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How did Trump become such a great businessman?

Hypothesis: Everything Trump knows about business, he learned from Fred Flinstone pretending to be J.L. Gotrocks. And I think he thinks it will actually work as a presidential strategy.

Posted - August 22, 2016

Responses


  • 1615

    Give him credit why be so critical or do I sense some jealousy? 

      August 22, 2016 11:06 AM MDT
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  • 46117

    Who ever said he was besides HIM?

    He is a great manipulator.   As many in Big Business are. It is called robbing Peter to pay Paul.  And he ripped off thousands.   Trump STEAKS?  Oh that was sheer genius.  The Apprentice?  He is a scripted FOOL.

    And THIS?  How proud he must be.

    In blunt testimony revealed on Tuesday, former managers of Trump University, the for-profit school started by Donald J. Trump, portray it as an unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump’s insights.

    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.”

    For Mr. Trump, whose presidential campaign hinges on his reputation as a businessman, the newly unsealed documents offer an unflattering snapshot of his career since branching out, over the past decade, from building skyscrapers into endeavors that cashed in on his name to sell everything from water and steaks to ties and education.

    The release of the documents on Tuesday, under court order, was the latest turn in a federal lawsuit, filed in California by dissatisfied former Trump University students, that has bedeviled the businessman since 2010 and could trail him into the White House if he is elected president.

    Mr. Trump, who started the university in 2005, owned 93 percent of the now-defunct company. From the start, he acted as its chief promoter, rather than day-to-day manager, selling it as a tool of financial empowerment that would improve life for thousands of ordinary Americans. It would, he said, “teach you better than the best business school,” according to the transcript of a Web video.

    Within the documents made public Tuesday were internal employee guides encouraging customers with little money to pay for the tuition with their credit cards. “We teach the technique of using OPM ... Other People’s Money,” explained the internal instructions for salespeople. The documents pushed employees to exploit the emotions of potential customers. “Let them know you’ve found an answer to their problems,” read confidential instructions to salespeople.

    Continue reading the main story

    The most striking documents were written testimony from former employees of Trump University who said they had become disenchanted with the university’s tactics and culture. Corrine Sommer, an event manager, recounted how colleagues encouraged students to open up as many credit cards as possible to pay for classes that many of them could not afford.

      August 22, 2016 11:11 AM MDT
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  • 46117

    I sense some real clueless answer here.  Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make the asker jealous. 

    I am not jealous.  Read a book or two about how Trump "succeeded".  He is a lying snake that everyone who is in the know makes fun of.  Are we all jealous?

      August 22, 2016 11:13 AM MDT
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  • 1113

    LOL, I'll give Trump credit when he earns it. He's seriously not doing anything beyond what Fred Flinstone is doing in the clip: saying words that people want to hear.

      August 22, 2016 11:15 AM MDT
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  • 1113

    I was also thinking this Flintstones clip might constitute an entire semester's course load at Trump "University". 

      August 22, 2016 11:36 AM MDT
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  • 7919

    It probably has more to do with starting off with wealth and knowing how to manage it (offshore banking, LLCs, trusts, etc), paired with awesome bankruptcy laws in the US that protect separate ventures from going under when one fails, provided they're structured properly. 

      August 22, 2016 12:13 PM MDT
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  • 6988

     Well, his father's name WAS Fred.

      August 22, 2016 2:30 PM MDT
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  • 1113

    :O 

      August 22, 2016 2:32 PM MDT
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  • 1615

    What job did the Clintons have that made so much money after they stole from the White House and he was impeached?

      August 23, 2016 8:18 AM MDT
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