Donald J. Trump once said he’d never settle a fraud lawsuit brought against him by former students of “Trump University.”

Oh, but wait! Then the president-elect did settle. This past week he agreed to pay $25 million to those students who had alleged they were cheated out of money they paid to attend the university. They didn’t get the bang for the buck they expected, they said.

These settlements often puzzle me.

Lawsuit defendants — such as Trump — agree to settle but insist they did nothing wrong. If that’s the case, then why the payout? Why fork over that kind of dough if they insist, as Trump has done, that the lawsuit lacked merit?

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/trump-university-lawsuit-settlement-231610

Trump said he settled the lawsuit so that he can devote his full attention to “the country” he is about to lead as president.

I’m going to remain skeptical about Trump’s stated reasons for settling. My gut tells me he well may have wanted to cut his losses, which well might have been a whole lot more had this case gone the distance.