If you had ever been to the site and saw the house and the site, you would not say that. She made a dumb, selfish move and Trump had to take the fall for the entire city council and everyone else in that planning commission.
Bob Guccione [Penthouse fame] started the casino, which Trump later bought and finished.
I read in *Art of the Deal* that Trump inherited the mess with Mrs. Coking from Guccione; Trump offered to pay Vera Coking millions of dollars and provide her with free housing for life in one of his luxury high-rises if she*d sell him the 29~room boarding house in Atlantic City.
Trump has unloaded most of his ownership in the Trump Plaza, as far as I know.
That makes sense, that Trump was the only one ready to take flak for trying to ‘improve’ an area.
Indeed, never been to AC but the publicity hit was bad.