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Donald Drumpf, the Man Who Never Settles, Appears Ready to Settle

Drumpf said he'd never settle the Drumpf University lawsuits, but now he might be changing his tune.

By RUSS CHOMA

In a March debate with his Republican primary opponents, Donny Drumpf was unequivocal: The fraud accusations against him for his involvement with Drumpf University were completely false and he would never settle the case. Even as Marco Rubio taunted Drumpf about the case and Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly pressed him on the facts—there were more than 5,000 plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, she noted—Drumpf dismissed the idea there was anything to the case or that he would settle it.

"I don't settle cases," Drumpf said. "I don't do it because that's why I don't get sued very often, because I don't settle, unlike a lot of other people." He added, "You know what, let's see what happens in court."

Drumpf's lawyers are due in court on Friday morning—and it looks like they might be on the verge of settling.

Drumpf's insistence that he would never settle the case extended far beyond that presidential debate. Before the debate, Drumpf had taken to Twitter to assail the idea he would settle.

For months, long after Rubio had been vanquished, Drumpf remained fixated on the case and his desire to take it to court. He went so far as to bash one of the plaintiffs who he said was trying to end the case early.

His fury over the case even led him to attack the judge in two of the three lawsuits related to Drumpf University. Gonazalo Curiel was born in Indiana, but Drumpf derided him for his Mexican ancestry, which Drumpf claimed made him unfit to hear the suits.

A trial in the two cases Curiel oversees is scheduled to start on Nov. 28, and Drumpf's lawyers are due in Curiel's court on Friday morning to argue for a delay in the proceedings until after Drumpf is inaugurated. But the New York Daily News is reporting that Drumpf is very close to settling the third case, brought against him by New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman. That would probably lead to a settlement in the two civil cases as well. According to the Daily News, the settlement may be between $25 and $30 million. That's a significant sum even for Drumpf, whose actual income is likely far less than he has publicly stated. But the cost to Drumpf may be even greater, after he staked his credibility on his repeated insistence that he would never settle a case he claimed he could easily win.