How many times has Donald J. Trump filed for corporate bankruptcy and when (years)?
Executive summary
Donald J. Trump’s corporate enterprises filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection multiple times during the 1990s and 2000s, but sources disagree on the precise count; a prominent bankruptcy-industry summary lists four distinct corporate Chapter 11 episodes while several legal and encyclopedic accounts count six corporate bankruptcies between 1991 and 2009 [1] [2] [3].
1. The conventional four‑filings narrative: years and context
A concise, widely cited industry summary identifies four Chapter 11 filings tied to Trump businesses: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts in 2004, and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009, and it frames each as corporate Chapter 11 reorganizations rather than personal bankruptcies [1] [4].
2. The broader six‑filings claim and its evidence
Countervailing accounts—found in multiple legal blogs, local bankruptcy summaries and encyclopedic entries—report that Trump‑owned hotels and casinos underwent six Chapter 11 reorganizations between 1991 and 2009, stressing that all were corporate filings involving entities in Atlantic City and New York and reiterating that Trump himself did not file personal bankruptcy [5] [2] [3].
3. Why counts diverge: consolidation, affiliated entities, and technical counting
The discrepancy stems from how reporters and analysts count filings: some tallies treat each separate corporate entity or case number as a distinct bankruptcy while other summaries consolidate related cases into a single episode when multiple affiliated entities filed in the same restructuring or when cases were administratively combined, a practice noted in bankruptcy‑court reporting about consolidated proceedings involving Trump properties [4].
4. Which source to treat as authoritative and how to read the numbers
Bankruptcy‑industry outlets such as the American Bankruptcy Institute present the conservative, four‑episode framing with specific years and named properties, which is useful for a clear timeline [1] [4], while legal commentators and encyclopedic overviews that cite six filings emphasize the multiplicity of corporate case filings and the broader pattern of repeated reorganizations between 1991 and 2009 [2] [3]; both approaches are accurate within their counting conventions and neither proves a personal bankruptcy by Trump, a point consistently reiterated [5] [3].
5. Bottom line and caveats for readers
The direct answer depends on counting rules: using a consolidated, property‑level approach yields four corporate Chapter 11 episodes in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009 [1] [4], whereas counting every distinct corporate case affiliated with Trump’s hotel and casino operations produces a figure often reported as six Chapter 11 filings between 1991 and 2009 [2] [3]; the sources provided do not all list the individual additional case numbers that drive the six‑count version, so readers should treat both tallies as valid descriptions under different definitional choices [4] [2].