In the spring of 1990, a grinning Donald Trump stood on a platform suspended outside his new Atlantic City casino, rubbing a golden lamp the size of a washing machine. The lantern fizzed with smoke and emitted two lightning-like laser beams from its spout, shooting into the sky to sever a ribbon draped over the forty-two-story Taj Mahal Casino and Resort.

Trump — skinny and sporting thick brown hair — looks nothing like the plump, sunburnt, and bleached Republican presidential candidate of today. He had just consolidated his empire by the boardwalk; the Taj was his third Atlantic City casino, his biggest but also his last.

By the time he announced his presidential bid, it was all in ruins. The Taj Mahal collapsed first, filing for bankruptcy just a year after it opened. Trump had financed the casino with millions in junk bonds, and hundreds of contractors went unpaid. Its $3.5 million cash reserve — a mandatory requirement of the Casino Control Commission — had to be delivered in a briefcase by Fred Trump, Donald’s father.