Patton: We Are All Students At Trump U.

(Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

Donald Trump is being sued for fraud in two class action suits filed by former students and by the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The case is being heard by U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Curiel was born in the state of Indiana to parents who legally immigrated to the United States from Mexico.

Trump has accused Judge Curiel of bias based on his Mexican heritage, even though Curiel was born and lived his entire life in the United States. We are a nation of immigrants. Many of us have relatives who came to the United States, but, nevertheless, we give our first allegiance to America.

Contradicting Trump's charge of bias, Curiel ruled in Trump's favor by allowing the case to be continued after the presidential election next November, so that it didn't become a distraction. In addition, however, Curiel allowed the release of a 400-page playbook used at Trump University. That proved to be the opening of Pandora's Box as many disturbing and unpleasant things emerged.

"One sales manager for Trump University, Ronald Schnackenberg, recounted how he was reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class, despite his conclusion that it would endanger their economic future. He watched with disgust, he said, as a fellow Trump University salesman persuaded the couple to purchase the class anyway.

"I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme," Mr. Schnackenberg wrote in his testimony, "and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money." (Michael Barbaro & Steve Eder, New York Times, 5/31/16).

"Jason Nicholas, another witness for the plaintiffs who worked as a sales associate for five months in 2007, also said he was appalled by what went on at the university.

"They were unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men,'" he wrote . "They were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had little or no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a facade, a total lie." (Jacob Gershman, The Wall Street Journal, 6/1/2016)

"Elsewhere in the playbooks, Trump team members were advised 'close the deal' after having one-on-one sessions with potential students and to push Trump University's most expensive package - Gold Elite for $34,995 - when feasible. 'If they can afford the gold elite don't allow them to think about doing anything besides the gold elite.'" (Julie Pace, Jill Colvin & Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press, 6/1/2016)

How are these techniques used to separate students from their money employed to get us to vote for Trump?

"Grand promises. Boundless boasts. Absolute faith in the man behind it all. The strategies that Donald Trump's now-defunct educational company used to woo customers have plenty of echoes of the presumptive nominee's current pitch to voters, based on newly disclosed court documents about Trump University." (Julie Pace, Jill Colvin, & Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press, 6/1/2016.)

The playbook advises that people make decisions emotionally and irrationally and then concoct logical reasons afterwards. "Don't ask people what they THINK about something you've said. Instead, always ask them how they FEEL about it. People buy emotionally and justify it logically." (Chris Isidore & Jean Sahadi, CNN Money, 6/1/2016).

So, some HATE Barack Obama because they say "he's weak" (but really because they're not used to an African-American president), and some HATE Hillary Clinton because she's "not trustworthy" (but really because she's smart, tough, self-confident, articulate. and assertive, characteristics that don't match their idea of what a woman should be.)

Trump University's playbook "contains 'Sales Wisdoms' that appear to echo Trump's speaking strategy at his rallies at which he rails about the nation's problems - from immigration to trade deals to the death of the American dream - without offering much in the way of specific solutions." (Julie Pace, Jill Colvin, & Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press, 6/1/2016).

So Trump talks about building a wall to stop illegal immigrants. That makes some people feel good, but he never provides details. Or Trump talks about defeating ISIS .That makes people feel good, but he never provides details. Or he talks about creating jobs That make people feel good, but he never provides details. Or Trump talks about "America winning, winning, winning", but he never provides details.

Trump University advises, "If they complain about the price," one playbook read. "Remind them that Trump is the BEST!" Hmm, where have I heard that before?" (Michael Cohen, Boston Globe, 6/3/12016). Trump endlessly boasts about himself.

Cohen concludes his column with the following thought. "The real surprise is not that Trump is practiced in the art of deception and manipulation. It's that so many people keep falling for it."

Gary Patton is the author of two books, Selling Mt. Washington, a political satire, and Outtastatahs: Newcomers' Adventures in New Hampshire, a work of regional humor.