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Taj Mahal Casino Visit

Date confirmed in New York Times (“...the chaos did not compare with that trailing the singer Michael Jackson as he strolled through a hall of the casino on Saturday [April 7, 1990])”

At the Taj Mahal, which opened last Monday to fanfare remarkable even by Trump standards, the embarrassment of some staff members was muted. One host, Brian Reich, acknowledged that some guests were livid. But he said the chaos did not compare with that trailing the singer Michael Jackson as he strolled through a hall of the casino on Saturday.

''When he walked through here, people just went crazy,'' Mr. Reich said. ''Ladies were getting trampled, kids were getting trampled. Somebody lost a shoe, and they thought it was Michael Jackson's shoe. They were going for his shoe.''

“Spectator Life” (September 22, 2016)

Michael Jackson in 1990 was at the very pinnacle of his fame… Whether he was paid to come or turned up for free, I didn’t discover, but his unannounced appearance caused a whirling sandstorm at the Taj Mahal. If Queen Cleopatra herself had risen from the dead and checked in using a solid gold Amex card there could have been no more excitement in reception than that which greeted Jacko’s arrival.

Only one man could control the situation: stepforward The Donald.

Taking Michael by the arm, Trump steered him through the pandemonium on the ground floor. A comprehensive tour took in reception, a crowded escalator (I’ve no idea where it went), the football-field-sized gaming floor and the 24-hour slots. The TV news guys rolled along euphorically to document the chaos, not quite believing their luck. At one point, if memory serves, we took refuge in a Chinese restaurant.

Trump staged an extravagant launch presentation which foreshadowed the circus-like atmosphere of his 2016 presidential rallies. He knew where to put the spotlight. He didn’t need a PR team — if I met one that day, I don’t remember it. He was a one-man PR team.

Michael Jackson retired to his suite. I later heard a rumour that he’d been spotted disguised as an old woman, playing the slots with a plastic bucket full of quarters.