Grandiose speeches and business bravado ruled Trump’s day, and all you needed was a golden credit report to open doors. Trump’s aim was to develop Atlantic City to the point that it would take over Las Vegas as the U.S. The lavish casino was the largest in the world at the time. Trump went on to acquire the Atlantic City Hilton and Taj Mahal for a combined fee of $555 million and soon renamed the venues Trump Marina and Trump Taj Mahal.Īt the peak of Trump’s casino kingdom, he opened Trump Taj Mahal and dubbed it the Eighth Wonder of the World. After earning his chops there, he was awarded a casino license, became a majority shareholder in the Holiday Inn, and renamed it Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in 1986. Trump was unable to obtain a license to open his own casino, so he partnered with Harrah’s in the Holiday Inn Casino. Trump grabbed control of some prime real estate in Atlantic City after the casino town had fallen on hard times. It was the beginning of the biggest era of greed in American history, where yuppie larvae blossomed into the materialist messiahs of the Gordon Gecko crowd, and their unifying mantra, ‘Greed is Good’, rang loud over Wall Street and beyond. Trump began his casino career in Atlantic City in the 1980s. The failed Trump Taj Mahal was bought and rebranded as Hard Rock Atlantic City, the Trump Marina Casino was sold to become the Golden Nugget, and all his other Trumpian ventures fizzled out over the decades.īut Donald Trump’s disastrous casino story begins decades ago in the gambling town of Atlantic City. The abandoned Trump Plaza resort in Atlantic City slowly crumbled into ruin, a bankrupt empire nobody cared to take over. Now, the last fading reminder of the Trump casino legacy is about to be imploded. He soon set his sights on the casino world.

But running New York City slums and driving out the tenants was not enough for Donald Trump.

A brash, young, real estate billionaire’s son was led by the hand through the business world and given the keys to the kingdom. Once upon a time in America, the name Trump appeared on everything from buildings to steaks. The difference between a Trump casino and Donald Trump is that one is a dilapidated ruin with a crumbling façade of faux luxury, barely hiding an empty shell clearly showing its cracks and age amid a mountain of debt.

Trump casino atlantic city abandoned