Students at Trump University said they were pressured into giving good reviews of their instructors and the program in a report from the New York Times published Friday morning.
Trump University, one of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s now-defunct business ventures, was an online university that taught students Trump’s secrets to real estate success. Now, it faces accusations of predatory practices in a class-action lawsuit in California and a lawsuit from the New York state attorney general.
A site set up to defend Trump University published 10,000 student reviews, but 3,000 of those reviews were from free guests of paying students, according to an evaluation by the Times.
One student, Jeffrey Tufenkian, told the Times that his assigned mentor wouldn’t leave the room until he gave good ratings on his surveys.
Another student, John Brown, described “continuing phone calls” asking him to change his review marks. He eventually did.
“I finally gave in,” he told the Times.
Robert Guillo told the Times that Trump University was “absolutely a con.” He said his instructor warned him that if he didn’t give good reviews, the teacher may not be invited back to the program.
Read the full report here.
