Donald Trump failed to mention his defunct Trump University in a rant about colleges and President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme.
“Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats have just orchestrated another election-enhancing money grab, this time to the tune of $300,000,000,000—and just like I predicted, it’s coming right out of the pocket of the working-class Americans who are struggling the most!” Mr Trump thundered on his struggling social media platform Truth Social.
“Crippling inflation, unaffordable energy prices, and WAR—all things that should never have happened. But if that wasn’t enough, now Americans are bailing out College Administrators who fleeced students, and those who opted for Degrees there was no way they could afford. America is a nation in decline, and the cliff into oblivion is within sight. Stop voting for Democrats!”
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that “if you make under $125,000, you’re eligible for up to $10,000 in student loan debt relief”.
“If you received a Pell Grant while in college and make less than $125,000 a year, you are eligible for up to $20,000 in debt reduction,” the president tweeted.
“Trump University” started to trend on Twitter after Donald Trump Jr blasted the loan forgiveness programme.
The university was an unaccredited, for-profit business started by Mr Trump and was closed down in 2010, becoming embroiled in several probes into illegal practices as well as lawsuits from former students who said they were victims of fraud.
“Why is there so much student debt?” Mr Trump Jr tweeted. “Because leftwing universities keep on raising tuition while graduating kids with worthless degrees. That’s why any solution to student debt that doesn’t touch the billions of dollars sitting in the university endowments is an absolute scam!”
Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe said the programme was “good news for thousands of my students”.
“Yes because thousands of Harvard Law grads need hard-working blue-collar workers to help them pay off their loans for them. Insane and disgusting,” Mr Trump Jr responded.
He was quickly mocked by Twitter users.
“Donald Trump scammed 9,000 students out of $42 million in the illegal unlicensed ‘Trump University’ — tricking them into putting the ‘tuition’ on their credit cards. But sure, let’s hear from the Trumps and their cronies about universities and student debt,” Tristan Snell wrote. “Don Jr cries about colleges’ ‘worthless degrees’? Trump University was not a university or even a licensed school at all — but it made fake ‘diplomas’ for its students after they paid up to $35,000 a piece in ‘tuition.’”
“And then Trump settled the lawsuit for 25 million dollars, making a huge profit from his blatant fraud. Don’t forget that part,” another user responded.
“The $42 million was gross. Trump netted about $5 million in profit from Trump University — before then needing to pay the $25 million. So that was a $20 million loss — which I’m sure he then took as a loss on his taxes,” Mr Snell noted.
“Your dad defrauded students out of over 25 million dollars with Trump University, but please continue down the stupid path of crying about something you know nothing about,” Tony Posnanski said.
“Canceling student debt is a tax on the most responsible people in the country,” Mr Trump Jr wrote on Wednesday. “Forcing people who worked hard to repay their loans or those who didn’t have the luxury of going to college, to subsidize people who wasted $$$ on worthless gender study degrees is a slap in the face.”
Writer Daniel Kibblesmith responded that “you can tell when they know their stance is unpopular because they have to throw in that ‘gender studies’ straw man to prop it up”.
