Aug. 04–ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Donald Trump has been gone from Atlantic City for years, but his name has lived on in glowing neon on the facade of a casino he no longer owns.
But later this year, the GOP presidential nominee's name will disappear from the seaside gambling resort — along with 3,000 jobs.
The Trump Taj Mahal casino, opened 26 years ago by Trump, announced Wednesday that it will shut down after Labor Day. The business now belongs to Trump's friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn, who decided he can no longer support a casino losing millions of dollars each month amid a crippling strike.
Icahn told The Associated Press yesterday he has lost nearly $100 million on the Taj Mahal in the past 18 years, including money he spent to keep it afloat during bankruptcy court before he even owned it.
"It was a bad bet," he said. "How much good money do you throw after bad?"
Atlantic City's main casino workers union has been on strike against the Taj Mahal since July 1. Today the strike will become the longest in the city's 38-year casino era, eclipsing the 34-day walkout the union staged against seven casinos in 2004.
The shutdown will reduce the number of casinos in Atlantic City to seven. The job losses will be in addition to 8,000 workers who became unemployed when four Atlantic City casinos closed in 2014.
And the bloodletting may not be over yet: Voters will decide in November whether to permit two new casinos in northern New Jersey just outside of New York City, a development that would likely lead to additional casino closures in Atlantic City.
