donald trump will take office as president facing a tsunami of litigation over his business practices and personal behavior. he may have settled the fraud suits involving trump university, but at least 75 other lawsuits are underway against him or his companies, according to usa today. its investigation found more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades, ranging from contract disputes to real estate battles to harassment and discrimination claims. in short, mr. trump could find himself in a near-constant stream of court fights while he tries to focus on running the country. even in advance of any decisions, there is a degree of poetic justice here, since the scorched-earth approach has long been standard practice for mr. trump; as a businessman, he thrived on no-holds-barred legal conflict and hauled out the heavy artillery for even minor disputes. less than three weeks before the election, he threatened to sue at least 11 women who had recently come forward with allegations that he sexually assaulted them. now consider all the potential conflicts of interest if this litigiousness should come to, or from, the oval office. what happens if there is litigation involving a building he leases from the federal government? or if the internal revenue service <u+2014> an executive-branch agency <u+2014> recommends civil or criminal penalties based on an audit of mr. trump<u+2019>s taxes? the trump university lawsuits <u+2014> two class actions filed in a san diego federal court and a state fraud case brought by the new york attorney general, representing about 7,000 plaintiffs in all <u+2014> show that these conflicts would not be limited to the federal government. court documents revealed a dishonest operation that was marketed as a way for regular people to make lots of money by following mr. trump<u+2019>s <u+201c>secrets<u+201d> to real estate investing. but according to trump university employees, mr. trump<u+2019>s investing techniques were never part of the program. instead, salespeople were trained to exploit vulnerable <u+201c>students<u+201d> by pressuring them to pay thousands of dollars to attend seminars and <u+201c>personal mentorship programs,<u+201d> many run by people with little or no experience in real estate. one sales manager called the entire business model a <u+201c>fraudulent scheme.<u+201d> mr. trump initially said he would never settle the suits, a claim he has often made in other cases. but in fact, mr. trump settles lawsuits quite often <u+2014> in more than one-third of the cases whose outcome is on the public record, according to an analysis by bloomberg politics. as soon as he was elected, he changed his tune on the trump university suits, surely realizing that it would not look good for a sitting president to take the stand in his own defense against charges of fraud and racketeering. unsurprisingly, mr. trump presented this latest settlement <u+2014> which did not require him to admit liability <u+2014> as a personal sacrifice in the national interest. <u+201c>the only bad thing about winning the presidency,<u+201d> the president-elect tweeted on saturday, <u+201c>is that i did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on trump u. too bad!<u+201d> it is as if mr. trump views the courts as a casino: you win some and you lose some. but luckily for him, even when he loses, he wins: most of the $25 million settlement will be a tax write-off . follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion), and sign up for the opinion today newsletter . a version of this editorial appears in print on november 25, 2016, on page a26 of the new york edition with the headline: mr. trump and the lawsuit presidency. today's paper | subscribe
donald trump and the lawsuit presidency
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