Many for-profit universities went under
The Times’s daily Trump briefing includes an item that should not fly under the radar.
It also turns a sarcastic eye on Trump’s name-check of Frederick Douglass:
Trump: That Frederick Douglass “has done an amazing job.”
Yes, that Frederick Douglass, former slave, abolitionist and statesman who died in 1895.
Meeting with African-American supporters at the White House on Wednesday, the president let it be known that Mr. Douglass, an important figure in American history, had come to his attention.
“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice,” Mr. Trump said. “Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. A big impact.”
Yes, he said that.
He’s just that good.
But the must not go under the radar item – it’s that Trump wants to undo regulations that hinder the ability of for-profit “universities” to rip off people who can least afford it. Gee, I wonder where that came from.
The Obama administration’s efforts to regulate the once flourishing for-profit university system did not get a lot of attention, but they had big consequences.
Critics of the universities saw fake diploma mills that recruited students with advertising on buses, on subways and even in homeless shelters, and then helped them get guaranteed student loans from the federal government. Money in hand, the for-profits often left the students to their own devices. If they dropped out, or got degrees that proved worthless in the work world, so be it: The taxpayer would pay off the loans if the students couldn’t.
The Obama-era regulations tightened up recruiting rules and tied loans to the schools’ records of getting their students the jobs they were promised. Many for-profit universities went under.
Now, President Trump — who just settled a fraud suit against his Trump University — has asked Liberty University’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., a stern critic of accreditation rules, to head a White House task force on higher education, assigned to focus on “overregulation and micromanagement,” a Liberty spokesman told NBC News.
Yeah – “overregulation and micromanagement” that keep ruthless shitbags like Trump from cheating poor people out of the little money they have and pushing them into debt. Trump wants to restore the freedom of ruthless shitbags like him to rob people blind.
Of course it’s not at all “overregulation and micromanagement” for Trump to run around banning all citizens of an assortment of majority-Muslim countries from entering the US – oh hell no, that’s “keeping our country safe.”
Yes it is amazing. Almost as if he has an agenda. Handed to him.
I can imagine the discussion about 4 months ago. “Don’t worry about policies when you win Donald, we’ve got that sorted for you…”
Trying to get into Trump’s head here. First and foremost, I think the grammatically-flawed “…who has done…” rather than “…who did…” is far more likely a simple “oration gaffe” as compared to the idea that Trump was actually unaware that Fredrick Douglas is a historic, non-living figure. While the gaffe itself may lend evidence to the notion that Trump was nervously meandering in unfamiliar territory (focusing so much on getting names right that he’s having mental slips on basic sentence structure), my internal “confirmation bias alert” sounds a bit too loudly if I try to take this as proof that Trump really is that uneducated… In that regard, I’m reminded of the heyday conservatives had when Obama proved that he didn’t know how many states there are.
To me, the more telling aspect of this quote – the part that really confirms that Trump was meandering in unfamiliar territory – was the second half, “and is being recognized more and more, I notice”. Particularly, “I notice”. Trump’s a narcissist through and through, but “I notice” leaves no doubt that what he’s really saying is, “Fredrick Douglas is somebody who’s accomplishments – their importance to and impact on our country – has only recently [likely as recently as he began practicing this speech] has come to my attention.”
Ultimately, I’d lay pretty solid odds that, until now, Trump’s familiarity with Fredrick Douglas probably fell somewhere betweeen [could pick him out as a famous black-rights historic figure given a multiple-choice format] and [could provide a solid answer to an open-response format about what made him famous].
Though I must say, for the briefest moment, as I read through Trump’s words, a part of me dared to hope he was leading up to, “In fact, Mr. Douglas, if you’re here today, why not stand up and take a bow!”
Of course it’s Liberty University pushing for this. The last thing they want is for there to be a dividing line between real education and the carefully cultivated bullshit they cram into their students’ heads.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but these are two things I really don’t think belong together.
Re iknclast at #5: The entire Trump administration is things that do not belong together – for every round hole, a square peg; for every critical public office, someone specifically selected to wreck it. It’s a marvel of supervillainy.