The Never-Ending Failures Of Donald Trump
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has not hesitated in touting his success as a businessman as one of his primary qualifications for the U.S presidency. He continues to do so in spite of his numerous failed business ventures, bankruptcies and lawsuits.
Some of those lawsuits relate to the now defunctTrump University, which was not in fact a university, but was a program that promised participants real estate success. But former students have since filed lawsuits alleging fraudulent and deceptive conduct that led them to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for which, they say, they saw little in return. Trump University offered programs that ranged from “one year apprenticeships” at a cost of $1,495 to the most expensive Gold Elite Program at $35,000. Though Trump University existed for only five years, from 2005 to 2010, Trump is still dealing with the fallout.
Two former students have brought lawsuits in California, and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also filed suit in 2013, calling it a scam. Now Trump has decided to defend himself by going after the judge in his case.
Trump Claims ‘Mexican’ Judge Is Biased Against Him
At a recent rally in San Diego, Trump asked the crowd if he should address one of the suits in the California courts. Trump called the judge presiding over the case a hater, and said he would talk about the case and the judge briefly:
“I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd of several thousand booed. “He is not doing the right thing. And I figure, what the hell? Why not talk about it for two minutes?”
Trump then went on to discuss the case and criticize Curiel for more than twelve minutes. The receptive audience booed the judge in response to the comment and, if emphasizing the judge’s name was too subtle a dog whistle, Trump made things very clear:
“happens to be, we believe Mexican, which is great. I think that’s fine,”
Not that it should matter, but NBC News also notes that Judge Curiel is, in fact, from East Chicago, Indiana. During the speech, Trump also referred to Trump University as “successful.” He quickly mentioned that they changed the name of Trump University, though oddly leaves out the fact that they were forced to do so after the New York education department determined the use of “university” was misleading.
The San Diego rally wasn’t the first time that Trump claimed that Curiel’s immigrant heritage biased him. In February of 2016, he made a similar suggestion, he explained his reasoning in an interview with Fox News Sunday:
“I think it has to do perhaps with the fact that I’m very, very strong on the border, very, very strong at the border, and he has been extremely hostile to me.”
While the claim that being a successful businessman qualifies him for the presidency is questionable on its face, even a small bit of digging into the detail of Trump’s record in business makes even that claim seem pretty flimsy
