Agra is all set to welcome United States President, Donald Trump, and his family - the city which is home to the most iconic monument of love and has been transformed by rigorous administrative effort.??
Ahead of the POTUS's visit, the replicas of the graves were cleaned for the first time since their?installation more than 300 years ago. Even, the?chandelier above the graves was cleaned with tamarind water.?
While the real Taj Mahal is being given a face-lift for the visit, not many know that?Donald Trump's very own Taj Mahal Hotel ran down to the ground after going bankrupt.?
Trump once owned a Taj Mahal - a casino in the Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was under Trump's possession for 26 years before going bankrupt. after which a new owner took over.?
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According to reports, the construction of resort cum casino started in?in 1983 by the Resorts International, and they initially intended to name it United States Hotel.
But after the death of Resort's International head, James Crosby, in 1986, Trump bought the stakes and took over the property and also ran it to the ground.?
The?Trump Taj Mahal Casino and Resort in?Atlantic City,?was Donald Trump¡¯s biggest and boldest real estate project to date.?In Atlantic City, Trump bought three casinos: Trump Plaza, Trump Castle and the Trump Taj Mahal - which he??proudly called it the ¡®8th Wonder of the World¡¯.?
According to the ABC, at the time,?Trump threw a grand opening party that seemed as lavish as the casino itself. People like Michael Jackson and Elton John were in attendance.?
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The whole spectacle was captured by Robin Leach, celebrity journalist to the stars. On his show, Leach said the casino made $2 million on its opening day.
But this fancy casino's success was short-lived for Trump. According to reports, industry financial analyst, Marvin Roffman, says he knew at the time it wasn¡¯t sustainable.?Roffman said Trump called him the day after he bought the Trump Taj Mahal to get his advice.
¡°I said, ¡®Well, why would you want to have three casinos? One is going to cannibalize the other,¡¯¡± Roffman told ABC News¡¯ Nightline. ¡°And here was his response: ¡®Marvin, you have no vision. This is going to be a monster property.¡¯ And those were the exact words.¡±?
Just weeks before the casino opened, Roffman told The Wall Street Journal, ¡°When this property opens he will have had so much free publicity he will break every record in the books in April, June and July ¡ But once the cold winds blow from October to February it won't make it. The market just isn't there."
A little over a year after it opened, the Trump Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy and Trump's two other Atlantic City casinos followed suit the next year.?
In 2009, Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump resigned from the board, citing the poor financial performance of the casino and a few days later, the property reported bankruptcy.AFP
In 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino was shut down after the casino workers went on strike. Nearly 8,000 workers were?unemployed when four Atlantic City casinos closed in 2014.?Trump resigned as chairman of Trump Entertainment Resorts, retaining a 10 percent stake in return for the use of his name.
Trump Entertainment Resorts?company sold the casino to the owners of Hard Rock Cafe for?50 million USD. In 2017, everything from poker tables to the casino's chandeliers was?up for grabs to the public during Trump Taj Mahal's liquidations sales.?
We now wonder?if the POTUS visit to the actual Taj Mahal will trigger a chain of bitter memories from the past.?