Atlantic City Native: Don't Let Trump Do To The Country What He Did To My City

By Susie Madrak — September 29, 2016

For a while, Donald Trump was the king of Atlantic City.

"When profits were easy in Atlantic City because of its monopoly on gambling east of Nevada, Trump did well," said Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Donald Trump for decades.

"But he didn’t reinvest in his casinos, he sucked them dry as fast as he could, while others reinvested and those casinos continue to earn profits."

The bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump said Trump didn't do much for the city. "Other than minor acts, like his casino hotel kitchens donating excess food, Trump did nothing to remake and improve Atlantic City," Johnston said. "Indeed, at every opportunity he talked about what a hell hole he considered it."

After Hillary Clinton attacked Trump's record of stiffing small business owners in this week's debate, Atlantic City native Arielle Brousse shared her impassioned thoughts about Trump and her hometown on Twitter:

I've said it before: I grew up in Atlantic City. My parents, my friends' parents, my neighbors, they all worked in Atlantic City.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

As a matter of course, he hired small local businesses as contractors, did not pay them, and then filed bankruptcy.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

But also consider what it's like to be the small business owner who takes on a huge, glittery contract and then NEVER 👏🏽 GETS 👏🏾 PAID. 👏🏿

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

Trump orchestrated his own mini version of the housing bubble in my hometown. He came in. He prospected. We're left dragging his failures.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

He's an ego. He's a character. He's a joke. But that joke has human cost. It's financially and culturally destroyed the town I grew up in.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

It's insulting. It's gaslighting. To watch a man destroy you, and to hear him tell other people how good and powerful it makes him.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

These stakes are personal to me. Trust me: I have seen firsthand the damage he can do in a home community. A nation would be catastrophe.

— Arielle Brousse 📌 (@thewordunheard) September 27, 2016

He's not a great businessman. His business model is "run up huge debt and then refuse to pay it." Those who have followed his career in Atlantic City know to expect the worse.

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