Trump U. What a fucking scam:
The documents are evidence in a California class action suit -- Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump -- that alleges the now-defunct Trump University failed to deliver on its promises to provide a premier real estate education with instructors "hand-picked" by Trump. The suit also alleges that the University would "upsell" students from one seminar to more expensive ones.
The order to release the documents was granted by U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel after a request by the Washington Post. Trump's attorneys had fought to keep the playbooks private, on the grounds that they contained trade secrets. Curiel, however, didn't find enough merit in that argument.
And, Curiel noted, there is now public interest in them since Trump "became the front-runner in the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue."
What the playbooks show
The playbooks contain instructions for "Trump team members" on everything from how to dress, how to run a Trump U event, how to deal with travel expenses and how talk to the media.
But big portions are dedicated to how to bring in customers, encourage students to sign up for more courses and counter any objections or doubts they may have.
Finding "buyers" for the programs:
Potential students would fill out profiles, and include a list of their assets.
Related: Trump University controversy ... in 2 minutes
In a section called "identifying buyers," the playbooks instruct Trump team members to sort student profiles according to those who had the most liquid assets (over $35,000) to those who had the least (less than $2,000).
Elsewhere in the playbooks, Trump team members were advised to "close the deal" after having one-on-one sessions with potential students and to push Trump University's most expensive package -- Gold Elite for $34,995 -- when feasible. "If they can afford the gold elite don't allow them to think about doing anything besides the gold elite."
Pitching credit cards to buy property:
Finding lending sources for real estate investing were among the topics taught at Trump University's "Creative Financing Retreat," according to materials in the playbooks.
A description of the retreat promised students they would learn more details about hard-money lenders, land contracts and seller-carried mortgages.
It also covered the use of credit cards. "If a seller will take $10,000 down on a fixer-upper that you expect to make $20,000 on, why not use credit cards?"
http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/31/news/companies/trump-university-playbook-documents/index.html