Scam Alert

If there was money to be made in a scam, Donald J. Trump was first in line. Trump Casinos, Trump Vodka, and Trump Steaks fleeced suckers and disappeared into bankruptcy. Donnie could not get away with Trump University though. He paid out $25 million to 6,000 “students”.

At its launch event in 2005, Trump told reporters that he hoped to create a “legacy as an educator” by “imparting lots of knowledge” through his program. Harvard took “Veritas” (“Truth”) as its motto. Yale used “Lux et Veritas” (“Light and Truth”). “Imparting lots of knowledge” was just as classy.

Standard tuition was $5,000 for an afternoon seminar at a hotel ballroom. In true Trumpian fashion, salespeople tried to upsell students the “Trump Elite Packages,” ranging from the Bronze Elite Package for $9,995 up to the Gold Elite Package for $34,995. There were warning signs. Students reported,“Requesting that we raise the limits on our credit cards at lunch seemed a little transparent.”

Trump University’s proud graduates did not magically transform into real estate moguls with “smoking hot” trophy wives. Hard to believe.

If real estate in the early 2000s was the growth field, Internet Influencing might be “it” for the 2020s. Harvard Business Review valued the global influencer market at $16.4 billion last year, suggesting more industry growth in 2023 as businesses devote larger shares of their marketing budgets to influencer partnerships.

Starting next year, a university in Ireland (presumably not affiliated with Donald Trump, but who knows?) will offer a B.A. in Influencing. Courses include crisis management, public relations, celebrity studies, social psychology and video and audio editing. That certainly beats the crap out of Calculus or Medieval Poetry.

Today’s youth are prime customers for this “field of study”. Post-covid, everybody wants to work remotely; everyone wants to set their own schedule.” The cool thing about “influencing” is that you would be on your laptop all day anyway, so why not make millions like teh Kardashians while you are at it?

A degree in Influencing will likely be as useful as a degree in Real Estate from Trump U. Buyer beware.

By Ed Dufton