SAN DIEGO, May 28 (UPI) — Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump complained about the federal judge overseeing a civil trial concerning the now-defunct Trump University, noting the judge is “Mexican.”
Trump, speaking at a rally in San Diego on Friday night, said federal District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was appointed to the bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama, should not have allowed the trial to go on.
“The trial is going to take place sometime in November. There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily,” Trump said. “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater.”
Trump went on to point out Curiel’s ethnicity.
“The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine,” Trump said, according to the LA Times. “You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK?”
Curiel has postponed the trial until late November, saying he feared a media frenzy if the trial happened during the campaign.
Prior to becoming a federal judge, Curiel served as an assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting border drug smuggling cases.
The Trump University case stems from complaints from enrollees at Trump-backed real estate seminars that cost some people upwards of $35,000. Many of the students at the non-sanctioned for-profit “university” said the classes they paid for were worthless.
Trump has admitted he did not hand-pick the teachers at Trump University, as marketing materials suggested he had, but still says the classes provided a useful service to students.
