Restructuring a failing business requires puffery, threats, gambles and head fakes. Sound familiar? Donald Trump’s campaign for president often seems baffling. That’s because he is playing a very different game from what we expect in general elections. He learned it in bankruptcy proceedings. Having taken his Atlantic City casinos through bankruptcy multiple times, this is a game Trump knows how to play and win — at least for himself, if not necessarily for his companies or others who may depend on him. The process of restructuring troubled businesses such as Trump’s casinos is replete with posturing, table pounding, empty threats, puffery, head-fakes, and the occasional desperate gamble. If all that sounds familiar, it’s probably because you heard it from Trump in this week’s presidential debate. Bankruptcy may be the real model behind his unconventional political behavior. Corporate bankruptcies are complex and contentious affairs. Scores of creditors and shareholders grapple for slices of a pie that is too small to feed all of them. Ordinarily, the expectation is that shareholders will be wiped out, because the company is insolvent, and managers will …