On one side of the building the name has been covered up. The blackboard and tape don’t quite merge into the black background. The front carries no signage any longer. The glitz and glamour that enticed people in the past has long been replaced by the dirt and grime of neglect. But there, on the other side is the clue to its gloried past.
The letters have been pulled down here too, but the shadows still make it possible to read the words: ‘Trump Plaza’. It was a famous landmark on the Atlantic City boardwalk, an important part of Donald Trump’s business empire. The former owner sued to have the letters removed. He didn’t want his name attached to a failure.
Donald Trump swept into New Jersey in the 1980s. Atlantic City was one of the few places in the US where gambling was legal. It had enjoyed some success in the 1920s and 30s. With the businessman’s flair and knack for publicity, many hoped he’d restore it to former glories. Perhaps he could make the place great again. In 1982, he appeared before the state gaming commission and told the panel that Atlantic City needed ‘some pizazz’. Two hours later he had a casino licence.
Trump Plaza opened two years later. Sammy Davis Jr was the headline act. The Trump Castle followed but it wasn’t enough – the businessman wanted a third casino. And in 1990, Trump Taj Mahal opened. Seventy-five thousand people turned up for the ribbon-cutting. The TV show ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ described it as the ‘world’s glitziest casino’.
But other states, seeing how legalised gambling could help raise funds, were beginning to open up to casinos. People no longer needed to drive a few hours to have fun at the tables. A recession hit. One year after the Taj opened, Trump’s company filed for bankruptcy protection. That allows the operation to restructure without closing down. It wasn’t the only time Trump took the bankruptcy route. He did it again in 1992. And 2004. And 2009.
Trump claims he saw that Atlantic City was going to tank and as a great businessman he ‘had the good sense’ to get out and make a lot of money doing so. A couple of streets from the Trump Taj Mahal sits the Asbury Methodist Church. Its red doors have become a local landmark. People know that on a Saturday they’ll get a good meal, a kind word and a sympathetic ear. It might be the best meal they’ll eat that week. Many of the hundreds that turn up used to work for Trump. Keith Harris, who helps run the programme, says there are mixed feelings about Trump: ‘He was very good to his employees, there were bonuses available, jobs were plentiful, he was opening casinos but then, as the market dropped, the casinos closed. Donald Trump skated out. He got out leaving lots of people behind. But as a businessman he thought this was what he had to do’.
When the Trump casinos closed, creditors got only pennies on the dollar. It hit many small contractors like florists and plumbers and carpenters. People lost their jobs. Some lost their business. ‘I think he could have done more to help some of the people that he was hurting with his cold-hearted business moves,’ says Michael Johnson, who was involved in the property market in Atlantic City. ‘Maybe as a business move it was the right thing but maybe he doesn’t really care about people.’
There are those who believe that Atlantic City was better when Trump was here and involved. And also those who believe that he showed his business smarts by leaving when he did. He still owns a 10% stake in the Trump Taj Mahal – the only casino that still bears his name.
Trump’s Atlantic City record will come under the spotlight again in the presidential campaign. Democrats will be asking if the American people want to gamble on such a record.
Alan Fisher is a senior Al Jazeera correspondent
By Alan Fisher | 15 June 2016