I knew him as a developer in New York, of course, and someone had exclusively kept his development to the city, and that’s how I viewed him. When the buzz starts that Donald Trump from New York City might be thinking about heading to Atlantic City, what did you think of him? What was the image of the Donald Trump that might be coming? It has been edited for clarity and length.
This is the transcript of a conversation with FRONTLINE’s Michael Kirk held on June 25, 2016. In his interview, O’Donnell discusses why he thinks Trump failed in Atlantic City, why he declined interviews about Donald Trump for 25 years, and why he is speaking out now. O’Donnell says Trump began “blaming these problems on two people that had died while working for him.” Though he was president of Trump Plaza and liked his job, O’Donnell left in 1990, wrote a critical book, “Trumped!” and says he moved on, rarely discussing his experience with his former boss. Business soon soured for Trump in Atlantic City. He says he became particularly disillusioned with his boss after a helicopter crash in 1989 killed two casino executives.
Hired in 1987 as Vice President of Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City, Jack O’Donnell would become a critic of Donald Trump.