Bill Clinton made millions from a shady for-profit university


As Donald Trump fights to keep the details of his Trump University lawsuit secret, connoisseurs of news about presidential candidates entangled in messy relationships with for-profit educational institutions can turn their attention to the Clinton camp.
Per the Clintons' tax returns, Bill Clinton received nearly $16.5 million for his role as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit group which bills itself as the "largest global network of degree-granting higher education institutions." The former president left his position, which he had held since 2010, in the spring of 2015 when Hillary Clinton began criticizing for-profit colleges on the campaign trail.
Critics allege that Laureate's ties to the Clintons and their family foundation gained the university a shield from federal scrutiny while also easing visa applications for foreign students during Hillary Clinton's tenure in the State Department. That charge parallels accusations that foreign governments and major corporations received favors from the Clinton State Department in exchange for supporting the Clinton Foundation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Update: A spokesperson for Laureate adds this context: "President Clinton had a five-year term, which was spelled out in his contract. His term had expired" when he left in 2015.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot