Reminds me of this Bob Dylan song about a lone soldier who won the wars after losing every battle. It must be a coincidence that the song’s title is “Idiot Wind”, because it has nothing to do with the tanTrump. Anyway, he loses money on each investment he makes and ends up richer ot at least able to pretend to be. Crazy world.
As for visiting one of his properties or a property that carries his name, I wouldn’t know where to find one in Europe (sorry, brexiteers, you don’t count anymore. We, Continent. You, Incontinent).
I was at the Taj in June of 2994. I too thought it was gaudy.
But I don’t like Atlantic City anyway. The Boardwalk is ok I guess.
Now that’s a trip I’d like to hear about 
Ha! I didn’t even notice I did that.
It was 2004.
We stayed at the Trump named hotel in Honolulu. Daughter had won a 3-day, 2-night stay at a raffle [crazy, it’s one late afternoon next day, then early out] but couldn’t use it because she worked at a Hilton basically next door. It was fine. Not much for amenities, coffee maker but no microwave. The restaurant was overpriced even for Honolulu. Most of the guests were Asian - tend to be brand concious.
Stayed at the Trump in Las Vegas. Most of the condos are private owners [700 or so], Hilton Grand Vacations has the rest as overflow for their Las Vegas property [400 suites]. Must be just a name on the building - our Hilton suite was to their standard with complete kitchen and large living areas - no Trump branding on anything.
I attended a wedding a the Trump Winery back in 2017. It was perfectly fine - little or no Trump branding, food was good, venue was nice & reasonably tasteful. I do remember the bride & groom told us they were required to buy an unreasonable amount of Trump wine (like a bottle per person) as part of the package.
I visited Trump Tower when it hosted a big chess event in 1994. It seemed like a typical hotel lobby. At any rate, I didn’t see anything likely to interest the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the time comes to join Bonwit-Teller on that great Fifth Avenue & 58th Street in the sky.
I missed the Taj Mahal on each of my handful of visits to AC. On the chance, though, that Stephen Fry does not post here, let me share his impression:
I must brave the interior of the most tawdry and literally trumpery tower of them all…the Trump Taj Mahal. For taking the name of the priceless mausoleum of Agra, one of the beauties and wonders of the world, for that alone Donald Trump should be stripped naked and whipped with scorpions along the boardwalk. It is as if a giant toad has raped a butterfly…there is even a shop devoted entirely to the personality of Donald Trump himself, with quotes from the great man all over the walls: ‘You’ve got to think anyway, so why not think big?’ and similar comforting and illuminating insights that enrich and nourish the hungry human soul…There is not a thing here that I would not be ashamed to be seen owning. I can pardon Trump all his vanities and shady junk-bonded dealings and financial brinkmanship, I would even forgive him his hair, were it not that everything he does is does with such poisonously atrocious taste, such false glamour, such shallow grandeur, such cynical vulgarity .
Never been inside, but I pass by a former property of his every day. The building that used to house the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto is kitty-corner to my own office building. He either broke ground or cut the ribbon, I forget which, standing alongside our former crackhead mayor Rob Ford (they had a mutual admiration thing going on). It was one of those “his name is on it, but his money’s not in it” branding lunacies, and investors were always suing because it turned into a money pit for them.
After the proposed Muslim ban early in his presidency, there was a great outcry about having his name branded on a major downtown tower here, and it was sold around then as well.
It’s kind of gaudy, has some weird architectural styling on the south side, and it looks like the parking is awkward to get to.
I visited International Hotel in Chicago. It’s not a bad looking building, I guess, but the inside is absolutely forgettable. My then boyfriend and I were hoping to see over the top glitz and tacky adornment and it was disappointing to find it so nondescript. Also, it was nearly empty and the lighting was kind of harsh. Aside from its height there was absolutely nothing remarkable about it.
On a related note, the tour guides on both the river and bust tours made jokes about it. Something about the top being removable so DT could add more stories so it would be the tallest.
Not sure if that typo relates to his many bankruptcies or his many wives’s, um, attributes.
We just got back from vacation in Chicago and our hotel was directly across the river from that thing. Are any other real estate developers so insecure that they have to plaster their name across the front in 20 ft high letters?
I stood near enough the building in Chicago to have my picture taken while flipping the bird. On another occasion the architecture boat speaker said that he’s not even gonna tell us the name of that building, it’s got huge letters out front if you want to know.
Never been in one, seen the outside of many. I’m a NYer, so I was tired of Trump long before the rest of the country.
Gave the obligatory finger to Trump Tower in NYC some years ago.
When I was working on the tour bus in New York City, I had the regular problem of how to deal with a couple of buildings called “Trump something Tower”, but were not actually Trump Tower (if you know NYC, I mean the one at Columbus Circle and the one on First Avenue just above the UN). I’d have been happy to ignore both, but I’d notice the customers pointing, so I felt it incumbent on me to say something. I didn’t want to make it out as if Trump Tower were one of the must-see sites, but I had to be careful not to be too scathing and possibly get myself in trouble with the company. My solution was to be over-the-top apologetic about the fact that this wasn’t THE Trump Tower, something like “I hate to break it too you so abruptly, but then I wouldn’t be doing you any favor stringing you along, would I?” One day, a young woman from South Africa responded “it’s ok, we’re from a shithole country anyway”.
Yeah, we did every time we drove past his hotel in DC, which was a lot, we lived in DC.
I disagree with the estimable Mr. Fry on this one point – I don’t think the vulgarity is cynical, in the sense that he does it to appeal to the vulgar masses, but that he really thinks his vulgarity is classy and sophisticated. His taste really is that appalling. His vulgarity is, in his mind, showing off.
There’s a new TikTok video I saw today about someone who was excited about checking into the Treasure Island casino hotel in Las Vegas, until they opened the curtains. I was expecting an ugly parking lot or a view of the airport. Nope, it was a straight on view of the Trump hotel. I laughed.
@JohnGalt , I had the same experience, only I was at the Mirage. Meh, I dealt; it was better than having the curtains always closed. Either way, what surprised me was how far it was off the Strip. It really isn’t that far; maybe a ten-minute walk, but it’s not like it’s right on the Strip.
The Rio suffers the same way in terms of distance from the Strip, but it’s got a casino, shows (Penn & Teller, for example), and plenty of bars and restaurants. I looked at the website for Trump’s Las Vegas property. It has no casino, no shows, and one restaurant. If it had another, or something like a sports bar, the website didn’t say. After seeing that, I had no reason nor desire to visit it.
I look forward to paying my respects at his final resting place. And by respects I mean urination.