They demolished the casino built by Donald Trump in Atlantic City: the moment of the implosion

The Trump Plaza Casino, a celebrity haven for years and erected in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was reduced to rubble on Wednesday in a controlled explosion which was followed by applause from the people who gathered in this city on the east coast of the United States.

In just twenty seconds the tower collapsed that one day the businessman and former president Donald Trump erected as the jewel in the crown of his hotel empire and through which musicians, actors and celebrities have passed for decades.

The event drew in onlookers who paid to see the implosion up close. “It’s the end of a not so great era”, said New York Times Jennifer Owen, who auctioned off $ 575 for a front row seat and luxurious breakfast in a waterfront building with a direct view of the demolition.

“Everybody, from Hulk Hogan to Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, the whole range of personalities“He has been through this hotel,” said the director of events for the casino since it opened in 1984 to 1991, Bernie Dillon, quoted by several local media.

The city’s fire chief, Scott Evans, explained that explosive charges were placed at strategic locations in the structure that supported it, so that the weight would cause it to fall onto its base vertically, with a small deviation to the northeast.

However, the dazzling casino that they also walked through Madonna, Sean Penn, Barbra Streisand, Don Johnson or Muhammad Ali, among many others, had not belonged to the president since 2016, when it was acquired by millionaire Carl Icahn, with another casino that the former president still maintained in this coastal town.

Given the success of Trump Plaza (closed in 2014), the businessman embarked on the construction of the Trump Taj Mahal in 1990 and put aside his first and successful project, as he recalled in dialogue with the channel Abc6 the president of the main casino union, Bob McDevitt.

But the The debts and mismanagement of the two, added to the oversaturation of the city’s casinos, forced the mogul to sell them. The Taj Mahal, also acquired by Icahn, continues to operate but under a new brand: Hard Rock.

In mid-June, the mayor of Atlantic City, Marty Small announced the demolition of Trump Plaza, seeing it as a danger to residents. Icahn did not announce what he would do with the earth, whose cleaning will last until May.

The old building had become a symbol of the end of the gambling age in Atlantic City. The city still has nine casinos, which have been closed for months following the coronavirus pandemic. After its reopening in July, occupancy is limited to 35% of its capacity.

With information from EFE and AFP

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