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Timothy Mellon, reclusive heirto a Pittsburgh banking fortune,was such an unknown figureamong Republican operativesthat they needed to Google hisname when he reached out in2018, unexpectedly, to offer hishelp in the midterm elections.

The staff of the CongressionalLeadership Fund quickly discov-ered this was no middling donor:Mr. Mellon planned to give $10million — with the suggestion thathe wanted to contribute more tothe party at a later date, accordingto two people with knowledge ofthe exchanges.

This April, Mr. Mellon gave anadditional $10 million, this time toPresident Trump’s super PAC,America First Action, the onlyTrump-endorsed fund-raisinggroup permitted to collect unlimit-ed contributions. The donation in-stantly transformed Mr. Mellon, aseptuagenarian investor whowould sometimes communicateby fax, into the president’s biggestpolitical benefactor of 2020.

Mr. Mellon’s millions would be abig deal in any cycle, but the giftwas especially welcome for thisincumbent this year. The fact thatan outsider like Mr. Mellon hasemerged as one of the few sup-porters willing to be so generousillustrates a surprising problemfor the president: his struggle toattract and retain a reliable stableof millionaires and billionaireswilling to write seven-figurechecks, despite his takeover of theRepublican Party and a policyagenda that largely serves the in-terests of America’s ultrawealthy.

Mr. Trump is hardly lacking forcash; he has received huge num-bers of small donations onlinefrom a fervent grass-roots base,and he raised a jaw-dropping $165million in July for his campaignand the two fund-raising commit-tees that he shares with the Re-publican National Committee. TheTrump Victory fund, one of those

committees, has also collected re-spectable sums through dona-tions that cannot exceed $580,600— as opposed to super PACs,which are vessels for unlimitedcontributions.

But the president’s saggingpopularity, driven by his erraticand divisive behavior during thecoronavirus crisis, has promptedsome of the wealthiest Republi-cans — the heavy artillery of mod-ern politics — to delay, divert or di-minish their giving, just as JosephR. Biden Jr. has begun to tap a richvein of Wall Street and Silicon Val-ley support, party operatives anddonors said in interviews.

Thus far, only six of the top 38donors to Trump-related superPACs in 2016 and 2018 have con-tributed to America First for thepresident’s re-election, accordingto a New York Times analysis offederal campaign finance data.

In 2016, that group — donorsgiving at least $500,000 — shelledout a total of $71 million to four ma-jor Trump-backing super PACs,which America First was createdto replace during the 2020 cycle.In contrast, with less than threemonths to go until the 2020 elec-tion, America First has raisedonly about $35 million from do-nors offering $500,000 or more.

Many of the biggest checks to

Trump’s Campaign CoffersLow on Big-Dollar Checks

Ultrawealthy Republicans Are Choosing to Delay, Divert or Reduce Their Gifts

This article is by Glenn Thrush,Rebecca R. Ruiz and Karen Yourish.

Continued on Page A14

Linda McMahon, who runs aTrump super PAC, has donat-ed about $4 million so far.

MANUEL BALCE CENETA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

As public health officials look tofall and winter, the specter of anew surge of Covid-19 gives themchills. But there is a scenario theydread even more: a severe flu sea-son, resulting in a “twindemic.”

Even a mild flu season couldstagger hospitals already copingwith Covid-19 cases. And thoughofficials don’t know yet what de-gree of severity to anticipate thisyear, they are worried large num-bers of people could forgo flushots, increasing the risk of wide-spread outbreaks.

The concern about a twindemicis so great that officials around theworld are pushing the flu shot

even before it becomes availablein clinics and doctors’ offices. Dr.Robert Redfield, director of theU.S. Centers for Disease Controland Prevention has been talking itup, urging corporate leaders tofigure out ways to inoculate em-ployees. The C.D.C. usually pur-chases 500,000 doses for unin-sured adults but this year orderedan additional 9.3 million doses.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of

the National Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases, has beenimploring people to get the flushot, “so that you could at leastblunt the effect of one of those twopotential respiratory infections.”

In Britain, Prime Minister BorisJohnson has been waging his ownpro flu-shot campaign. Lastmonth, he labeled people who op-pose flu vaccines “nuts” and an-nounced the country’s largestever rollout of the shots. In April,one of the few reasons Australiaallowed citizens to break the coun-try’s strict lockdown was to ven-ture out for their flu shots.

The flu vaccine is rarely man-dated in the U.S. except by somehealth care facilities and nursery

Fearing ‘Twindemic,’ Experts Push for Flu ShotsBy JAN HOFFMAN With Offices and Plants

Closed, Search Is Onfor Other Sites

Continued on Page A6

The Trump administration hasbeen using major hotel chains todetain children and families takeninto custody at the border, creat-ing a largely unregulated shadowsystem of detention and swift ex-pulsions without the safeguardsthat are intended to protect themost vulnerable migrants.

Government data obtained byThe New York Times, along withcourt documents, show that hoteldetentions overseen by a privatesecurity company have balloonedin recent months under an ag-gressive border closure policy re-lated to the coronavirus pan-demic.

More than 100,000 migrants, in-cluding children and families,have been summarily expelledfrom the country under the meas-ure. But rather than deterring ad-ditional migration, the policy ap-pears to have caused bordercrossings to surge, in part becauseit eliminates some of the legal con-sequences for repeat attempts atillegal crossings.

The increase in hotel detentionsis likely to intensify scrutiny of thepolicy, which legal advocacygroups have already challenged incourt, saying it places children inan opaque system with few pro-tections and violates U.S. asylumlaws by returning them to life-threatening situations in theirhome countries.

Children as young as a year old— often arriving at the borderwith no parents — are being put inhotels under the supervision oftransportation workers who arenot licensed to provide child care.Immigration and Customs En-forcement officials say the chil-dren are being adequately caredfor during the hotel stays and em-phasize that their swift expulsionis necessary to protect the coun-try from the spread of the coro-navirus.

Federal authorities have re-sorted to using hotels during pre-vious spikes in immigration andas staging areas for short periodsof time ahead of traditional depor-tations; the conditions are inmany ways better than the cold,concrete Border Patrol holdingscells where many migrants have

CHILD MIGRANTS HELD AT HOTELS

A Private Security Firmand a Shadow Policy

By CAITLIN DICKERSON

Continued on Page A19

MILWAUKEE — In a year ofcanceled plans, with vacations,graduations and sports seasonsupended by the coronavirus cri-sis, the stretch of downtown Mil-waukee where Democrats weresupposed to hold their nominatingconvention this week was quietand sparsely populated — anotherreminder of a summer lost.

Instead of thousands of Demo-crats preparing to gather at thenewly built Fiserv Forum, therewas just one street blocked off thisweekend near the smaller Wis-consin Center, which will host thelast few parts of the DemocraticNational Convention that will stilltake place in this city. Hotels wereclosed, restaurants were emptyand the bars of America’s mostbeer-loving city were eerily bar-ren.

“What convention?” said Mi-chaela Jaggi, a 21-year-old whopassed by the Wisconsin Centeron Saturday afternoon.

She eventually remembered:Joseph R. Biden Jr. was supposedto accept the Democratic nomina-tion for president here this week.And the Democratic Party,shamed for not adequately invest-ing in Wisconsin during the 2016election, was to showcase its com-mitment to an all-important Elec-toral College state.

That was before the virus crisis

Mourning Loss Of Convention

In MilwaukeeBy ASTEAD W. HERNDON

and REID J. EPSTEIN

Continued on Page A16

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —“Can we forget the crack of thewhip, cowhide, whipping-post,the auction-block, the hand-

cuffs, the spaniels,the iron collar, thenegro-trader tear-ing the young childfrom its mother’sbreast as a whelpfrom the lioness?

Have we forgotten that by thesehorrible cruelties, hundreds ofour race have been killed? No,

we have not, or ever will.”So wrote Isabella Gibbons, a

formerly enslaved Black woman,two years after the end of theCivil War. She was writing herein Charlottesville, where, in the1840s, she had worked as a cook

at the University of Virginia, on acampus designed by ThomasJefferson, third United Statespresident, shaper of the Declara-tion of Independence, author ofthe words “all men are createdequal,” and lifelong enslaver.

Gibbons, who was owned by auniversity faculty member, ascience professor, remained inCharlottesville after Emancipa-tion. By the time she wrote, in1867, she was a teacher in a

Where ‘Horrible Cruelties’ Can No Longer Hide

A University of Virginia memorial lists enslaved workers. Records often didn’t provide names.SANJAY SUCHAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

University’s Memorialto Enslaved Laborers

Continued on Page A18

HOLLANDCOTTERCRITIC’S

NOTEBOOK

The soaring popularity of the gamingsite Roblox has helped young develop-ers who tied their games to it. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

A World Away From Real LifeCan the talented but flawed Clippersand Lakers meet expectations as theN.B.A. playoffs begin? PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-5

Los Angeles Doubly in DoubtLong left out of genre fiction, NativeAmerican and First Nations authors arenow reshaping its otherworldly (butstill often Eurocentric) worlds. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Sci-Fi’s Indigenous Voices

Nursing homes, the center of the pan-demic, are seeking tax breaks, cashinfusions and a liability shield. PAGE B1

Lobbying Washington for Help

A face-lift, that is. Cosmetic surgeonssay business is booming, with quaran-tine a time to heal in secrecy. PAGE A7

Getting a Lift in Lockdown

Republicans insist that millions ofAmericans want to vote for the presi-dent but will not admit it. Polling ex-perts, however, are drawing differentconclusions. PAGE A12

Trump’s Quiet Support

Roger Cohen PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

Ocean rescues are contactless. After-work parties are frowned upon. Thecoronavirus pandemic has rewired anoccupation. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-7

Lifeguards’ Strange SummerThe Trump administration is planning asharp increase in the cost of naturaliza-tion this fall. Critics say it is part of apattern intended to discourage immi-gration from poor nations. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A12-19

Rising Cost of Citizenship

The prospect of acquiring weapons isreviving a politically sensitive postwardebate in Japan. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A8-11

Revisiting Pacifism

WASHINGTON — SpeakerNancy Pelosi of California an-nounced on Sunday that shewould call the House back from itsannual summer recess for a votethis week on legislation to blockchanges at the Postal Service thatvoting advocates warn could dis-enfranchise Americans castingballots by mail during the pan-demic.

The announcement came afterthe White House chief of staff onSunday signaled openness to pro-viding emergency funding to helpthe agency handle a surge in mail-in ballots, and as Democratic stateattorneys general said they wereexploring legal action against cut-backs and changes at the PostalService.

The moves underscored risingconcern across the country overthe integrity of the Novemberelection and how the Postal Serv-ice will handle as many as 80 mil-lion ballots cast by Americansworried about venturing topolling stations because of the co-ronavirus. President Trump hasrepeatedly derided mail voting asvulnerable to fraud, without evi-dence, and the issue had become aprominent sticking point in nego-tiations over the next round of co-ronavirus relief.

The House was not scheduled toreturn for votes until Sept. 14, but

Pelosi to CurtailRecess for VoteOn Postal Relief

By EMILY COCHRANEand CATIE EDMONDSON

Continued on Page A13

By stressing communication, a coachturned Bayern Munich into one of thetop teams in Europe. On Soccer. PAGE D1

The Secret: There’s No Secret

SERGEI GAPON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Tens of thousands staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday in Minsk to oppose a fraud-tainted presidential election. Page A9.In Belarus, Louder Calls for Leader’s Exit

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,788 © 2020 The New York Times Company MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020 Printed in Chicago $3.00

Partly sunny. Dry, with seasonablewarmth. Highs in the upper 70snorth, the lower 80s south. Partly tomostly clear late. Lows in the 50s.Weather map appears on Page D6.

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