C M Y K Nxxx,2020-09-29,A,001,Bs-4C,E1 Late Edition Today, partly cloudy, humid, show- ers, high 74. Tonight, showers, some heavy late, thunderstorms, low 68. Tomorrow, morning rain, high 70. Weather map appears on Page B12. VOL. CLXX . ...No. 58,831 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 $3.00 TRUMP’S TV FACADE RESCUED FINANCES AND AIDED HIS RISE Tax Records Reveal $427 Million Lifeline, Built on Myths From ‘Apprentice’ This article is by Mike McIn- Trump-scale famous — and mone- tire, Ross Buettner and Susanne tizing that fame. Craig. By analyzing the tax records, From the back seat of a stretch The New York Times was able to limousine heading to meet the place a value on Mr. Trump’s ce- first contestants for his new TV lebrity. While the returns show show “The Apprentice,” Donald J. that he earned some $197 million Trump bragged that he was a bil- directly from “The Apprentice” lionaire who had overcome finan- over 16 years — roughly in line cial hardship. with what he has claimed — they also reveal that an additional $230 “I used my brain, I used my ne- million flowed from the fame asso- gotiating skills and I worked it all ciated with it. out,” he told viewers. “Now, my The show’s big ratings meant company is bigger than it ever that everyone wanted a piece of was and stronger than it ever the Trump brand, and he grabbed was.” at the opportunity to rent it out. It was all a hoax. There was $500,000 to pitch Dou- Months after that inaugural ble Stuf Oreos, another half-mil- episode in January 2004, Mr. lion to sell Domino’s Pizza and Trump filed his individual tax re- $850,000 to push laundry deter- turn reporting $89.9 million in net gent. JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES losses from his core businesses for There were seven-figure licens- the prior year. The red ink spilled ing deals with hotel builders, ‘A Year-Round Fire Season’ from everywhere, even as Ameri- some with murky backgrounds, in Firefighters battled a new round of wildfires in Sonoma County that prompted evacuations in California’s wine country. Page A25. can television audiences saw him former Soviet republics and other as a savvy business mogul with developing countries. And there the Midas touch. were schemes that exploited mis- Twelve years later, that image placed trust in the TV version of of the self-made, self-saved mo- Mr. Trump, who, off camera, ped- White House For Many, Barrett Fight Is Personal, Not Political gul, beamed into the national con- dled worthless get-rich-quick nos- sciousness, would help fuel Mr. trums like “Donald Trump Way to Pushed C.D.C. fears that Democratic opposition Trump’s improbable election to Continued on Page A22 By REID J. EPSTEIN to Judge Barrett will tear the the White House. Reaction Among Voters country apart. But while the story of “The Ap- On School Risk Jennifer Mintun is a Catholic Isn’t Neatly Divided “The people that are in the prentice” is by now well known, stay-at-home mother in Denver, country now that are leftist, they the president’s tax returns reveal N.C., who thinks there should be don’t seem to understand the dan- another grand twist that has more restrictions on abortion Along Party Lines This article is by Mark Mazzetti, ger of all of this derision,” she said. never been truly told — how the rights. But she’s worried that Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFra- Yet she added: “I have a hard time popularity of that fictional alter Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Presi- niere. with a bunch of old white men de- ego rescued him, providing a fi- dent Trump’s nominee to the Su- mer Vice President Joseph R. Bi- ciding what I should do with my nancial lifeline to reinvent himself WASHINGTON — Top White preme Court, may go too far in op- den Jr. body when it comes to abortion is- yet again. And then how, in an House officials pressured the Cen- posing abortion and same-sex Charlene Bowden, 80, is a re- sues. Why should they decide?” echo of the boom-and-bust cycle ters for Disease Control and Pre- marriage. tired nurse from Eddington, Me., Interviews since Sunday with that has defined his business ca- vention this summer to downplay “I do have a gay brother, and who strongly favors abortion more than two dozen voters who reer, he led himself toward the fi- the risk of sending children back that is very important to me that rights but feels Justice Brett M. are still making up their minds in to school, a strikingly political in- nancial shoals he must navigate he doesn’t feel stripped of any Kavanaugh was treated unfairly the presidential contest showed a tervention in one of the most sen- today. rights,” said Ms. Mintun, 31, who is during his 2018 confirmation set of Americans weighing how Mr. Trump’s genius, it turned CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES sitive public health debates of the they should react to the looming With Mark Burnett, the creator pandemic, according to docu- undecided in the presidential race hearings and is leaning toward out, wasn’t running a company. It ments and interviews with cur- but leaning toward voting for for- voting for Mr. Trump. Now she Continued on Page A20 was making himself famous — of “The Apprentice,” in 2003. rent and former government offi- cials. As part of their behind-the- scenes effort, White House offi- cials also tried to circumvent the Tax Revelations Scramble Stakes C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic As Candidates Face First Debate was weakening and posed little danger to children. The documents and interviews By PETER BAKER and MICHAEL D. SHEAR show how the White House spent weeks trying to press public WASHINGTON — The disclo- day, revealed that Mr. Trump paid health professionals to fall in line sure that President Trump paid no federal income taxes for 11 of with President Trump’s election- little or no federal income taxes the 18 years examined and just year agenda of pushing to reopen for years, including while in the $750 in 2016, the year he won the schools and the economy as White House, convulsed the presi- presidency, and $750 in 2017, his quickly as possible. The president dential campaign on Monday with first year in office. Mr. Trump and his team have remained defi- only five weeks to go and immedi- wrote off more than $70,000 paid ant in their demand for schools to ately scrambled the equation and to style his hair during “The Ap- get back to normal, even as co- stakes of the first debate, to be prentice” and collected $72.9 mil- ronavirus cases have once again held on Tuesday night. lion in refunds challenged by ticked up, in some cases linked to While Mr. Trump tried to deflect I.R.S. auditors. He owes hundreds school and college reopenings. the news about his taxes, and his of millions of dollars due in the The effort included Dr. Deborah Republican allies generally kept next four years. L. Birx, the White House’s corona- their silence, Democrats pounced The tax data analyzed by The virus response coordinator, and and former Vice President Joseph Times, which was provided by officials working for Vice Presi- R. Biden Jr., the party’s presiden- sources with legal access to it, fur- dent Mike Pence, who led the task tial candidate, posted a video not- ther undercut the image of a force. It left officials at the C.D.C., ing that the president paid less in wildly successful businessman long considered the world’s pre- income taxes than everyday long projected by Mr. Trump while mier public health agency, Americans like teachers, firefight- he was reporting expansive and alarmed at the degree of pressure ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS ers and nurses. chronic losses by many of his from the White House. The report in The New York marquee properties like his golf One member of Mr. Pence’s A Grim Global Milestone Times, published online on Sun- courses in Florida and Europe and Continued on Page A6 In New Delhi, a man fixed the grave of his wife as Covid-19 deaths passed one million. Page A8. day evening and in print on Mon- Continued on Page A24 Virus Pushing New York Into a Financial Abyss Biden’s Game Plan: Focus, and Don’t Take Bait And even as the city has con- sible to debate with such a crowd. By DANA RUBINSTEIN Signs City Is Headed tained the spread of the virus, it By SHANE GOLDMACHER Facing a Foe With Few “If you had a debate with five has been unable to exert control other people, you might actually The unemployment rate in New and KATIE GLUECK over its threat to the economy. get a chance to say something,” York City is 16 percent, twice as to ’70s-Style Crisis Joseph R. Biden Jr. was frus- Openings Remaining Numerous economic indicators Mr. Biden told donors in Holly- high as the rest of the country. trated as he tried last year to pre- suggest that New York City will wood last fall. He would deliver Personal income tax revenue is pare for an unwieldy debate sea- more forceful performances as expected to drop by $2 billion this face an extended financial crisis, son that stuffed as many as 11 forced to grapple with the corona- the likes of which has not been portrayed by Bob Bauer, the for- the field narrowed, he promised.