In July, 2007, a partnership between the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Trump University was formed. It promoted courses like “How to Start a Business on a Shoestring Budget.” In the SBA’s press release, it was described as:
“Designed to help entrepreneurs understand how to take their small business ideas to market despite limited outside resources.”
Trump University operated between 2005-2010, but soon faced complaints, and several lawsuits.
In fact, a New York court forced Trump University to rename itself the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative since it was too misleading to call the operation an institute of learning.
The controversy that has attracted the most headlines is the $40 million lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in 2013.
Emails obtained by Buzzfeed News show that days after the announcement of the lawsuit, SBA officials sought to have the courses removed from their site.
It’s understandable why any federal agency wouldn’t want to be associated with fraud, but puzzling how the courses could have remained on SBA’s site after the school received so many complaints.
Trump University was never accredited, it awarded no degrees, and has been described as a “bait-and-switch” operation.
It’s also very questionable how the association between Trump University and SBA was quietly erased.
An email conversation started by Jerry Fernandez, an instructional designer at the SBA, has resurfaced, with the following request,
“When you have a moment, please check to see that the Trump course (?) is not on our site. If it is, let me know, and I’ll work to get it removed.”
Jack Bienko, now the Director for Entrepreneurship Education, responded.
“In the category of ‘don’t fall for partnerships too quickly’ NYS is now suing Trump Univ for their bogus educational courses (infomercials packaged as education). The former Trump U e-course should now be off our site.”
Ellen Thrasher, Director of Entrepreneurial Development, responded,
“In fact there is no longer a Trump University. Let’s remove soonest!!”
Which made Bienko respond jokingly,
“We’d hate to upset the Donald! :).”
An SBA spokesperson did not respond to Buzzfeed News’ request for comment.
As for the $40 million lawsuit, the New York State Supreme Court recently ruled for it to proceed to trial.
Trump won the right to argue his case before the Court of Appeals, but the case is unlikely to be heard until after the November elections.
Meanwhile, let’s hope SBA found other and better entities to help entrepreneurs understand how to take their small business ideas to market.
Watch Late Night with Seth Meyers explain the latest twists and turns around the lawsuit here:
Featured image screengrab from YouTube.
