Last night Donald Trump dropped a bombshell on Larry King when asked for his view of CityCenter (which opens to the public near midnight on Wednesday). The Donald slammed the place, which it is not clear he has even visited: “It’s a total catastrophe. First of all, it cost billions more than it was anticipated to. So that you have to blame the company for and the people leading it. But it’s turned out to be a total catastrophe.”

“Total catastrophe;” CityCenter hasn’t even finished opening yet?

Interestingly, his son recently offered a view with slightly more nuance to Review-Journal. According to Review-Journal:

“Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisitions for The Trump Organization, said CityCenter will put Las Vegas back in the public spotlight, which should be good for everyone in the market.

‘There’s no question that opening a new project, and the marketing dollars spent, gets people excited,” said Trump, who is the son of developer and ‘The Apprentice’ star Donald Trump.

Trump concedes CityCenter will inevitably cannibalize customers from other Strip resorts although he doubts it will draw a significant share of customers from his company’s nongaming Trump International Hotel.

‘Hotels will have to do a little more work to stay competitive,’ he said. ‘Hopefully, (any lost customers) will be offset by the gains of getting people excited about the new property.’”

I said only “slightly” more complex than dad.

I think mini-Trump has this exactly wrong. Vdara is going to be a huge problem for Trumps’ Vegas property above all. I stayed at Trump to check it out a few months ago, and would say one reason Eric Trump does not fear losing business is that there is little to lose. The room was already far cheaper than they likely imagined when Trump International was built. Trump is off Strip, lacks gambling, a showroom, and anything but a brand to bring in tourists. But there are a lot of brands in Las Vegas.

Still, Eric Trump probably gets that anything that shuffles the deck in Vegas a little has got to help their forgotten property.

For the record, I did not think even at a bargain price Trump was worth leaving the Strip for a stay. Built as condominiums, the place, with miniature kitchenette, had the feel of a gold plated Extended Stay. Trump International in Vegas, also, distinguished itself by having the worst valet service I have ever faced in this city. The Trump valet brought me the wrong car (a nice one) and tried to convince my guest and I that this was our car and we were wrong to say otherwise. He actually suggested someone might have dropped off a car for us and not mentioned doing so. Finally, I walked him, number by number, through the ticket to show him the digit that did not match. Then he paid attention, and stopped insisting the numbers matched. It still took awhile, even then for him to figure out what to do next (bring me my car?).  And, I have not been back to Trump.

So, for all sorts of reasons, I suspect Vdara will do a better job than Trump servicing Vegas. But the main reason: the location of Vdara will give tourists a better feel of being connected to the Strip.

Despite the philosophy behind Trump International, I just don’t think there is a huge demand by tourists to visit Vegas and not be connected to the Strip with the exception of tourist corridor properties like Las Vegas Hilton, Rio, Hard Rock and Palms, all of which, work hard to stay nationally relevant using headliners, concerts and marketing.

Anyway, I guess what I am saying is that I think Eric Trump is wrong about at least one thing: CityCenter is going to be a real challenge for Trump International in Vegas.

But that does not make Daddy Donald right. Sadly, Trump was not called on to explain the reasons behind his opinion that CityCenter is a “total catastrophe.”  And, of course, Trump’s verbal low-blow was immediately sent by Twitter throughout Vegas. But King’s focus isn’t Vegas, and he at once cut to commercial and then got back to the important discussion of Tiger Woods.

I am taking my second media tour of CityCener today. And, I plan to go to the opening tomorrow night before writing at length about the property.

But if I were MGM-Mirage, I would not worry too much about Donald Trump. Not that there is any shortage of stuff for MGM-Mirage to worry about with CityCenter. I am just saying, based on Donald Trump’s contribution to Vegas thus far, The Donald’s savvy on the topic of Vegas is at least as open a question as the impact of CityCenter.

(Photo: CityCenter and Trump International Sarah Gerke)