Trump War Chest of Over $1 Billion Is Dwindling Fast

C M Y K Nxxx,2020-09-08,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

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How an ‘Unstoppable Juggernaut’ Lost a Huge Cash Advantage Over Biden

By SHANE GOLDMACHER and MAGGIE HABERMAN Money was supposed to have initiatives, including hiring prac- been one of the great advantages tices, travel and the advertising of incumbency for President budget. Trump, much as it was for Presi- Under Mr. Parscale, more than dent Barack Obama in 2012 and $350 million — almost half of the George W. Bush in 2004. After get- $800 million spent — went to fund- ting outspent in 2016, Mr. Trump raising operations, as no expense filed for re-election on the day of was spared in finding new donors his inauguration — earlier than online. The campaign assembled any other modern president — a big and well-paid staff and betting that the head start would housed the team at a cavernous, deliver him a decisive financial well-appointed office in the Vir- advantage this year. ginia suburbs; outsize legal bills It seemed to have worked. His were treated as campaign costs; rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was rel- and more than $100 million was atively broke when he emerged as spent on a television advertising the presumptive Democratic blitz before the party convention, nominee this spring, and Mr. the point when most of the elector- Trump and the Republican Na- ate historically begins to pay close PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIRSTEN LUCE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES tional Committee had a nearly attention to the race. $200 million cash advantage. Among the splashiest and per- A Holiday Weekend on the Road Five months later, Mr. Trump’s haps most questionable pur- Shelly Greenlee, top left; Betsy Canteen with her dogs; and Quinton Hunter at a rest area along the New Jersey Turnpike. Page A11. financial supremacy has evapo- chases was a pair of Super Bowl rated. Of the $1.1 billon his cam- ads the campaign reserved for $11 paign and the party raised from million, according to Advertising the beginning of 2019 through Analytics — more than it has July, more than $800 million has spent on TV in some top battle- German Fringe Lockdown and Despair Sow Death in Rural India already been spent. Now some ground states — a vanity splurge people inside the campaign are that allowed Mr. Trump to match again. The measures, economists forecasting what was once un- the billionaire Michael R. Bloom- Finds in Trump berg’s buy for the big game. By KARAN DEEP SINGH say, are forcing millions of house- thinkable: a cash crunch with less Crushing Losses Push holds into poverty and contribut- than 60 days until the election, ac- There was also a cascade of A Cult ‘Savior’ SIRSIWALA, India — Randhir Suicide Rate Higher ing to a long-running tragedy: cording to Republican officials smaller choices that added up: Singh was already deeply in debt farmer suicides. briefed on the matter. The campaign hired a coterie of when the coronavirus pandemic Among Farmers Farm bankruptcies and debts Brad Parscale, the former cam- highly paid consultants (Mr. Anger at Establishment struck. Looking out at his paltry like the one that tormented Mr. paign manager, liked to call Mr. Trump’s former bodyguard and cotton field by the side of a railway Singh have been the source of mi- Trump’s re-election war machine White House aide has been paid Unites Many Causes track, he walked in circles, hope- sery in the country for decades, an “unstoppable juggernaut.” But more than $500,000 by the R.N.C. less. In early May, he killed him- ronavirus, Mr. Singh’s livelihood but experts say the suffering has interviews with more than a doz- since late 2017); spent $156,000 self by lying on the same track. came crashing down. His one-acre reached new levels in the pan- en current and former campaign for planes to pull aerial banners in recent months; and paid nearly By KATRIN BENNHOLD “This is what we feared,” said farm had barely produced enough demic. aides and Trump allies, and a re- Rashpal Singh, Mr. Singh’s 22- cotton to cover the cost of growing “This crisis is the making of this view of thousands of items in fed- $110,000 to Yondr, a company that BERLIN — Just before hun- year-old son, choking back tears it, and the lockdown even robbed government,” said Vikas Rawal, a eral campaign filings, show that makes magnetic pouches used to dreds of far-right activists re- in his family home in Sirsiwala, a him of his side job as a bus driver. professor of economics at the the president’s campaign and the store cellphones during fund-rais- cently tried to storm the German small village in the northern Indi- India now leads the world in Jawaharlal Nehru University in R.N.C. developed some profligate ers so that donors could not se- Parliament, one of their leaders habits as they burned through cretly record Mr. Trump and leak revved up the crowd by conjuring an state of Punjab. “The lockdown new daily reported coronavirus New Delhi, the capital. Mr. Rawal, hundreds of millions of dollars. his remarks. President Trump. killed my father.” cases and has the second-highest who has spent the past 25 years Since Bill Stepien replaced Mr. Some people familiar with the “Trump is in Berlin!” the wom- Months ago, when Prime Min- number of cases globally, surpass- studying agrarian distress in In- Parscale in July, the campaign has expenses noted that Mr. Parscale an shouted from a small stage, as ister Narendra Modi imposed one ing Brazil on Monday. In Punjab, dia, said that he believes thou- imposed a series of belt-tighten- had a car and driver, an unusual if to dedicate the imminent charge of the world’s strictest lockdowns where cases have surged, lock- sands of people who live and work ing measures that have reshaped Continued on Page A16 to him. to prevent the spread of the co- downs have been imposed all over Continued on Page A6 She was so convincing that sev- eral groups of far-right activists later showed up at the American Embassy and demanded an audi- Leery of Virus, Congress Flails ence with Mr. Trump. “We know he’s in there!” they insisted. Mr. Trump was neither in the Drivers Empty As States’ Cuts embassy nor in Germany that day — and yet there he was. His face Used Car Lots Reach the Bone was emblazoned on banners, T- shirts and even on Germany’s pre-1918 imperial flag, popular By NEAL E. BOUDETTE By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH with neo-Nazis in the crowd of 50,000 who had come to protest Used cars are usually over- Alaska chopped resources for Germany’s pandemic restrictions. looked in the fanfare accorded to public broadcasting. New York His name was invoked by many cutting-edge electric cars and City gutted a nascent composting with messianic zeal. gussied-up pickup trucks. Now program that could have kept tons It was only the latest evidence they are suddenly the industry’s of food waste out of landfills. New that Mr. Trump is emerging as a hottest commodity. Jersey postponed property-tax- kind of cult figure in Germany’s Consumers are snapping up relief payments. increasingly varied far-right used vehicles as second or third Prisoners in Florida will contin- scene. cars so they can avoid trains, ue to swelter in their cells, be- “Trump has become a savior buses or Ubers during the corona- cause plans to air-condition its figure, a sort of great redeemer for virus pandemic. Others are buy- prisons are on hold. Many states the German far right,” said Miro ing used rather than new to save have already cut planned raises money in an uncertain economy, for teachers. Dittrich, an expert on far-right ex- KARAN DEEP SINGH/THE NEW YORK TIMES not knowing when they or their And that’s just the start. tremism at the Berlin-based Randhir Singh killed himself in May, leaving behind his widow, Paramjeet Kaur, and son Rashpal. Amadeu-Antonio-Foundation. spouse might lose a job. Demand Across the nation, states and Germany — a nation generally for older cars has also been fed by cities have made an array of fiscal supportive of a government that a roughly two-month halt in pro- maneuvers to stay solvent and are has handled the pandemic better duction of new cars this spring. planning more in case Congress than most — may seem an un- Across the country, the prices of cannot agree on a fiscal relief likely place for Mr. Trump to gain Black, and Bent on His Native American Rights used cars have shot up. The in- package after the August recess. such a status. Few Western na- crease defies the conventional House Democrats included promised tribal citizenship and an tions have had a more contentious wisdom that cars are depreciating nearly $1 trillion in state and local equal stake in the tribes’ lands and relationship with Mr. Trump than By JACK HEALY Treaty of 1866 Promised assets that lose a big chunk of aid in the relief bill they passed in fortunes. But what followed were Germany, whose leader, Chancel- OKMULGEE, Okla. — Ron Gra- their value the moment they leave May, but the Senate majority lor Angela Merkel, a pastor’s Tribal Citizenship broken promises, exclusions and the dealership. In July alone, the leader, Mitch McConnell of Ken- ham never had to prove to anyone painful fights over whether tens of daughter and scientist, is his op- that he was Black. But he has average value of used cars tucky, has said he does not want to thousands of their descendants posite in terms of values and tem- spent more than 30 years haunt- jumped more than 16 percent, ac- hand out a “blank check” to pay should now be recognized as trib- perament. Opinion polls show that ing tribal offices and genealogical cording to Edmunds.com. for what he considers fiscal mis- over racial injustice. al members. Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular archives, fighting for recognition In June, the most recent month management, including the enor- His ancestors are known as among a broad majority of Ger- that he is also a citizen of the Some of the descendants have for which data is available, fran- mous public-pension obligations mans. Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Creek Freedmen. They were won lawsuits seeking inclusion in chised car dealers sold 1.2 million some states have accrued. There But his message of disruption “We’re African-American,” Mr. among the thousands of African- the Cherokee Nation. Some used cars and trucks, according to has been little movement in that — his unvarnished nationalism Graham, 55, said. “But we’re Na- Americans who were once en- gained nominal citizenship as Edmunds, up 22 percent from a stalemate lately. and tolerance of white suprema- tive American also.” slaved by tribal members in the Seminoles, but said they could not year earlier. It was the highest Economists warn that further cists coupled with his skepticism His family history is part of a lit- South and who migrated to Okla- access tribal services. Others, like monthly total since at least 2007. state spending reductions could of the pandemic’s dangers — is tle-known saga of bondage, blood homa when the tribes were forced Mr. Graham, have nothing. The boom has turned the busi- prolong the downturn by shaking spilling well beyond American and belonging within tribal na- off their homelands and marched But now, a landmark Supreme ness of selling cars upside down. the confidence of residents, whose shores, extremism watchers say. tions, one that stretches from the west in the 1830s. Court decision for tribal Because used cars don’t come day-to-day lives depend heavily In a fast-expanding universe of Trail of Tears to this summer of In treaties signed after the Civil sovereignty has breathed new life from factories in Detroit, dealers on state and local services. Continued on Page A9 uprisings in America’s streets War, they won freedom and were Continued on Page A14 Continued on Page A5 Continued on Page A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-7 BUSINESS B1-5 Sick for Months and in Despair Who’s Buying Those Retailers? “Long-haulers” face additional chal- A licensing expert and a mall operator lenges from Covid-19. “It makes you are reshaping the shopping landscape depressed, anxious that it’s never going by acquiring bankrupt brands like to go away,” one said. PAGE A4 Brooks Brothers and Forever 21. PAGE B1

INTERNATIONAL A8-10 NATIONAL A11-19 ARTS C1-6 SPORTSTUESDAY B6-9 SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 London’s Crumbling Bridges Colors of Political Division The Queen of Afrobeats U.S. Open of the Future Plenty of Reasons to Smile Three major crossings on the Thames The aerial-image version of those red- The Nigerian superstar Tiwa Savage is With spectators and many longtime Once near extinction, Burmese roofed are closed to cars, with one considered and-blue electoral maps displays a courting a new audience with “Celia,” stars missing, a younger generation of turtles now have a population of about too dangerous to walk across. PAGE A8 spectrum of gray and green. PAGE A18 her American debut album. PAGE C1 more physically imposing tennis play- 1,000. “We came so close to losing ers is taking center stage. PAGE B6 them,” one scientist said. PAGE D5 8 Sentences in Khashoggi Case Prison Extortion Nightmare Realistic, in a Super Way A Saudi court issued final verdicts in While serving time, a man was beaten, Sports anime shows could ignore the EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 the 2018 killing of the dissident writer stabbed and threatened with hot oil if laws of nature, but instead they show Jamal Khashoggi. PAGE A10 his relatives didn’t pay up. PAGE A14 what’s just beyond possible. PAGE C2 Bret Stephens PAGE A23 U(D54G1D)y+%!/!$!?!z