Small then mentioned Trump's 'arrogance on the national stage, where he blatantly says he took advantage of the bankruptcy laws and made a lot of money in Atlantic City, and then just got out. He hurt so many little mom-and-pop shops and small businesses.' 'His properties started out as gems, and he let them fall into disrepair for the sake of making a dollar. 'Donald Trump has an atrocious history here in Atlantic City,' said Small during a phone interview. We do know what's scheduled nine days later, when Trump's original Atlantic City casino, the Plaza, is slated for implosion.Ītlantic City Mayor Marty Small is auctioning off for charity the chance to be the person who pushes the button that brings down the rotting structure that he says represents the devastation wrought on that community by Trump's boom-and-bust. We don't know for sure just what will happen in Washington on Jan. 20, when either Trump or Joe Biden is sworn in as president. If Trump tries to subvert democracy, will New Jersey - which Lincoln Steffens once described as 'the traitor state' for its embrace of corporate trusts - be implicated for the way the state's media and political elites indulged him?

Was our current national misery all presaged by Donald Trump's spectacular collapse in Atlantic City, which is so evident years later in the hulking ruin of the vacant Trump Plaza at the heart of the iconic boardwalk? How did New Jersey - my home state - go from being the 'Crossroads of the American Revolution' to being implicated in our republic's disease-ridden authoritarian dead-end?

With just days to go before the general election the nation is amidst another wave of a once-in-a-century pandemic, with a president who has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power, even if his opponent gets more votes.

This article was originally published by InsiderNJ.

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