“At one point, Trump had three casinos in Atlantic City, employing 8,000 people and accounting for nearly a third of the area’s gambling revenues,” said a report in the Guardian. The resultant proceedures would cause huge losses to many of Trump’s lenders, big and small, and the losses of thousands of jobs. The next year, the other two Trump casinos in Atlantic City also filed for bankruptcy protection.

The press releases called it the “eighth wonder of the world”.īy July 1991, Trump filed for bankruptcy protection as the “ sole shareholder of Trump Taj Mahal, Inc”. The building was launched in a gaudy ceremony with actors dressed as genies and Michael Jackson turning up as the chief guest.

More than $1.2 billion had been poured into that Taj, a fraction of the amount that was spent on the real thing, but a big enough investment to make it the biggest gamble of Trump’s own career until then. With tacky domes and minars that seemed to have been cribbed from Russian churches rather than Mughal buildings, Trump’s Taj Mahal opened in 1990 as the world’s largest casino-hotel complex. But the third – named the Taj Mahal – was to be the grandest.

He already owned two casinos in Atlantic City, a beach-side New Jersey town that represented American exuberance in the first three decades of the 20th century. Not the all-marble mausoleum from the 17th century, but the brand name of a casino that the US President once fought to take control of, only to see it end up being the first of four companies that would go bankrupt under his stewardship.īack in 1987, Trump was a businessman, focused at the time on attempting to control the gambling business on America’s East Coast. The tomb of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal is a regular item on the itineraries of visiting dignitaries, even if the Hindu nationalist politicians currently in power in India are not the biggest fans of the monument.īut Trump’s visit is sure to dredge up some uncomfortable memories about his own previous association with the Taj. US President Donald Trump will visit the Taj Mahal on Monday, as part of his two-day trip to India.

Trump taj mahal casino atlantic city