Note that this thread is not meant to discuss Donald Trump himself, or his politics. Just if you’ve visited a Trump property–casinos, golf courses, hotels, whatever–and what your impression of the property (or properties) was (or were).
My girlfriend and I took a daytrip to the Trump Taj Mahal in the fall of 1990, not too long after it opened. My first impression was “gaudy.” There was some sculpture near the entrance that depicted mythical creatures, all painted in bright colours. Signs were in a font that was supposed to look South Asian, or maybe Middle Eastern, I couldn’t tell. At any rate, they didn’t tell you what you wanted to know: where restaurants, washrooms, telephones, bars etc. were. We did have a nice lunch in a restaurant we stumbled across that might as well have been a Denny’s, but was more expensive. In fairness, the gambling was fine–my girlfriend had a lot of fun on the slots, and I introduced her to the crap table. But overall, my impression was that the Trump Taj Mahal was way over the top–almost like it was trying too hard. I’ve been to casinos in Las Vegas that were more understated.
Of course, you can’t spend all day in a casino (well, I guess some people could), and we went out for a walk on the Boardwalk (many Monopoly jokes ensued). Just to see something different, we went into Merv Griffin’s Resorts International, where we found a nice bar with a jazz trio playing, and cold beer. My girlfriend easily found the store where she could get cigarettes. We didn’t recall finding a bar or a jazz trio or a store at the Taj Mahal. We decided that if we returned to Atlantic City. we’d head for Merv Griffin’s, and avoid the Trump Taj Mahal.
If you’ve been to a Trump property, what were your impressions?
Been to the Trump casinos in Atlantic City, in particular the Taj Mahal. Just this year I went to the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC – it looked dead.
We were traveling through Ireland and stopped at the Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg. Trump was already in office by that time. We were just curious and looked around the clubhouse. The service when we arrived was top notch. We were greeted by a team of helpers expecting that we were customers that needed our bags attended. But we found this to be the standard throughout Ireland.
The link takes you to their photo gallery. You can see that it is all very traditional high end. It did not have the patented Trump gaudy feel. We actually ended up buying a handful of nice items in the shop, as we found the prices to be surprisingly good, compared to the same items out in the general public. So, yeah, ultimately Trump got some of my money (dammit!)
My wife and I went to Trump Tower in NYC once. This was in the mid-2000s, during the early seasons of The Apprentice. My wife and I were fans of the show, happened to see the building while walking on Fifth Avenue, and decided to check it out. We were only there for a few minutes, and snapped some pictures of us in front of the sign. On the inside I only saw the lobby. As others have described, it was pretty gaudy, with a lot of faux-gold paneling. I also recall they had a pretty spiffy-looking doorman out front.
Before COVID, my brother did a road trip to Trump Tower in NYC just to get a selfie of him giving the finger to the sign. I guess that’s a thing, there were other people doing the same.
Me too! Went on a family vaca to D.C. with Mrs. lost and my two lost boys toward the end of the Obama era. There was a sign outside the Old Post Office saying something like “Coming soon: Trump International Hotel”. I was happy that we were able to see the place just before he got his stink all over it.
I was always amazed there was a “Trump 29” Casino in Coachella, CA. Right at the edge of the desert. I always thought it was a weird place. This was way before the failed presidency. Even then I was like “stay away loser.” It was a bad investment for him. (Does he ever have good ones?)
We visited NYC in 1984 and stopped at the Trump Tower during the middle of a weekday. They had security guards at the bottom of “the” escalator, making people wait, and I assumed to keep out the riff-raff*. I guess we passed. We got to the atrium level on the second floor, walked past the tony shops, and took the elevator back down and left. The number of black limos idling on the street made me realize that I’d never be comfortable living there; I didn’t feel comfortable just visiting.
* Or were they making people wait because the escalator was underdesigned and couldn’t handle lots of people at a time?
During my year in the Upper East Side, the supermarket I usually went to was on the ground floor of one of his buildings. The supermarket was fine. The building was just a building.
