Trump — who paid $25M in damages for Trump University scam — aims to launch online university

02 November 2023

Former President Donald Trump recently announced a new education policy proposal in the midst of his 2024 campaign that sounds familiar: an online university.

The ex-president is pushing for a free online university dubbed "American Academy," which would be a taxpayer-funded institution that provides free degrees to students. Trump elaborated that the funding would come from a tax levied on the billion-dollar endowments of wealthy private universities like Harvard, which he targeted for promoting left-wing ideologies.

"We spend more money on higher education than any other country and yet, they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions," Trump said in a campaign video. "We can’t let this happen."

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Politico noted that Trump's 2017 tax law already taxes university endowments. Last year, for example, 58 universities paid roughly $244 million in taxes under the law, which instituted a 1.4% levy on the biggest endowments. The former president pledged to generate more funding for his proposed online university by "fining and suing" other institutions.

Of course, Trump doesn't have the best track record when it comes to post-secondary education. In 2018, US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ordered him to pay $25 million to attendees of the now-defunct Trump University, who sued him for false advertising. The for-profit series of real estate and entrepreneurship courses was marketed to prospective students as a way to emulate the business tycoon's success, and that pushed students to buy Trump's books. In a statement announcing the 2018 settlement, then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman referred to the course programming as a "sham university."

"My office won't hesitate to hold those who commit fraud accountable, no matter how rich or powerful they may be," Schneiderman said at the time."

The proposed online university isn't Trump's first education-related proposal. Earlier in 2023, the former president promised to fire administrators of accreditation standards at American universities and replace them with government appointees who would impose new standards — mainly to serve the cause of defunding and minimizing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming. Florida Governor (and Trump rival) Ron DeSantis rolled out a similar initiative affecting Florida's public universities in May.