'The Donald Trump of security' is a lifelong Democrat who says Trump U helped him launch a 200-person business
YouTube/Donald J. Trump for President
Kent Moyer, the founder and CEO of The World Protection Group (WPG), wasn't always a successful businessman.
After getting "cleaned out" in a bad divorce and trying to launch a tiny, languishing security company, he turned his attention to the oft-cited master of the deal.
"I read the Art of the Deal," Moyer told Business Insider. "I've always followed Trump, always admired Trump."
Moyer is one of the three former Trump University students that Trump featured in a campaign video voicing support for the now-defunct series of courses on real estate and investing.
"The courses that I took were outstanding," Moyer says in the video before explaining how Trump U allowed him to start WPG, a security firm that specializes in executive protection, which provides security services to high-profile individuals worldwide.
When you look back at having nothing and then starting a business and you look at the first things that I jumped into in terms of learning business skills, the basics of business, you have to really have a loyalty to Trump University because they gave me some of the basic business skills to start my business and I will never forget that.
While Trump U didn't technically help him start his business — WPG was founded in 2001 while Trump U didn't exist until 2005 — Moyer says it allowed him to grow a small business into a thriving venture. Today, WPG has about 200 employees worldwide and is licensed in six different statesMoyer explained.
YouTube/Donald J. Trump for PresidentMoyer, who attended Penn State, but dropped out before completing his degree, has always had a passion for martial arts but wasn't sure how to parlay such an interest into a career.
He started working at the Playboy Mansion in his early thirties as a body guard and opened up a martial arts school.
In 2001, he launched WPG but says the company didn't begin to take off until he attended Trump U in 2005.
"I'm great at negotiations," Moyer said. He attributes this to his time spent in a negotiations course at Trump University.
He didn't, however, point to any other specific skills he learned while at Trump U and explained more broadly that he learned to surround himself with positive and intelligent individuals.
Moyer also stays ruthless in his pursuit of learning from successful people. To that end, he's taken seminars with Tony Robbins, a personal finance instructor and motivational speaker.
YouTube/Donald J. Trump for PresidentMoyer also attended an advanced management program at Wharton. The five-week $55,000 program was certainly an investment for Moyer, but he says e chose to attend because of Trump, whose undergraduate alma mater was Wharton.
Most of this, he outlines as background on his LinkedIn page. His Trump U experience, however, isn't listed.
Regardless, Moyer draws comparison to the real-estate mogul.
"People say, 'you're the Donald Trump of security," Moyer said.
Moyer got in touch with the Trump campaign because of the "unfair treatment" of Trump University that he perceives in the media.
Trump is currently enmeshed in multiple lawsuits filed by former students of Trump University and faces a third fraud suit from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which likely won't go to trial until after the November election. The suits accuse Trump of defrauding thousands of students with worthless classes on real estate and investing.
Trump and his attorneys, however, continually reference stellar reviews from students, like Moyer.
A self-described "life-long Democrat," Moyer says he voted for Trump as a write-in candidate in the California primary and will vote for him in general election, pending his nomination.