The Strategist

Trump university and Washington protests: the U.S. is preparing for Donald Trump's inauguration



01/19/2017 - 15:04



It is just one day before inauguration of Donald Trump. The closer the day of his inauguration, the more scandals are emerging around the US president-elect: a lawsuit, a boycott by the congressmen, diplomatic complaints from Beijing and protests in Washington.



Gage Skidmore via flickr
Gage Skidmore via flickr
According to American intelligence services, inauguration of the 45th US president will be visited up to 900 thousand people, which is twice less than at inauguration of Barack Obama. And even this relatively small number can be minified, for more than 50 members of Congress have declared boycott of the ceremony. In an interview to Fox, Trump urged them to return tickets.

Trump called on his supporters to come on January 20 to Washington, but opponents are also gathering there. More than 30 groups have filed requests to hold protests before and after the inauguration.

Two days before the swearing, the US president-elect had to fork out more than $ 25 million to settle a lawsuit on three claims of fraud relating to Trump University, reports CNN Money. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that funds were received on Wednesday. All claims were settled in November 2016, after the presidential elections in the United States. This helped Trump avoid testifying in court.

Trump University appeared in 2005. Its main function was to conduct workshops, where students talked about how to get rich in real estate, and discussed techniques of successful investing. In 2010, the students dissatisfied with the training of began to sue the university, and in 2011 it was closed.

Students then told that they had been promised access to private financing options, but did not see any effect on learning, so that they came to a conclusion that learning was a common fraud. Initial workshops were free, but then the students were demanded to pay for continuation of studies.

In addition, advertisement of the University said that Trump personally selected the business instructors, but, according to the students themselves, this was not true. In the end, many paid tens of thousands of dollars, but the investment had not paid off.

One year of study, in fact, was a three-day workshop worth $ 1,495, according to court documents. A direct "mentoring" was worth $ 10 thousand. Gold Elite Programs were priced at $ 35 thousand.

7 thousand former students of the "educational institution" will receive $ 21 million on two lawsuits in California. The remaining $ 4 million will go on lawsuit of the Attorney General of New York, Eric Schneiderman.

The university has not pleaded guilty to fraud. The money agreement was explained by the fact that settlement of the claim allows President-elect to focus on their direct duties as Head of the White House.

Trump’s inauguration will be held at a record low rating. According to Gallup’s survey, only 40% of Americans support President-elect. To compare, rating of Barack Obama when he took office was twice as high. Trump commented on Twitter:

" The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before." – he wrote.

Inaugurations are usually visited by present and former US presidents. Presence of outgoing leader and his wife is must. George W. Bush and the Clintons are already going to attended the ceremony. However, 92-year-old George Bush will miss the event due to health problems - he was hospitalized on Saturday. Now, his life, according to doctors, is not in danger. 

source: cnn.com