Hillary Clinton launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump's bid for the presidency on Wednesday, describing his business record as a trail of failed ventures, empty promises and selfish deals.

Standing outside a now shuttered Trump casino in Atlantic City, Mrs Clinton said her Republican rival had spent his life running businesses into the ground and then leaving his employees to pick up the pieces.

"Donald Trump said he is going to do for his country what he did for his business," Mrs Clinton told the crowd. "Well, we should believe him and make sure he never has the chance to bankrupt America!"

Mr Trump's legacy in Atlantic City, an impoverished town characterised by boarded up windows and failing businesses, includes four rounds of bankruptcy for casinos he built there.

The presumptive Republican nominee has said he is running for president because America needs a good businessman in the White House, who can help an ailing middle class.

But in her most effective attack yet, Mrs Clinton sought to erode that image, saying "hundreds" of small businesses had been harmed by Mr Trump contracting them but then failing to pay what he owed.

She was introduced by Marty Rosenberg, the vice president of Atlantic Plate Glass Co, a New Jersey company hired by Mr Trump to work on one of his casinos but who says he was cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.