would an alleged billionaire need more money? the answer extreme debt. let's review trump's financial history. after trump tower was built in 1983, donald trump went on a spendi ining spree. he opened trump hotel and casino in 1980. then trump's castle. mar-a-lago, the trump air shuttle, the trump princess yacht and the atlantic city taj mahal. but then his finances took a nose dive. he had immassed debt. they owed billions of dollars to 72 banks. trump's net worth dropped from $1.7 billion to less than $500 million in one year, expelling him from forbe's list of the world's richest people. in the early 1990s, the taj mahal and trump castle all filed for bankruptcy, breaking trump's high stakes monopoly board.