salesforce. · 25/7/2018 · wave that lifted every world econ-omy at the year s start has...

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,034 + © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018

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The early days of President Trump’sadministration seemed to promise hisallies Rick Gates and Elliott Broidyenormous clout and earning potential.But those times are over. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A10-16

Reversal of Fortune

WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration announced onTuesday that it would provide upto $12 billion in emergency relieffor farmers hurt by the president’strade war, moving to blunt the fi-nancial damage to American agri-culture and the political fallout forRepublicans as the consequencesof President Trump’s protectionistpolicies roll through the economy.

Unveiled two days before thepresident is scheduled to visitIowa, a politically important statethat is the nation’s top soybeanproducer, the farm aid appearedcalculated to show that Mr. Trumpcares about farmers and is work-ing to protect them from the worstconsequences of his trade war.

But the relief money, an-nounced by the Department ofAgriculture, was also an indica-tion that Mr. Trump — ignoringthe concerns of farmers, their rep-resentatives in Congress and evensome of his own aides — plans toextend his tit-for-tat tariff wars.

“The actions today are a firmstatement that other nations can-not bully our agriculturalproducers to force the UnitedStates to cave in,” Sonny Perdue,the secretary of agriculture, saidduring a call with reporters to un-veil the program.

The move drew swift con-demnation from many farmgroups and lawmakers, includingseveral in his own party, whoworry about a cascade of unin-tended consequences that may bejust beginning. One farm-groupstudy estimates that corn, wheatand soybean farmers in theUnited States have already lostmore — $13 billion — than the ad-ministration is proposing to pro-

TRUMP PROMISES$12 BILLION IN AIDTO PROP UP FARMS

TRADE WAR CASUALTIES

A Signal for More Tariffs— Criticism of Policy

Is Widespread

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISand ANA SWANSON

Continued on Page A14

Potential perils are in plainsight: An intense and unpredict-able tariff battle is alarming busi-nesses across the country. The an-nual federal deficit is heading to-ward $1 trillion. Credit card debt issoaring. And the synchronouswave that lifted every world econ-omy at the year’s start has dissi-pated.

So what?Such risks have done little to

puncture the exuberant optimismthat is encouraging Americanbusinesses to ramp up hiring andconsider new investment.

The confidence is rooted onlypartly in hard-nosed data, like therapid pace of growth expected forthe second quarter and record lowjobless rates. It is also a sign ofharder-to-measure sentiment.“Animal spirits are high,” said Tim

Continued on Page A14

U.S. BusinessesFeeling Bullish,Despite Tumult

By PATRICIA COHEN

MATI, Greece — They nearlyreached the water.

As wind-fueled wildfires thatkilled at least 76 people in vaca-tion areas outside Athens boredown on their seaside resort, 26men, women and children gath-ered in the hope that they couldfind the narrow path leading to asmall staircase down to the water.

The gated entrance stood only adozen paces away, but with smokeblotting their vision and chokingtheir lungs, they appear to havelost their way. Officials found theirbodies the next day, Tuesday; sev-eral were still clinging to one an-other.

At sundown, an eyeglass case, abelt buckle, the carcasses of dogsand the shells of cellphones dottedthe still-smoldering field where

they fell. Amid the burned pinecones and the naked trees, leaningas if slammed by a nuclear wind,lay a large leather sandal and asmall blue one with a Velcro strap.

All around were the discardedblue rubber gloves of the emer-gency workers who carried thebodies away.

Greece, a country that under-stands tragedy all too well, wokeTuesday morning to its worst onein a decade. In addition to thosekilled by smoke or fire, or whodrowned in the sea while trying toflee, 187 people were hospitalized,more than 20 of them children.Ten people remained in seriouscondition, the government saidTuesday night.

The fires forced the evacuation

In Worst Greek Fires in a Decade,A Desperate Dash Ends in Death

By JASON HOROWITZ

Wildfires raged on Tuesday in the village of Kineta, Greece, west of Athens. The government called in help from the European Union.VALERIE GACHE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A8

PORTLAND, Me. — BrandyStaples, a 39-year-old breast can-cer survivor, had expected to be-come eligible for Medicaid cover-age this month after Maine votersapproved an expansion of the pro-gram last fall. Instead, she foundherself in a courtroom here onWednesday, watching the latestchapter unfold in a rancorous,drawn-out battle over whethershe and thousands of other poorpeople in the state will get freegovernment insurance after all.

Ignoring the binding vote, Gov.Paul LePage has refused to ex-pand the program, blasting it as aneedless, budget-busting form ofwelfare. He vetoed five expansionbills before the issue made the bal-lot, plus a spending bill this monththat provided about $60 million in

funding for the first year. Earlierthis month he went so far as to sayhe would go to jail “before I put thestate in red ink” by adding at least70,000 more low-income adults tothe state’s Medicaid population of264,000.

The showdown is on the ex-treme end of tensions playing outthis election year in a number ofRepublican-controlled states thathave resisted expanding Medic-aid under the Affordable Care Act.Following Maine’s lead, advocacygroups in Idaho, Nebraska andUtah have gathered enough sig-natures to get Medicaid expan-sion measures on their state bal-lots this November, although Ne-braska’s have yet to be certified.

Medicaid in Limbo in Maine:Voters? Yea. Governor? Nay.

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Continued on Page A15

WASHINGTON — Standingbefore a crowd of a thousand un-ion members and progressive ac-tivists last month at a conferencehere that served as a 2020 audi-tion for aspiring Democrats, Sena-tor Kirsten Gillibrand was asked ifshe supported imposing a new taxon financial transactions in thestock market.

It once would have been un-thinkable for a senator from NewYork, the epicenter of Wall Streetmoney and influence, to back a taxso targeted at her own constitu-ents. But Ms. Gillibrand did nothesitate to answer.

“I do,” she said. The crowderupted in cheers.

The unequivocal embrace of thetax proposal was just the latest ina series of policy pronouncementsand political moves that havethrust Ms. Gillibrand toward thefront and left of the DemocraticParty in the age of PresidentTrump.

While Ms. Gillibrand has madeher name and reputation on fight-

ing for women’s issues, especiallyaround sexual assault and har-assment — “60 Minutes” favor-ably branded her “The #MeTooSenator” this year — she hasspent recent months injecting herportfolio with a dose of the kind ofeconomic populism that infusedSenator Bernie Sanders’s cam-

paign in the 2016 presidential pri-mary.

If that sounds like the funda-mental planks of a 2020 presiden-tial campaign, Ms. Gillibrand, whois running for re-election in No-vember, demurred. “For me, it’sall about 2018,” she insisted.

Gillibrand, a Newly Minted Populist, Tacks LeftBy SHANE GOLDMACHER

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand talking to a Capitol Police officer asshe protested family detention of suspected illegal immigrants.

ERIN SCHAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A19

SPIELFELD, Austria — Theborder between Austria andSlovenia runs through ArminTement’s backyard. Literally.

Not that you would know it.Neat rows of vines march up and

down the valleylike military col-umns with noregard for a fron-tier laid down by

man, why here, no one can quiteremember. The Slovene wineworkers speak German. TheAustrians speak Slovenian, or atleast try.

As for the wine, well, says Mr.Tement, 32, “it tastes exactly thesame on both sides.”

When Mr. Tement’s familystarted making wine back in the19th century, there was no bor-der here. The region of Styria,straddling what is now south-eastern Austria and northeast-ern Slovenia, was part of theHapsburg Empire.

When the empire was brokenup after World War I, UpperStyria became Austrian andLower Styria became part ofYugoslavia — until the 1990s,when that country, too, wasbroken up and Slovenia gainedits independence.

The border, a hundred yearsold this year, was briefly elimi-nated by advancing Nazi armies,then heavily policed during the

Valley United by Open BorderIs Divided Over a 3-Mile Fence

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

Austrian troops patrolling tocatch refugees, now rare.

LENA MUCHA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

AUSTRIADISPATCH

Continued on Page A6

Despite efforts to stop the abuse offemale athletes, one champion gymnastsays athletes are still afraid to speakout. Sports of The Times. PAGE B9

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-12

‘Nothing Has Changed’The collapse of a dam washed awayhomes in more than a half-dozen ruralvillages in Laos. Several people hadbeen confirmed killed, while hundredswere still missing. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Laotians Fear the Worst

Young expats have transplanted theirbright, Instagrammable cooking andmellow lifestyle by opening a flurry ofcafes in New York City. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

The Art of Australian Breakfast

For years, firearms at so-called gunmelts have served as an inexpensivesupply of scrap metal that can beturned into high-grade steel bound forconstruction, mining and more. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

From Guns to Girders

Larry David PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

The plans may fall short of appeasingPresident Trump, who has expressedskepticism at past trade pacts andbranded the bloc a “foe.” PAGE B1

E.U. to Offer Trade Proposals

An undocumented immigrant detainedwhile delivering food to an Army basecan stay in the country and pursue agreen card, a judge ruled. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-19

Pizza Delivery Man Is Freed

Brian Kemp rode the president’s incen-diary politics to the Republican nomina-tion for governor, defeating the partyelite’s preferred candidate. PAGE A16

Trump Pick Wins in Georgia

The new Stephen King series “CastleRock” on Hulu may appeal to somesuperfans, but it is not so successful asTV, James Poniewozik says. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Haunted by Its Past

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s former personal lawyer,Michael D. Cohen, escalated hisdispute with the president onTuesday by releasing a secret re-cording of a conversation in whichMr. Trump appears to have knowl-edge about hush money paymentsto a Playboy model who said shehad an affair with Mr. Trump.

The recording, which wasbroadcast by CNN, is sometimesmuddled but provides details onpayments to the model, Karen Mc-Dougal. However, it does notdefinitively answer the questionabout whether Mr. Trump di-rected Mr. Cohen to make them incash or by check just two monthsbefore the 2016 presidential elec-tion.

Mr. Cohen is heard telling Mr.Trump that he will need to set up acompany to arrange the pay-ments.

Mr. Trump then asked, “What fi-nancing?”

“We’ll have to pay,” Mr. Cohensaid.

Mr. Trump then appears to say,“Pay with cash.”

Mr. Cohen then says, “No, no.”The word “check” is uttered, but

it is not clear by whom, and the au-dio is then cut off.

Ms. McDougal was paid$150,000 by The National En-quirer for her story in summer2016. The tabloid, which has oftengiven Mr. Trump favorable cover-age, then did not publish the story.According to people close to Mr.Cohen and Mr. Trump, the twomen were discussing on the tape asecond payment to The Enquirerthat would continue to keep Ms.McDougal from speaking publiclyabout Mr. Trump.

On the recording, Mr. Trumpshows some familiarity with adeal between Ms. McDougal andAmerican Media Inc., the pub-lisher of The Enquirer, and doesnot act as if he is only learning

Cohen Releases Tape of Trump,Adding to Feud

A Talk of Hush Moneyto a Playboy Model

This article is by Michael S.Schmidt, Maggie Haberman andJim Rutenberg.

Continued on Page A13

Late Edition

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Today, drenching showers and thun-derstorms, mostly cloudy, high 78.Tonight, heavy showers, low 71. To-morrow, showers and storms, high84. Weather map is on Page C8.

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