The New York Times investigated how Cordelia Scaife May, an heiress to the Mellon family’s banking and industrial fortune, used her wealth to sow the seeds of the modern anti-immigration movement — and of Trump administration policy. Guests: Natalie Kitroeff, a business reporter for The Times, spoke with Nicholas Kulish, who covers immigration issues. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

Newly unearthed documents show how an environmental-minded socialite became a nativist whose vision for strictly limiting immigration has, in many ways, reached a culmination in the Trump presidency.
Groups that Mrs. May funded shared policy proposals with the Trump campaign, sent staff members to join the administration and have close ties to Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration agenda.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bankrolling the Anti-Immigration Movement

The Daily