According to reports from the time, Michael Jackson was attending the opening of Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City on April 5–7, 1990. When news arrived that their friend, teenager Ryan White, had passed away on April 8, 1990, Jackson and Trump immediately left the Atlantic City festivities and took a private plane to Indiana to visit Ryan White's family that same day.

Trump plays no role whatsoever in UFC becoming mainstream. This is either a lie or mistake that keeps being repeated but is flatly not true. The two shows in 2001 at Taj Mahal did nothing to repair UFC's fortunes at the time. The turning point is 2005's The Ultimate Fighter.