All Sins Trump: Conman Edition - Election Day Minus 1

So far we've explored these Trump sins:

• Trump's a birther
• Trump's in favor of war crimes
• Trump's a tax-evader 
• Trump's bragging about his sexual assaults (NSFW) 
• Trump's rampant misogyny 
• Trump's dishonesty

Today, we'll be looking at some of the more rancid parts of Trump's yuge empire: his scams.

Let's look at the big one: Trump University.

Here, read this from The Atlantic:

Trump University, the real estate training program offered in cities across the country, hasn’t offered a course in several years, but the school that Donald Trump modestly named after himself is still making plenty of news. Trump University is the target of two major lawsuits, a $40 million fraud action brought by New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, and a class-action lawsuit in California. Both suits charge that Trump University promised to make students rich on real-estate deals but instead steered them into costly and mostly useless seminars.

The National Review (THE NATIONAL REVIEW!!) is a little less diplomatic:

First thing first, Trump University was never a university. When the “school” was established in 2005, the New York State Education Department warned that it was in violation of state law for operating without a NYSED license. Trump ignored the warnings. (The institution is now called, ahem, “Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.”) Cue lawsuits.

Trump University is currently the defendant in three lawsuits — two class-action lawsuits filed in California, and one filed in New York by then-attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who told CNN’s New Day in 2013: “We started looking at Trump University and discovered that it was a classic bait-and-switch scheme. It was a scam, starting with the fact that it was not a university.”

Trump U “students” say the same. In his affidavit, Richard Hewson reported that he and his wife “concluded that we had paid over $20,000 for nothing, based on our belief in Donald Trump and the promises made at the [organization’s] free seminar and three-day workshop.” But “the whole thing was a scam.”

The very very conservative National Review says that Trump "University" is a bait-and-switch scam.

And they quote the New York State lawsuit:

The free seminars were the first step in a bait and switch to induce prospective students to enroll in increasingly expensive seminars starting with the three-day $1495 seminar and ultimately one of respondents’ advanced seminars such as the “Gold Elite” program costing $35,000.

At the “free” 90-minute introductory seminars to which Trump University advertisements and solicitations invited prospective students, Trump University instructors engaged in a methodical, systematic series of misrepresentations designed to convince students to sign up for the Trump University three-day seminar at a cost of $1495.

And so on. The purpose of the "University" was to sell exceedingly more expensive (and useless) seminars to people who couldn't afford them.  From The New Yorker:

If anyone still has any doubt about the troubling nature of Donald Trump’s record, he or she should be obliged to read the affidavit of Ronald Schnackenberg, a former salesman for Trump University. Schnackenberg’s testimony was one of the documents unsealed by a judge in the class-action suit, which was brought in California by some of Trump University’s disgruntled former attendees.

Schnackenberg, who worked in Trump’s office at 40 Wall Street, testified that “while Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could.” The affidavit concludes, “Based upon my personal experience and employment, I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”

This is the man Rudy Giuliani says is a "genius."  This is the man the GOP has chosen to be their presidential candidate.  This is the man who calls his opponent "crooked."

Then there's the Trump Foundation.  Here's what Forbes Magazine had to say about the Foundation:

“I give a lot of money away,” Trump proclaimed during his 2015 inaugural campaign speech at Manhattan’s Trump Tower. The businessman showed off a net worth summary – and provided a list of donations to Associated Press – that illustrated that he donated $102 million in cash and land over five years.

A Washington Post investigation revealed that none of the $102 million was Trump’s money – and the paper could only confirm one cash donation made by Trump between 2008 and May 2016 after contacting over 400 charities. Trump’s foundation also reportedly paid for obligations owed by his businesses, even though Trump has not kicked in a cent to his namesake nonprofit since 2008. In October, the foundation was served with a cease-and-desist order from the New York Attorney General for not having the proper registration in the state. 

We all know the story here.  Trump got other people to give their money to the foundation.  He then used part of money (which wasn't his, remember) to settle some legal affairs and to buy some art for (and of) himself.

How is that not another Trump scam?

So here's my last question to my Senator, Pat Toomey.  Pat, you're a business guy.  President of the Club for Growth and all that.  Does any of the above sit well with you?  How much money did Trump scam out of "the elderly and uneducated"?  Were any of them Pennsylvania residents (i.e. your constituents)?  Is this enough for you to finally say, "Nope.  I just can't vote for this man, Donald Trump.  He's a scam artist."??

IF NOT, WHY THE HECK NOT??

The fact that you can't bring yourself to say that you won't vote for this racist, tax evading conman who's in favor of war crimes is truly disappointing - on too many levels to list.