Trump had started building his Atlantic City casino empire by borrowing money at high interest rates, and when he opened another casino and started pouring money into the new Trump Taj Mahal rather than existing casinos such as Trump Plaza, the debt began to balloon. Just one year later Trump was $3 billion (£1.6bn) in debt, and ended up in the bankruptcy court for his Taj Mahal, Trump Marina, and Trump Plaza casinos. Four years later, having reorganised the casino holding company, Trump Entertainment Resorts missed another interest payment on a $53.1 million (£33.5m) bond, and had to declare bankruptcy again. But that wasn't the end of it...
In 2009, Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following the Great Recession. Then in 2014 the Resorts holding company was forced to file for bankruptcy again, which saw the closure of Trump Plaza, as well as the departure of Trump and his daughter Ivanka from the company's board. The company finally emerged from bankruptcy in 2016, and billionaire Carl Icahn's Icahn International company took over Trump's old Atlantic City properties, including the Taj Mahal, and the closed Trump Plaza. But even though he tried to have his name removed from the casinos, Trump doesn't see all of his work in Atlantic City as a failure. In fact, in a 2016 interview with The New York Times he boasted about the "growth" the city gave him, and how "the money [he] took out of there was incredible". Perhaps success is a question of perspective...