Donald Trump doesn’t take lawsuits lying down.
He rants. Standing up, presumably.
I informed you the other day that New York State’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has brought a civil lawsuit against “Trump University,” The Donald’s, um, higher? lower? education, um, organization?
Anyway, it’s a good thing the Daily News followed up with The Donald’s reaction to the lawsuit — Donald Trump wigs out over ‘university’ fraud claims, says Obama is behind suit – NY Daily News. — because — as you probably know — the New York Times web site is down, thanks to Syrian hackers. (Syrian hackers? Did I write that? Yeah, apparently there’s a Syrian hacker consortium. Who knew?) And even before I learned about the Syrians I’d decided that the sober editorial the Times printed about Trump University was too … sober. And that you all deserved the Daily News’ treatment of the Trump reaction. Which is utterly entertaining and utterly crazy.
Somehow the Daily News got hold of Trump’s deposition transcript (probably from one of the “students” who sued and deposed him):
Amid the accusations, the Daily News obtained a deposition that Trump gave last year in which he acknowledged that he didn’t know some key operational details of the school, which promised easy riches through his real estate techniques.
“Which of your real estate secrets were taught as part of the mentorship?” Trump was asked in the deposition, taken in connection with a federal lawsuit filed by several former students against Trump U.
“You’d have to ask Mr. Sexton. He has all that information,” Trump answered, referring to Michael Sexton, who was Trump U’s president.
In the deposition, Trump also could not detail what students received in return for paying $1,500 in the school’s apprenticeship program or what they got in the more expensive “Gold Elite” program. Nor could he recall his “10 steps for closing any real estate deal.”
“It’s been a long time ago,” he said.
That may be the funniest line in the whole piece.
The deposition continues:
“I went to the Wharton School of Finance,” Trump said in the deposition, referring to the University of Pennsylvania’s business school. “I know a lot about education.”
Attending Trump U, he said, was “no different than going to Harvard.”
“They say go to Harvard, great school, blah, blah, blah, and I think this is — except I think we have a higher approval rating than Harvard if you want to know the truth.”
No, maybe those are the funniest lines in the whole piece.
(BTW, has anyone attempted to diagnose Trump? Because he’s demonstrating a clutch of psychopathologies, in which paranoia, with its component grandiosity, is dominant.)