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.
