Trump Plaza to Implode Just Days After Biden Inauguration, Deemed a 'Public Safety Hazard'

The Trump Plaza Casino tower in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is set for implosion on January 29, just days after President-elect Joe Biden's presumptive Inauguration Day.

Critics of President Donald Trump and his ongoing "voter fraud" claims are citing the scheduled January demolition of the 39-story tower as a metaphor for his own behavior since Election Day. Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small announced an end to years of financial wrangling over the former Trump casino, which opened in 1984 before closing permanently in 2014. Atlantic City officials deemed the Trump Plaza structure on the famous Boardwalk a "public safety hazard" last March.

The building's demolition will mean there are no more major Trump properties left in Atlantic City. The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump's return to the family real estate business will be met with lingering financial problems and likely layoffs.

Former Democratic Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill shared a video Sunday of an Atlantic City resident proclaiming, "Go Biden" as she stood next to the wrapped and netted structure set for implosion. "There is something poetic that the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City is scheduled for implosion about a week after President Biden takes office," the MSNBC contributor quipped.

City officials and concerned locals have for years proposed fencing, saying pedestrians are at risk of being hit by falling debris from the dilapidated former Trump structure.

Billionaire developer Carl Icahn has owned the property since 2016 and the casino operations closed in September 2014. Trump Organization bankruptcies dating back as far as 1992 plagued the operation with financial troubles for years and city officials said the increasingly dilapidated building had become an eyesore. Citing disrepair, Trump in 2014 sued Trump Entertainment Resorts, which he no longer controlled, and demanded to have his name removed from the Trump Plaza building.

"The Trump Plaza was put out of its stained-carpet, squeaky-revolving-door, no-room-service, center-of-the-Boardwalk misery, as its dedicated hospice workers dealt a final hand of blackjack," The Philadelphia Inquirer said of its September 2014 closure.

Trump previously had two other casinos in Atlantic City, the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Marina, but both were later rebranded and operated under new management following numerous Trump bankruptcies. Icahn Enterprises still owns the property, which is scheduled for clean-up through June 2021. A smaller tower containing a Rainforest Cafe and a parking deck will remain on the oceanfront property after the demolition.

Trump's Taj Mahal casino was sold for pennies on the dollar in 2017 and ended the New York businessman's prominence in the seaside gambling town he first built up in the 1980s. The Trump Taj Mahal became the Hard Rock Casino and the former Trump Marina building is now the Golden Nugget, Jersey Digs reported.

Trump Plaza opened as Harrah's at Trump Plaza in the mid-80s and was the flagship development property of the Trump Organization in Atlantic City. It boasted 906 guest rooms and 86,000 square feet of casino space.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump Organization and the Atlantic City mayor's office Sunday evening.