Following the release of unsealed court documents related to the ongoing fraud and misrepresentation lawsuits brought against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's now-defunct Trump University real estate seminar business, Eric Trump joined Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum to defend the business' practices with more lies and misleading claims.
Trump appeared on the June 2 broadcast of Fox News' America's Newsroom to discuss several topics, among them the recently released documents pertaining to a pending class-action lawsuit against Trump U. Trump repeatedly pushed the already debunked claim that the business “had a 98 percent approval rating.” A New York Times investigation found, however, that the survey process for determining this approval rating was itself, in fact, “a central component of a business model that, according to lawsuits and investigators, deceived consumers.”
Trump also compared allegations of fraud against Trump University to student dissatisfaction at “Harvard” and “every major university around the world.” MacCallum did not push back on these claims, only speaking once after her initial question about Trump U. to note that, “any time you have a business, you're going to have some customers, and even some employees, who are disgruntled or dissatisfied.”
From the June 2 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
MARTHA MACCALLUM (host): Let's take a look at something else. This is a quote from somebody who worked for Trump University. I know this is a legal matter and it's being handled in the courts, but in terms of a political matter, take a look at this quote. Because I guarantee you, you are going to see and hear this on Hillary Clinton commercials going forward. “I believe Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.” This comes from a person who worked for Trump University.
ERIC TRUMP: You know, Trump University had a 98 percent approval rating. 98 percent, meaning at the end of taking the courses, people graded the university and they wrote a little report card about it. A 98 percent approval rating. We actually posted that on a website so, you have people that come back and buyers' remorse or whatever it is. You have people that come back after grading it an A-plus, I loved it, I learned so much for it, I brought this into my own personal life, it helped me develop as a person, it helped me start my first business, etcetera, etcetera. And then they come back and say that, so you know, I think we're going to win that case. I know we're going to win that case. We have every single one of those report cards, it just undermines quotes like that. I mean, the university did a great job. It did a great thing. It was highly, highly respected.
MACCALLUM: The good outweighs the bad essentially. That any time you have a business, you're going to have some customers, and even some employees, who are disgruntled or dissatisfied.
TRUMP: There's probably people that go to Harvard and say, listen I went to Harvard and I got a great education and I can't find a job, or I didn't become the success that I could have been. Sure, I mean you probably have that at every major university around the world. I mean, Trump University had a 98 percent approval rating, and I think that wins the day.