- Donald Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits over 3 decades.
- Trump made derogatory comments about a judge presiding over cases against him, citing the judge's Mexican heritage as a reason for bias.
- The judge is overseeing cases involving Trump University, which has been accused of being a scam.
- Documents released this week reveal that Trump University used deceptive sales tactics and targeted vulnerable individuals.
- The playbooks for Trump University sales staff included instructions on how to deal with attorney general inquiries and advised not to show personal information without a warrant.
- Trump has denied the claims and his attorneys have gathered statements from satisfied customers.

- Donald Trump denies the claims in the lawsuit against Trump University
- Trump claims that 98% of people who took the courses approved of them
- However, plaintiffs argue that the high approval ratings were due to non-anonymous surveys and expectations of future benefits
- Former students express regret and feeling ripped off by Trump University
- Trump's campaign strategy focuses on selling feelings rather than concrete solutions
- The lesson from Trump University is that Trump knows how to make people feel jacked up and ready to support him, even if they can't point to specific benefits or solutions
- The quote from Trump University's homepage about taking risks is relevant to those planning to vote for Trump in November.

Trump University recently settled its lawsuits for $25 million; here's some background.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Let us dive right in this week with the 2016 election, or as it's increasingly known, America's fucktastic Cirque du Dismay.

Now, the big news this week surrounded Donald Trump, a punchline that is quickly becoming a nightmare.

Like if you said, take my wife please, and then she was actually kidnapped by ISIS.

Now, this week revealed a somewhat startling statistic.

A new report from USA today found Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits over 3 decades.

That is unprecedented for a presidential nominee.

In fact, if each lawsuit involving Trump were the basis of an episode of Law & Order.

They could sustain all 456 episodes of the original, all 389 episodes of Law & Order SVU, all 195 episodes of Law & Order Criminal Intent, and all 22 episodes of Law & Order L.A., as well as every episode of The Practice, Ally McBeal, LA Law, Boston Legal, Night Court, The Good Wife, Matlock, Jag, Perry Mason, Judging Amy, The Guardian, The Public Defender, Owen Marshall, Counselor at law, Harry's law, courthouse, suits, family law, sweet justice, 1971's the DA, 2004's the DA, reasonable doubts, damages, shark, the defenders, the paper chase, head cases, Judd for the defense, and all 3 episodes of NBC's First Years.

And at that point, you're still missing 1 lawsuit.

But you've also basically run out of television shows about lawyers, meaning Trump's lawsuits exceed the limits of the fucking genre.

Well, Lately, there have been some new developments with Trump-related litigation, after he complained about a judge presiding over 2 particular cases against him.

I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump.

AUDIENCE GROANS And he is not doing the right thing.

The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that's fine.

Donald Trump thinks it's fine for you to be a human being existing on this planet.

Now, for the record, the judge in question was born in Indiana, But that's not the point, because as he later clarified, it was the judge's Mexican heritage that made him unfit to judge Trump.

You're invoking his race when talking about whether or not he can do his job.

I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico.

And he's very proud of it, as I am where I come from.

Because you look like you came out of a clogged drain at the Wonka factory.

But think about what he's implying there.

The judge is unfit to do his job because of his ethnic background.

And just this morning, Trump took it a step further.

You've had, been very tough on temporary Muslim immigration ban.

If you were a Muslim judge, would you also feel like they wouldn't be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours?

that was the dictionary definition of bigotry, except after this campaign, the definition of bigotry might just become, see Trump, comma, Donald.

Now, as it happens, the judge he initially insulted is overseeing cases involving the controversial Trump University, And he ordered a cache of documents to be released this week.

Which was very exciting to us, because we actually looked into his university when we did our big piece on Trump back in February.

And it wound up on this very long list of awful Donald Trump stories that we literally didn't have time to delve into, even in a 22-minute piece.

But, once we started reading through these new documents, we figured, oh, fuck it, let's take some time to talk about it now.

Because Trump University is kind of amazing.

Back when it opened, Trump made some big claims.

If you don't learn from the people that we're going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand-picked by me, then you're just not gonna make it in terms of the world of success.

It sounds like what Donald Trump calls his bedroom.

Please enjoy a mint and a non-disclosure agreement.

Now, unfortunately, Trump University ran into problems in several states, starting with the name itself.

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 University wasn't even a university.

Which is enough to make you wonder what the fuck was in Trump Steaks?

Because remember how he had hand-picked instructors?

Well, according to his own depositions, he did not personally select instructors for live seminars and was unable to recall the names of key faculty members.

And it's probably good that he didn't handpick them himself.

Anything Trump's tiny fingers touch turn into an ex-wife or an abandoned casino.

According to the sworn testimony by several former employees, many instructors and mentors had no experience buying or selling real estate.

In fact, 1 had worked as a salesman for Lowe's, and another had been manager for Buffalo Wild Wings, or as I call it, B-dubs-dubs.

And even a former member of Trump's own sales staff testified that it was, among other things, a joke, a facade, and was just selling false hopes and lies.

And to be fair, every university has sold some of its students false hopes and lies.

It's just most of the time, they call it a theater arts degree.

Now, these new documents also include several revealing playbooks of sales tactics.

For instance, The room temperature was to be no more than 68 degrees, which is partly to keep students alert, and partly because Professor Wild Wings doesn't want the ranch sauce getting all gamey.

-♪ Laugh track playing ♪ There are also instructions on how to sell and upsell students, or as the playbooks call them, buyers, on expensive courses with typo-riddled tips like, if a client is adamant about knowing the price, simply say our course range anywhere from $29 to $35,000.

And if prospects seemed at all wary, there was advice for dealing with that.

You must be very aggressive, 1 passage from the

If they complain about the price, remind them that Trump is the best.

♪ You might laugh, but That is the same technique that Trump has been using to run for president, and apparently, it fucking works.

-♪ ♪ -♪ These playbooks are rife with sleazy salesmanship.

For instance, employees were told to substitute the words, thank you, with congratulations, so that the potential customer ends up thanking you.

If I started this show every week with, welcome to last week tonight, congratulations on joining us, you would quite rightly turn it off.

And I know what you're thinking, What about people who simply didn't have the money?

Trump U didn't really have a problem with that.

A set of playbooks for the sales team coached them on how to market the courses even to single mothers with 3 children who, quote, may need money for food.

Money, instructed the playbook, is never a reason for not enrolling in Trump University.

If they really believe in you and your product, they will find the money.

You are not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse.

Lack of money is not an excuse, is not what single parents need to hear.

It's what Donald Trump needs to hear when a fifth company of his inevitably files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

And as you might expect, some of the customers on the other end of that hard sell wound up feeling duped, like Carmen Mendez, who put a $35,000 course on her credit cards and was left disappointed.

I thought that I'm going to be a millionaire.

Because Donald Trump is a millionaire, and they were offering a course for people to get rich.

This is the closest Mendez got to Trump during the course.

Because another former student said, we were told that we would get to have our pictures taken with Donald Trump, it ended up being a cardboard cutout of Mr.

Which is actually a perfect metaphor for Trump University.

You're expecting the real thing, but in the end, all you get is a tacky two-dimensional facade with Donald Trump's face slapped on it.

But perhaps the most suspicious thing of all is that the playbooks even include specific instructions on what to do if an attorney general shows up.

And believe it or not, the answer is not kick over a table as a distraction and get the fuck out of there.

No, apparently you contact April immediately.

And it also reminds you, you do not have to show them any personal information unless they have a warrant.

Which is suspicious advice for a university employee.

I'm pretty sure Harvard doesn't tell its new professors, welcome, here's a gun and a cyanide capsule in case the fuzz show up.

Donald Trump has broadly denied the claims in the lawsuit, and his attorneys have gathered statements from satisfied customers.

In fact, to hear Trump tell it, the school was very good value.

98% of the people that took the courses, we have report cards from everybody, they report carded on the course.

Ninety-eight percent of the people that took the courses, 98% approved the courses, they thought they were terrific.

Okay, first, there is something instantly fishy about 98%.

The only things that have that level of unanimous approval are dictators, Pixar movies, and Neapolitan ice cream.

Yeah, it's got chocolate for the chocoholics, vanilla for the borings, and strawberry for the perverts.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Laughter ♪ In fact, according to plaintiffs, The reason those numbers are so high is because the surveys were not anonymous and were filled out when participants were still expecting to receive future benefits from the program, such as assistance or mentoring from the instructor they were evaluating.

So, listen to why 1 former student gave it a good review that he now regrets.

I really look at it like this, is, is, say you go to a really nice restaurant, and, really expensive restaurant, you eat this really gorgeous dinner, and the chef comes out near the end of your meal and asks you how you liked the meal.

But then you, by the time you go home, you realize that, you've gotten food poisoning and you're really, really sick.

What do you think about Trump University?

I just felt like I was just duped and poisoned and ripped off.

The only thing worse than that is having that same feeling and then realizing, oh shit, he's got 3 years, 364 days left in his first term.

But perhaps the most valuable lesson to come out of Trump University is the 1 that it is currently giving all of us in what's behind Trump's campaign strategy.

Because the playbook tells his salespeople, you don't sell products, benefits, or solutions, you sell feelings.

Crowds at a Trump rally may not be able to point to a concrete benefit or solution he offers, but they know how he makes them feel.

And that is jacked up and ready to boo any name that sounds vaguely Latino.

So, if you are planning to vote for Trump in November, I'd like to direct you to a quote from the top of Trump University's old homepage.

Take the risk, but before you do, learn what you're getting yourself into.

Donald, I could not have said it better myself.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ Let us dive right in this week with the 2016 election, or as it's increasingly known, America's fucktastic Cirque du Dismay. Now, the big news this week surrounded Donald Trump, a punchline that is quickly becoming a nightmare. Like if you said, take my wife please, and then she was actually kidnapped by ISIS. Now, this week revealed a somewhat startling statistic.

Speaker 1: A new report from USA today found Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits over 3 decades.

Speaker 0: 3,500 lawsuits? That is unprecedented for a presidential nominee. In fact, if each lawsuit involving Trump were the basis of an episode of Law & Order. They could sustain all 456 episodes of the original, all 389 episodes of Law & Order SVU, all 195 episodes of Law & Order Criminal Intent, and all 22 episodes of Law & Order L.A., as well as every episode of The Practice, Ally McBeal, LA Law, Boston Legal, Night Court, The Good Wife, Matlock, Jag, Perry Mason, Judging Amy, The Guardian, The Public Defender, Owen Marshall, Counselor at law, Harry's law, courthouse, suits, family law, sweet justice, 1971's the DA, 2004's the DA, reasonable doubts, damages, shark, the defenders, the paper chase, head cases, Judd for the defense, and all 3 episodes of NBC's First Years. And at that point, you're still missing 1 lawsuit.

But you've also basically run out of television shows about lawyers, meaning Trump's lawsuits exceed the limits of the fucking genre. Well, Lately, there have been some new developments with Trump-related litigation, after he complained about a judge presiding over 2 particular cases against him.

Speaker 2: I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. AUDIENCE GROANS And he is not doing the right thing.

The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that's fine.

Speaker 0: Oh, you do, do you? You think that's fine? Great news, people of Mexican descent. Donald Trump thinks it's fine for you to be a human being existing on this planet. Now, for the record, the judge in question was born in Indiana, But that's not the point, because as he later clarified, it was the judge's Mexican heritage that made him unfit to judge Trump.

Speaker 3: You're invoking his race when talking about whether or not he can do his job.

Speaker 2: I'm building a wall, okay? I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico's fine. There's nothing...

Speaker 3: But he's American. He's an American.

Speaker 2: He's of Mexican heritage. And he's very proud of it, as I am where I come from.

Speaker 0: Wait. Where exactly are you from? Because you look like you came out of a clogged drain at the Wonka factory. And you know what? That's great.

I think that's fine. But think about what he's implying there. The judge is unfit to do his job because of his ethnic background. And just this morning, Trump took it a step further.

Speaker 4: What if he was a Muslim, though? You've had, been very tough on temporary Muslim immigration ban. If you were a Muslim judge, would you also feel like they wouldn't be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours?

Speaker 2: It's possible, yes. Yeah. That would be possible, Absolutely. I would say

Speaker 0: that was the dictionary definition of bigotry, except after this campaign, the definition of bigotry might just become, see Trump, comma, Donald. Now, as it happens, the judge he initially insulted is overseeing cases involving the controversial Trump University, And he ordered a cache of documents to be released this week. Which was very exciting to us, because we actually looked into his university when we did our big piece on Trump back in February. And it wound up on this very long list of awful Donald Trump stories that we literally didn't have time to delve into, even in a 22-minute piece. But, once we started reading through these new documents, we figured, oh, fuck it, let's take some time to talk about it now.

Because Trump University is kind of amazing. Back when it opened, Trump made some big claims.

Speaker 2: At Trump University, we teach success. That's what it's all about. Success. It's going to happen to you. If you don't learn from the people that we're going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand-picked by me, then you're just not gonna make it in terms of the world of success.

Speaker 0: -...the world of success? It sounds like what Donald Trump calls his bedroom. Welcome to the world of success. Please enjoy a mint and a non-disclosure agreement. Now, unfortunately, Trump University ran into problems in several states, starting with the name itself.

Speaker 3: 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.

Speaker 0: Holy shit! Trump University wasn't even a university. Which is enough to make you wonder what the fuck was in Trump Steaks? Oh, God, it was possum, wasn't it? It was possum, you monsters!

But the name was just the beginning. Because remember how he had hand-picked instructors? Well, according to his own depositions, he did not personally select instructors for live seminars and was unable to recall the names of key faculty members. And it's probably good that he didn't handpick them himself. That would be dangerous.

Anything Trump's tiny fingers touch turn into an ex-wife or an abandoned casino. And it doesn't stop there. According to the sworn testimony by several former employees, many instructors and mentors had no experience buying or selling real estate. In fact, 1 had worked as a salesman for Lowe's, and another had been manager for Buffalo Wild Wings, or as I call it, B-dubs-dubs. And even a former member of Trump's own sales staff testified that it was, among other things, a joke, a facade, and was just selling false hopes and lies.

And to be fair, every university has sold some of its students false hopes and lies. It's just most of the time, they call it a theater arts degree. Now, these new documents also include several revealing playbooks of sales tactics. For instance, The room temperature was to be no more than 68 degrees, which is partly to keep students alert, and partly because Professor Wild Wings doesn't want the ranch sauce getting all gamey. -♪ Gamey.

-♪ Laugh track playing ♪ There are also instructions on how to sell and upsell students, or as the playbooks call them, buyers, on expensive courses with typo-riddled tips like, if a client is adamant about knowing the price, simply say our course range anywhere from $29 to $35,000. And if prospects seemed at all wary, there was advice for dealing with that. You must be very aggressive, 1 passage from the

Speaker 4: playbook reads. If they complain about the price, remind them that Trump is the best.

Speaker 0: -♪

Speaker 2: 00000 ♪ -♪ 0000000

Speaker 0: ♪ You might laugh, but That is the same technique that Trump has been using to run for president, and apparently, it fucking works. -♪ ♪ -♪ These playbooks are rife with sleazy salesmanship. For instance, employees were told to substitute the words, thank you, with congratulations, so that the potential customer ends up thanking you. Which is pretty obnoxious. If I started this show every week with, welcome to last week tonight, congratulations on joining us, you would quite rightly turn it off.

And I know what you're thinking, What about people who simply didn't have the money? Trump U didn't really have a problem with that.

Speaker 5: A set of playbooks for the sales team coached them on how to market the courses even to single mothers with 3 children who, quote, may need money for food. Money, instructed the playbook, is never a reason for not enrolling in Trump University. If they really believe in you and your product, they will find the money. You are not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse.

Speaker 0: Lack of money is not an excuse, is not what single parents need to hear. It's what Donald Trump needs to hear when a fifth company of his inevitably files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. And as you might expect, some of the customers on the other end of that hard sell wound up feeling duped, like Carmen Mendez, who put a $35,000 course on her credit cards and was left disappointed.

Speaker 1: I thought that I'm going to be a millionaire. Because Donald Trump is a millionaire, and they were offering a course for people to get rich.

Speaker 4: This is the closest Mendez got to Trump during the course. A picture

Speaker 6: of her with a picture of Donald Trump.

Speaker 0: Oh, that's not a one-off. Because another former student said, we were told that we would get to have our pictures taken with Donald Trump, it ended up being a cardboard cutout of Mr. Trump. Which is actually a perfect metaphor for Trump University. You're expecting the real thing, but in the end, all you get is a tacky two-dimensional facade with Donald Trump's face slapped on it.

But perhaps the most suspicious thing of all is that the playbooks even include specific instructions on what to do if an attorney general shows up. And believe it or not, the answer is not kick over a table as a distraction and get the fuck out of there. No, apparently you contact April immediately. And it also reminds you, you do not have to show them any personal information unless they have a warrant. Which is suspicious advice for a university employee.

I'm pretty sure Harvard doesn't tell its new professors, welcome, here's a gun and a cyanide capsule in case the fuzz show up. Don't let them take you alive! Now, Donald Trump... Donald Trump has broadly denied the claims in the lawsuit, and his attorneys have gathered statements from satisfied customers. In fact, to hear Trump tell it, the school was very good value.

Speaker 2: 98% of the people that took the courses, we have report cards from everybody, they report carded on the course. Ninety-eight percent of the people that took the courses, 98% approved the courses, they thought they were terrific.

Speaker 0: Okay, first, there is something instantly fishy about 98%. The only things that have that level of unanimous approval are dictators, Pixar movies, and Neapolitan ice cream. Yeah, it's got chocolate for the chocoholics, vanilla for the borings, and strawberry for the perverts. -♪ ♪ -♪ Laughter ♪ In fact, according to plaintiffs, The reason those numbers are so high is because the surveys were not anonymous and were filled out when participants were still expecting to receive future benefits from the program, such as assistance or mentoring from the instructor they were evaluating. So, listen to why 1 former student gave it a good review that he now regrets.

Speaker 7: I really look at it like this, is, is, say you go to a really nice restaurant, and, really expensive restaurant, you eat this really gorgeous dinner, and the chef comes out near the end of your meal and asks you how you liked the meal. And you really, really loved it. But then you, by the time you go home, you realize that, you've gotten food poisoning and you're really, really sick.

Speaker 3: What do you think about Trump University?

Speaker 7: I felt like I'd been poisoned. I just felt like I was just duped and poisoned and ripped off.

Speaker 0: The only thing worse than that is having that same feeling and then realizing, oh shit, he's got 3 years, 364 days left in his first term. But perhaps the most valuable lesson to come out of Trump University is the 1 that it is currently giving all of us in what's behind Trump's campaign strategy. Because the playbook tells his salespeople, you don't sell products, benefits, or solutions, you sell feelings. And that is what is happening now. Crowds at a Trump rally may not be able to point to a concrete benefit or solution he offers, but they know how he makes them feel.

And that is jacked up and ready to boo any name that sounds vaguely Latino. So, if you are planning to vote for Trump in November, I'd like to direct you to a quote from the top of Trump University's old homepage. Take the risk, but before you do, learn what you're getting yourself into. Donald, I could not have said it better myself. So, thank you.

Or should I say, congratulations.

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Trump University: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)