That Time Keith Richards Pulled a Knife to Eject Donald Trump from His Own Casino

Posted on: April 1, 2025, 04:34h. 

Last updated on: April 2, 2025, 10:51h.

Corey Levitan Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

• In 1989, a Rolling Stones pay-per-view concert special from Atlantic City was sponsored by Donald Trump
• The band wasn’t happy about the deal, which was made without its prior approval
• Keith Richards was really unhappy when Trump held an unauthorized press conference next door in his casino

It sounds like rock n’ roll folklore, but a furious, knife-wielding Keith Richards really did once have Donald Trump evicted from his own casino.

It happened on Dec. 19, 1989, before the Stones were scheduled to take the stage at the Atlantic City Convention Center (now Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall). It was the one date of their “Steel Wheels” world tour to be broadcast as an international pay-per-view special. Before the show, the Stones were to appear at a press conference promoting it.

“They didn’t get it, they didn’t like rock music yet,” he said during his keynote. So Cohl turned to Donald Trump, who loved rock music … before clearing it with the Stones. He figured it would be only a minor formality.

He figured wrong.

Upon telling his clients that the event’s sponsor was the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, he recalled being told, “We’re not going to be affiliated with Donald Trump. At all. Screw you.”

Cohl promised the Stones: “‘I will control Donald Trump! Don’t you worry!’”

His solution was to contractually forbid Trump from attending the concert and from placing his name on any of its marketing materials.

However, when the band arrived in Atlantic City, they were greeted with a poster reading: “Donald Trump Presents the Rolling Stones,” with Trump’s name in larger print than the band’s. They were already seething at that when, just before 6 p.m., the situation grew much worse.

Street Fighting Words

Donald Trump showed up — not technically at the concert, but right next door. The Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino is where Cohl had, regrettably, set up a press conference for the Stones.

Trump began fielding questions. Cohl was summoned into the room immediately.

“’Come on, Donald, what are you doing?’” he recalled quietly asking the future president after taking him aside. “’A) You promised us you wouldn’t even be here and, B) you promised you would never do this.’

“He says, ‘But they begged me to go up, Michael! They begged me to go up!’”

Cohl recalled replying: “Stop it, stop it, this could be crazy. Do what you said you would. Don’t make a liar of yourself.”

Trump managed to appease Cohl but, after the promoter exited the room, he continued his press conference.

Once back in the Stones’ dressing room, Cohl recalled, Richards pulled out a knife, jabbed it into a wooden table and issued an angry directive.

“One of us is leaving the building,” the guitarist said, “either him, or us.”

Get Off of My Crowd

Cohl is the only person in recorded history ever tasked with throwing Donald Trump out of a room in one of his own buildings. And this wasn’t an enviable way to make history.

As Cohl recalled, Trump “looks at me and goes berserk.”

Among the statements Cohl remembered having hurled at him: “You don’t know anything!” “Your guys suck!” and “I promote Mike Tyson!”

According to Cohl, the three members of Trump’s security detail began putting on gloves and brass knuckles as a show of force during Trump’s tirade.

Cohl continued: “I go on the walkie-talkie and I call for Jim Callahan, who was head of our security. I go, ‘Jim, I think I’m in a bit of trouble.’ And he says, ‘Just turn around.’”

Behind Cohl were 40 “Steel Wheels” crew members with tire irons, screwdrivers, and hockey sticks, literally ready to rumble.

“‘Now are you gonna go, Donald?’” Cohl recalled asking him politely. “And off he went.

“And that was the night I fired Donald Trump.”