Settlement could buy A new America and an unclear picture more strife for Trump
A week on from Donald Trump’s electoral triumph, many Americans are asking: what comes next?
Donald Trump has agreed to pay US$25 million (NZ$35.6m) to settle fraud lawsuits over his Trump University real estate seminars, in what New York’s attorney general has called a ‘‘stunning reversal’’ for the United States president-elect.
The lawsuits had dogged Trump, who denied any wrongdoing, throughout his campaign. They led to one of the more controversial moments of his run, when he claimed that the judge overseeing two of the cases was biased because he was of Mexican ancestry.
The settlement was announced yesterday by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who said it followed repeated refusals by Trump ‘‘to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university’’.
Lawyers for Trump had argued against students who claimed they were they were lured by false promises into paying up to US$35,000 to learn Trump’s real estate investing ‘‘secrets’’ from his ‘‘hand-picked’’ instructors.
Three lawsuits relating to Trump University will be covered by the deal: two class-action suits in California, and a New York case brought by Schneiderman. The agreement must still be approved by US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego.
Trump will not admit any wrongdoing under the agreement. His attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, acknowledged that Trump had previously vowed to fight the case.
Schneiderman and attorneys for the students praised the deal. Schneiderman said the US$25m to be paid by Trump or one of his business entities included restitution for victims and US$1m in penalties to the state.
Students’ attorney Jason Forge said US$4m of the proposed settlement would be earmarked for students represented by Schneiderman who were not part of the California class actions, as well as administrative costs.
Forge said all 6000 people in the class-action case would get at least half their money back, and some would receive a full refund.
Forge said he ‘‘definitely detected a change of tone and change of approach’’ from Trump’s camp after the election.
Curiel, who is presiding over the two California cases, had urged both sides to settle. Trump said during his election campaign that Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents, could not be impartial because of Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to control illegal immigration.
Curiel said he hoped the settlement could be part of a healing process ‘‘that this country very sorely needs’’ after the election.
The complaints accused the programme of misleading students by calling itself a university when it was not an accredited school and [Donald Trump] fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest amounts of compensation. by saying that Trump instructors.
Trump told supporters at a May rally that he would come to San Diego to testify after winning the presidency.
‘‘I could have settled this case numerous times, but I don’t want to settle cases when we’re right. I don’t believe in it. And when you start settling cases, you know what happens? Everybody sues you because you get known as a settler. One thing about me, I am not known as a settler,’’ he said.
Trump’s attorneys said they had ‘‘no doubt’’ that Trump University would have prevailed in a trial, but ‘‘resolution of these matters allows President-elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation’’.
The settlement demonstrated Trump’s desire to set his personal feelings aside in order to work on issues facing the county, Petrocelli said.
Trump’s attorneys said in a court filing last week that preparations for his move to the White House were ‘‘critical and all-consuming’’.
Trump ‘‘fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that ‘‘handpicked’’ all changes’’, Schneiderman said.
He called the settlement ‘‘a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6000 victims of his fraudulent university’’.
A federal judge in California had been set yesterday to consider arguments on Trump’s latest request to delay a trial until after his inauguration on January 20. After the settlement was announced, the trial was cancelled.
The Trump Organisation is a party to numerous lawsuits that threaten to prove a distraction to his administration.
The settlement came a day after watchdog groups and ethics experts who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations sent a letter to Trump urging him to make a clean break from his business to avoid ‘‘embroiling the presidency in litigation’’.
One of the authors, Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer at the White House under George W Bush, said the Trump University settlement might backfire if lawyers thought Trump was eager to settle to avoid court cases while president. ‘‘The plaintiffs’ lawyers are going to smell blood in the water.’’ I wouldn’t say the dust has settled since the US presidential election. We’re in the midst of the dust cloud still.
Many welcome Trump’s win and are excited by a Republican president and a Republican Congress. Many others are uneasy about what actually happens next, because Trump flip-flopped on the issues more than a fish out of water during his campaign. And he’s already backing away from the bold campaign promises he shouted from lecterns across the country.
Will he build the wall, or will it be part fence? Will he deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, or focus on the criminals and work with the families? Will he drain the swamp in Washington, or put loyalists, lobbyists and family members on his transition team (and into government)? Will he scrap the president’s signature healthcare law, Obamacare, or will he keep some of the very popular provisions? Will he tear up Nafta, or will he make some limited, new demands on Canada and Mexico?
This week, acquaintances and colleagues I have never discussed politics with have volunteered their concerns in the elevator, in the office kitchen, and at daycare pickup.
I walked through Manhattan one evening. On 46th between 5th and 6th, a sign outside a liquor store read: ‘‘In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it.’’ A bit further north, on the corner of 52nd and 6th, a loud argument was in full swing: ‘‘Two families ran this country for 30 years!’’ a Trump supporter yelled.
Social media is alive with groups organising to protect the rights of immigrants and the LGBT community, which have been long targeted by Republicans. I have joined some of them.
Chief executives, including my own, are writing letters to employees acknowledging bewilderment in the electorate, and urging calm and optimism.
I spoke to a college class on Thursday. To Millennials who grew up into a globalised world. They could not square Trump’s vision of America with their own.
And there are protests across the country. Young people are marching against Trump’s divisive rhetoric. School children are marching to stand up for their classmates who were brought to the US illegally as children, who were given protections by Barack Obama, and whose status now might be threatened.
Trump has commendably told people committing hate crimes in his name to stop it. But despite a promise of unity, one of his first official acts was to appoint controversial Right-wing media giant Steve Bannon as his right hand. Bannon’s website gives a voice to white nationalist, anti-Muslim and anti-feminist sentiment. Bannon is hardly a symbol of harmony. Did he blow this first big chance to prove his detractors wrong?
As for Republican unity, we’ll have to wait and see. There are a number of Trump campaign promises that Democrats have fought for years, that are totally anathema to Republican values. Trump wants to create jobs by spending billions on infrastructure. Republicans abhor most large-scale federal spending and will resist this. Trump wants to create term limits on current politicians and lobbying restrictions on former politicians. Republicans have shown no interest in either. Already, some high-ranking party members have said it will never happen.
Plans he does have with the full backing of Congress are to encourage the fossil fuel industry and jobs, to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, and to cancel billions in payments to United Nations climate change programmes. This, along with his promise to unsign the TPP, may have the most farreaching effects on people around the world, including in New Zealand.
So where are we a little over a week in? What I see is that many are elated. Others are uncertain and afraid. And a growing number are galvanised.
Obama said this week that American democracy is bigger than one person. And he’s right. It’s bigger than him, and it’s bigger than Donald Trump.