Donald Trump insinuated Monday that President Barack Obama had a hand in the lawsuit brought by the state of New York against the reality television star for allegedly running a sham university.
Trump told the panel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” he found it fishy that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the lawsuit on Saturday, two days after he met with Obama at an event in Syracuse, N.Y. Schneiderman is suing Trump for $40 million, accusing the real estate tycoon of promising to make students at “Trump University” rich but instead directing them to costly and ultimately frivolous seminars.
Trump called Scneiderman a “total lightweight” and a “political hack.”
“Saturday at 1:00 he files a suit, he meets with the President in Syracuse on Thursday in the evening,” Trump said in the phone interview. “I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Maybe it’s a ‘mini IRS.'”
Trump floated the same theory on his Twitter feed:
Wow, l just found out that A.G. Schneiderman met with President Obama in Syracuse on Thursday — and sued me on Saturday! Same as IRS etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2013
