Stephen Gilpin was one of Trump University’s instructors. He recalled sitting in on another instructor’s class shortly after joining the school in 2007. It was nothing more than an up-sell, he said, laden with false promises.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re all going to be arrested,’ ” Gilpin said.

Now, he and others said, the Trump administration is trying a similar tactic again, by asking people to believe Trump’s rosy predictions about the pandemic — in the face of an increasingly grim reality.

“It’s the same thing he does today,” said Gilpin, who left the school in 2011. “His behavior has now become our norm.”

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One day, I was on a podcast taking place in the Trump University offices on the thirty-second floor of 40 Wall Street. Donald Trump was participating from another office. We were talking about the real estate market, and whether it was a fire sale right now. I was panicking a little about my job, looking at the market. Trump said, “Steve, first off look where you’re at, and look who you’re with. If the real estate market is a fire sale, I’m sitting right next to you, who do you think they’re getting first?” Coincidentally, the building actually caught on fire that day. So we had to stop the podcast and get out of the building by climbing down thirty-two flights of stairs.

Read the full excerpt at Truthdig.

When self-described real estate expert Stephen Gilpin first arrived in Manhattan, he was a Quaalude-popping blue jeans model. To make ends meet, he attended house parties of the wealthy, a handsome face for hire. It was dull work, and to distract himself Gilpin would contemplate the makings of the grand homes of his hosts. It was then, sometime in the 1990s, that Gilpin visited Trump Tower, where he was dazzled by “the sixty-foot high waterfall.”

“What an impressive place!” he writes. “I could feel the power and smell of money.”

Gilpin’s first book, “Trump U: The Inside Story of Trump University” is a chronicle of how one man went from posing for Levi Strauss to proselytizing for property at Trump University, the for-profit education venture launched in 2005 by Donald Trump. The book is Gilpin’s attempt to restore a reputation sullied by years of allegations about fraudulent practices at the business. But it’s also an indictment of one of the president’s most prominent ventures, one that was shut down after just five years, led to a $25 million settlement and continues to shape his public image.

Read the full review at The Real Deal.