about any surges damaging your lifetow products, Belcon plug in Searcher.
You know I plugged in a Belkin search protector when
I was in Ireland once. It was one of those
adapt your things too. There's a huge spark shot Tride
the search protector instantly look like, uh, what's his name? Um,
let's see. Oh yeah. Just check out the Daily Zeitgeist
Daily News Politics Culture podcast that I co host with
(29:13):
Jack O'Brien every day on this network. Belcan is not
a supporter. Belkin is not a supporter. You know. That
was thirsty me. If Belkan does want to put some
money into this, I will claim that it was a
different search protector. Yeah, fantastic, fantastic. Um, that'd be a
good thing to talk about two because it's really to
power dynamic power dynamic anyway, speaking of power dynamics. Uh.
(29:34):
And also, you know, follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Miles of Gray. You can follow me on Twitter
at at at Bastards Pod. You can't follow me on
Instagram because it frightens and uh confuses me. Your posts
would be amazing, though, well I don't even know what
you do on it. You would you just show people
what you see through your eyes as you see Robert.
Know that's a bad idea spending this show. That is
(29:57):
a bad idea. Uh. You can find this show on
Twitter and Instagram, though at at Bastards pot. You can
find it on the internet at behind the Bastards dot com. Uh.
Download that Trump University playbook for yourself, give give some
of those seconds to read through. Don't start at the
beginning because it's kind of boring, but go go to
that sales section. Really pretty drinking in, pretty abusive. Yeah,
the tactics I'm curious to like. Actually, it's it's really
(30:20):
disturbing when you see it written now just sort of
just so plainly. Yeah, it's it's like a textbook written
by people who all hit their spouses. It's it's it's
like those same tactics though of Oh yeah, it's just abuse.
It's just about just making you feel out of touch
with your power or your own sense of agency. Yeah, yeah,
it's remarkable anyway. Uh go do something that makes you happy. Listen,
(30:43):
listen to a happy song. Uh, pet puppy. Uh, flip
a cop car, buy a T shirt on t public
Uh stickers, Uh cups, Uh crowbars they break police vehicle
windows pretty well, right, probably open the back, yeah, branded
behind the bastard's crowbar. I don't know. Uh, light a
(31:04):
courthouse on fire, whatever you want to do? Can we
can we ask people to do that. No, we can't.
Don't light a courthouse on fire. Hug a courthouse. Hug
a courthouse. Hug a courthouse. Hug your local courthouse today. Uh,
and go to Robert University, where I will teach you
my secrets for losing thousands of dollars in real estate. Uh,
(31:25):
hails are being honest. At least I'm being honest. If
you want to lose money. The Robert Evans way, you
know what, the episodes over. I I have a legend.
I'm I'm urging crimes, I'm selling nonsense. You gotta cut, Sophie,
You gotta just stop us.
Behind the Bastards News
Host
Robert Evans
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