(FORTUNE Magazine) – Say it ain't so! Can it be that Donald Trump -- hitherto triumphant speculator in New York City real estate and Atlantic City casinos, best-selling autobiographer, inspiration for a board game, the man whose flair for shameless hype made him a billionaire and an Eighties icon -- is strapped for cash? FORTUNE warned months ago that The Donald was facing a cash crunch (''Trump's Troubles,'' December 18, 1989). In June, Trump confirmed that he has been secretly negotiating with his bankers for weeks. The press, which reveled in Trump's brand-name vulgarity while he was on the rise, is in ecstasy now that he seems to be getting his comeuppance. The New York Post, for example, reported that Trump's 282-foot yacht, Trump Princess, acquired from fallen billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, cannot be sold because it ''has bad karma.'' Ultimately, Trump's pocketbook may be hurt less than his pride. His . creditors -- including Citicorp, Bankers Trust, and Chase Manhattan, do seem concerned about Trump's ability to handle an estimated $350-million-a-year interest due on his $3 billion total debt. A real estate developer believes that Trump's empire -- including the Plaza Hotel in New York and the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City -- has a negative annual cash flow of $60 million. That's worrisome, if true. But his lenders would gain little by forcing Trump to sell assets at the distress prices he'd likely have to settle for or by pushing him into bankruptcy and destroying the value of his name. Instead, they may decide to protect their investment by lending Trump even more, just as others have with bankrupt South American countries. The outcome is hard to predict. But stand by for one more Trump product. Random House is rushing publication of his second book, Trump: Surviving at the Top.