Urine tests bearing Donald Trump’s name were what caught the attention of “The Daily Show.” “This is the same guy who thought it was disgusting to even think of Hillary going to the bathroom. But I guess now it turns out he was just upset she was wasting it,” host Trevor Noah joked on the show this week.
But the fallout was serious: CBS estimates 20,000 independent sellers bought Trump Network products which, as STAT’s earlier investigation found, were based on shaky science. Within a few years, the business collapsed.
Among the products the Trump Network sold was a urine test it said could recommend customized nutritional supplements. They also sold a test for allergies and another for bone health, along with corresponding supplements.
Scientists told STAT that the allergy test did not actually measure food allergies, and that the entire premise of the company was not backed up by modern medicine.
Other products purportedly tested for stress and digestive health. One claimed to measure “the balance between your ‘good’ estrogen and your ‘bad’ estrogen.”
Trump himself had no role in the development or manufacturing of the products. But he put his personal brand behind them — speaking at conferences in Miami and Las Vegas, allowing his name and family crest to be used on the packaging, and appearing in at least one online video to promote the business.
In exchange he received a licensing fee of $1 million, according to a CBS investigation.
Two of the people taken in were Eileen and George Kelley, retired college professors who live in Florida. “We thought it was going to take off,” Eileen told CBS News. Instead they lost $10,000.
