Without apologies, the Trump University case reaches an end
Then real estate mogul Donald Trump, left, at a news conference in New York announcing the establishment of Trump University on May 23, 2005. Credit: AP / Bebeto Matthews
Capping one of the strangest campaign issues of 2016, a federal judge on Friday gave final approval to a $25 million agreement to settle fraud claims involving the defunct Trump University.
And the resolution helped show what a difference an election makes.
The judge was Indiana-born Gonzalo Curiel, whom then-presidential candidate Donald Trump attacked during the campaign as biased because of Mexican heritage.
“We’re in front of a very hostile judge,” he told one rally.
On TV, Trump said: “We’ve had terrible rulings, I’ve been treated very unfairly. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I’m building a wall. I’m building a wall.”
Curiel ignored Trump’s public demands to recuse himself. Trump apparently was miffed because Curiel refused to dismiss the case. Naturally it drew big attention and served as attack fodder from Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Now that he’s president, Trump has many federal judgeships to fill, though as far as is known, he hasn’t tried to bar the appointment of any particular ethnic groups. His nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, has drawn plaudits for professionalism even from some who dislike his conservatism.
Now that he’s president, Trump is a public ally with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Only last June, Ryan called Trump’s statement on Curiel “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
Now that he’s president, Trump’s administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appear interested in growing and preserving for-profit college companies, unlike the Obama administration, which sought to more closely regulate them.
Now that Trump is president, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman draws extra attention for his remarks on the case, saying its settlement gives “hopefully much-needed closure” to “victims of Donald Trump’s fraudulent university.”
Now that Trump is president, he’s unlikely to reopen the so-named university, which purported to show students the secrets of making money in real estate. He maintained on Twitter after his election that he “did not have time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U.”
One former student, Sherri Simpson, who resisted the settlement, was quoted as saying she’d been seeking a public apology from Trump, which she didn’t get. Neither did Curiel, for that matter. But the whole case now fades into history.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
