Trump Plaza was the last of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014, victims of an oversaturated casino market both in the New Jersey city and in the larger northeast. The Trump Taj Mahal, one of the casinos acquired by Icahn, has since reopened under new ownership as the Hard Rock. “In order to make sure the Taj Mahal was successful, they shipped all the high rollers from Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle to the Taj, and they really didn’t invest in the Plaza much.” “The moment that the Taj Mahal opened up, it began a decline for the Plaza,” McDevitt said. The casino even had a cameo in the film “Ocean’s Eleven.” When George Clooney and Brad Pitt recruited actor Bernie Mac’s character to help with a Las Vegas casino heist, they plucked him from Trump Plaza, where he was a dealer.īob McDevitt, president of the main casino workers’ union, said the place oozed glamor and buzz when it first opened.īut things began to sour for Trump Plaza when Donald Trump opened the nearby Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, with crushing debt loads that led the company to pour most of its resources - and cash - into the shiny new hotel and casino. “They were very down-to-earth people,” Gatewood recalled. Ron Gatewood, a food and beverage worker at Trump Plaza from 1986 until its closing in 2014, brought food and drinks to stars including Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Barry White in their hotel rooms. It was the place to be when mega-events such as a Mike Tyson boxing match or a Rolling Stones concert was held next door in Boardwalk Hall. Opened in 1984, when Trump was a real estate developer in his prepolitics days, Trump Plaza was for a time the most successful casino in Atlantic City. A fundraiser for a VIP view of the implosion netted the club more than $16,000. Icahn said he would replace the $175,000 that had already been bid with his own money.

The mayor proposed using the demolition as a fundraiser for the Boys And Girls Club of Atlantic City, and began an auction for the right to press the button that would bring the structure down.īut Icahn - a donor and former special economic adviser to Trump - objected on safety and liability issues, and got the auction house to halt the bids.

I’m sorry to see it go.”Īlthough the former president built it, a different billionaire, Carl Icahn, acquired the two remaining Trump casinos in 2016 from the last of their many bankruptcies and owned the building.

“It was like that a lot: You had Madonna and Sean Penn walking in, Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson, Muhammad Ali would be there, Oprah sitting with Donald ringside,” he recalled.

Trump Plaza Hotel Casino Atlantic City