When it comes to the slow-motion cataclysm that is Atlantic City, where as we reported recently the Revel Casino recently filed its second and final liquidation bankruptcy, no other name has seen more bankruptcies than Donald Trump. Or rather Trump Entertainment, because nowadays the two are anything but synonymous. In fact, the Donald is so embarrassed of his namesake legacy that a month ago he filed a lawsuit demanding that his name be stripped from the hotels making up the former.

As the AP reported at the time, "the real estate mogul said he had sued Trump Entertainment Resorts, a descendant of a corporate entity he once controlled, because it has allowed its two Atlantic City casinos, the Trump Plaza and the Trump Taj Mahal, to fall into disrepair, tarnishing his personal brand and confusing customers. "I want it off both of them," Trump said Tuesday evening. "I've been away from Atlantic City for many years. People think we operate [the company], and we don't. It's not us. It's not me."

Well maybe not, although the entity known as Trump Entertainment Resorts, f/k/a Trump Hotels and Casino, certainly "was us, was he." 

It is this entity that filed for bankruptcy in 1991, then also in 2004 and again in 2009. It was at that point that the Don basically gave up and handed the keys over to the bank, or in this case Avenue Capital headed by Obama's favorite "French ambassador" Marc Lasry, following which the properties were sold for pennies on the dollar to the Meruelo Group, which has zero relation to DJT.

"Since Mr. Trump left Atlantic City many years ago, the license entities have allowed the casino properties to fall into an utter state of disrepair and have otherwise failed to operate and manage the casino properties in accordance with the high standards of quality and luxury required under the license agreement," Trump wrote in his lawsuit, filed in the name of Trump AC Casino Marks L.L.C.

 

Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Robert Griffin declined to comment.

 

Trump appears particularly vexed at the impending closing of Trump Plaza on Sept. 16.

But while the closing was well-known, and a bankruptcy was speculated, as of moments ago it is now fact:

• TRUMP ENTERTAINMENT SAID TO PLAN CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY FILING

Which means the Trump Entertainment brand, or whatever it will be called soon, has filed for bankruptcy for record 4 times in its brief but volatile history. In fact, this may be that one unicorn in the bankruptcy business: a Chapter 44.

There certainly will not be a Chapter 55.