Whether you like him or not, it’s no surprise that President Donald Trump has been involved in his fair share of controversy and scandals. Check out this gallery and see the biggest Trump scandals that can jeopardize his term as President.
Trump University
In some of the most recent scandals, Trump University is one of the hardest to hit the President. Former students of Trump University paid up to $35,000 for tuition and classes that were supposed to be closely overseen by Trump himself. The university eventually failed and the students gained very little, even after their multi-thousand dollar investment in their education.
Discrimination lawsuit
Back in 1973, the Justice Department sought a case against Donald Trump due to the accusations that he would not rent his apartments to minorities. A building superintendent testified that he had been told to write the letter “C”, which meant colored, on any rental application by an African American, yet Trump denies these accusations to this day. The case was settled with a consent decree where building vacancies would be taken to the Urban League to find qualified minority applicants. Even after this case, Trump still encountered claims about discrimination.
Pyramid Scheme
The ACN was created as a multi-level marketing company (aka a pyramid scheme) that sold many different products. Trump signed on as a spokesperson for the company, and ACN was even on his NBC series Celebrity Apprentice. The issue was that the focus of the company was not on selling products, but on recruiting new salespeople, who paid a $500 fee to join the company. Their job would then be to get new recruits, and their recruits would get new recruits and so on.
Undocumented Workers
When construction on Trump Tower began, 200 undocumented Polish workers were involved with constructing the massive building. The men were not given the proper safety attire and even slept at the construction site. For their hard-labor work, they were paid a mere $5 an hour. In addition to their poor pay, the workers were threatened with deportation if they ever decided to speak up about their treatment.
Beauty Pageant Scandal
It’s obvious that Donald Trump admires women, so it only makes sense that he decided to enter the beauty pageant business. He entered into the executives who ran the American Dream pageant, and the agreement was supposed to include several events showcasing the pageant girls. However, Trump backed out the deal at the last minute. One of the even executives accused him of sexual harassment, and they eventually sued him. The case was settled out of court.
9/11 Insult
On September 11th, 2013, 12 years after the terror attacks, Trump took to twitter to write “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” Not only did the tweet insult people, but the tone of the tweet seemed to resemble a holiday, not a day of remembrance. Trump eventually took down the tweet.
Tenant Trouble
In 1981, Donald Trump purchased a building near Central Park South and wanted to turn the old building into luxury condos, but the people who lived in the building did not want to move out of their apartments, which were rent-controlled. In order to get them to leave, Trump allegedly turned off the tenants’ heat and water, refused to make crucial repairs, and threatened eviction. To the surprise of Trump, the tenants stood their ground and eventually, he gave up and started to properly manage the building.
Bankrupcy
Trump often brags about his business success and his insane net worth, but many sources tend to disagree. He has had four bankruptcies, and there is little evidence that proves his net worth is as large as he says it is. Forbes puts his net worth at $4.5 billion, and Bloomberg has it at $3 billion, both of which are far below the $10 billion that Trump claims he is worth. Even though he is generally known to have a large net worth, his bankruptcy allowed him to avoid paying taxes for many years.
Antitrust Violations
Trump was passionate about building a casino empire and because of that passion, he started buying up shares of Holiday and Bally’s in the 1980s. He slowly bought stock in order to gain control without having to pay the required control premium to shareholders. Bally’s eventually figured out what Trump was doing, so they ended up taking Trump to court for Antitrust violations.
Disrespecting Women
Besides the infamous tape that overheard Trump saying, “Grab them by the pussy,” more and more instances when he disrespected women are being uncovered. From calling news reporter Megyn Kelly nasty names to saying Rosie O’Donnell is a “pig,” none of it has gone over well for The Donald, losing much respect from both women and men. He’s also insulted a lawyer calling her “disgusting” after she asked for a break in order to pump her own breast milk.
Physical Incident
During Trump’s campaign run, his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, allegedly grabbed reporter Michelle Fields and forcefully moved her out of the way. Trump and Lewandowski denied the incident occurred, despite witnesses and even camera footage being released to the public. Lewandowski was arrested on battery charges and Trump said that Fields’ pen could have been a bomb and he could have been the one in danger, which most people found ridiculous.
McCain Insult
Whether or not you like Senator John McCain, he is still a respected Vietnam War veteran. He spent time in a POW camp and earned a purple heart and a bronze star for his service. Trump later said that McCain didn’t deserve those honors because he “got caught,” and was therefore not a winner, which many found extremely insulting. Not only did Democrats criticize him, but his own Republican party peers found the comments very insulting, too.
Ties With The Mafia
Trump allegedly has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for his relationship with mafia associate Robert LiButti. Robert, who is a known associate of Jon Gotti, received a number of gifts from Trump, including multiple luxury cars. While it has never been proved that Trump has knowingly done illegal business with the mafia, there’s a plethora of proof that he has associated with them.
Multiple Pageant Scandals
There are two scandals that have happened with the Miss Universe pageant owned by Donald Trump. The first incident happened in 2012 when a contestant claimed that the entire pageant was rigged. However, no proof has ever fully been presented. The second incident, however, came when NBC and Univision, who had a partnership in televising the pageant. Both networks decided to drop the pageant altogether after Trump made negative comments directed toward Mexican people.
Trump Institute
No, not Trump University, Donald Trump also ran another flop called the Trump Institute and it actually ran around the same time as Trump University. However, this venture simply licensed Trump’s name. His only real involvement in the Insitute was to sign off and appear in their infomercial. Like Trump University, though, people were lured by the Trump name, only to find a subpar education.
Forcing His Former Wife
Trump allegedly forced his then wife Ivana to have sex with him following one of his surgeries. In her divorce deposition, she stated that he had raped her and that she had felt violated after the incident. However, she later recanted her story, saying that he was acting differently and she felt violated, but she said it wasn’t a rape in the literal sense of the word. Either way, it wasn’t good publicity for Mr. Trump.
Sued For Libel
