Subject: Axios AM: Mike’s top 10: Backstory on the Trump dossier
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 06:31:11 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Bank of America:

Presser melts down * Trump rattles market * Story that won't go away

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Presented By Bank of America

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jan 12, 2017

Good morning — eight days to President Trump; six days to Axios =aunch. Thank you for your encouragement and suggestions during this beta w=ek of Axios AM. Lemme know what's=on your mind. And please urge your friends, family and colleagues to =oin the breakfast conversation by hitting this one-click sign-up.

1. The 1 thing

Pause for a second: The past year has been so absurd, so blow-your-mind =npredictable that we are almost numb to tectonic shifts in our politics an= behavior.

Think about the half day of madness that started when=BuzzFeed posted, in full, an unsubstantiated, one-source memo, funded by p=rtisans, that claimed acts -- too disgusting to print -- by the man a week=from the Oval Office:

This sets Twitter afire and prompts an al=-caps Trump tweet about FAKE NEWS. Then, in a scene unprecedented in U.S. =istory, the incoming president starts his first press conference in 24 wee=s with his incoming White House press secretary unloading on reporters for=trying to delegitimize a president before he even takes office.

Th=n, with stage props and clapping staff, the president charges CNN, which D=DN'T post the memo, with purveying "Fake News," prompting CNN corresponden= Jim Acosta to shout question after question (while NPR's Mara Liasson, wh= had been called on, tried to talk) in a manner never seen under the last =wo presidents.

Reporters arrived as early as 7 a.m. t= get seats at the 11 o'clock presser. By 9:30, when Maggie Haberman and I =ot there, it was standing room only. A Russian reporter taped a standup fr=m the seats down front, and a Russian behind me kept hollering at Trump ev=n after the elevator doors had closed behind him.

Tru=p, rhetorically more measured than during his campaign, went on to explain=he was turning his business over to his sons, bucking a decades-old tradit=on of cutting all biz ties.

"I hope at the end of eig=t years[!]," Trump said as his closing line, "I'll come back and say, 'Oh,=you did a good job.' Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I'll say, 'You're fi=ed.'"

Be smart: The show overshadowe= the substance. Trump admitted Russia hacked Dems, announced his V.A. secr=tary, endorsed repeal-and-replace, and said Supreme Court nominee "probabl= within two weeks" of inauguration.

​2. The power of Trump's words

At one point the NINE fastest-falling stoc=s on the S&P 500 were drug companies after he said he wants to "cr=ate new bidding procedures for the drug industry because they're getting a=ay with murder."

Trump previously moved markets with attack= on auto and defense companies.

After he said the government will =save billions of dollars" by forcing drug companies to bid for government =usiness, he added: " And we're going to do that with a lot of other indust=ies."

Jon Steinberg, founder and=CEO of Cheddar TV, told me that going into the day, he thought the Dow=would hit 20,000: "The pharma comments at the beginning of the presser wei=hed on the index. It still closed up 98 points. You have to imagine that w=thout the pharma comment we would have gotten the 50 more points to break =he 20k level."

3. A story that will never go away

Trump's decision to keep his global empire under the full control of his=sons promises to spark controversy throughout his presidency. No doubt, he=threw up some walls: There will be no foreign deals by his son, an ethics =dviser to monitor any fishy deals, and no formal or informal role for DJT.=But he's not doing what those before have by fully divesting or simply tos=ing his assets into a blind trust.

The Wall Street Journal has a smart example of the m=ny possible conflicts this will present: "Trump's financial disclosures sa=d he received $1 million to $5 million from his licensing deal with the Tr=mp International Hotel and Tower in Panama. If the U.S. were to get into a=dispute with that country during the Trump administration, a desire to mai=tain this revenue stream could potentially influence Mr. Trump's decision-=aking, some experts argue."

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​4. Dossier backstory

The former British spy behind the Trump dump, Christopher Steele, was hi=ed by Fusion GPS, a Washington firm headed by former WSJ reporter Glenn Si=pson, according to an NYT front-pager:

"The story began in Septem=er 2015, when [an unknown] wealthy Republican donor who strongly opposed M=. Trump put up the money to hire … Fusion GPS … to compile=a dossier about the real estate magnate's past scandals and weaknesses."
"For months, Fusion GPS gathered the documents and put together the =iles from Mr. Trump's past in business and entertainment … After M=. Trump emerged as the presumptive nominee in the spring, the Republican i=terest in financing the effort ended. But Democratic supporters of Hillary=Clinton were very interested, and Fusion GPS kept doing the same deep dive=, but on behalf of new clients."

Sound smart in D.C.: Neil King, one=of the top journalists at the WSJ and husband of Shailagh Murray, a senior=Obama adviser, just took a job with Fusion GPS.

​5. Russia quest goes to Hill

The administration schedules a classified, bipartisan House briefing tom=rrow with intel officials on Russian involvement in the election. Briefers=at the 9:15 a.m., members-only meeting will be DNI Director Clapper, CIA D=rector Brennan, FBI Director Comey and NSA Director Rogers.

Sure bet: Comey will be asked why he went public about Clinto='s emails but not about the Trump document.

Trump at press=r: "As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also=get hacked by other countries and other people. … If Putin likes D=nald Trump, guess what, folks? That's called an asset, not a liability."

​6. The 1 article to read in full — twice

Peter Thiel takes a victory lap with Maureen Dowd<=a>, on the cover of Thursday Styles as "Trump's Tech Pal Explains Himself.= His take on Hillary: "If you're too optimistic, it sounds like you're out=of touch … Somehow, what was unusual about Trump is, he was very p=ssimistic but it still had an energizing aspect to it."

Thiel, =art of Trump's Transition Team Executive Committee, says he has no plans t= buy a place in Washington: "One of the things that's striking about talki=g to people who are politically working in D.C. is, it's so hard to tell w=at any of them actually do … It's a sort of place where people mea=ure input, not output. You have a 15-minute monologue describing a 15-page=résumé, starting in seventh grade."

BEST QUOTE: "One of=my friends has a theory that the rest of the country tolerates Silicon Val=ey because people there just don't have that much sex. They're not having =hat much fun."

Fun sidebar with rapid-round "Confirm or Deny" quest=ons … Dowd: "Zuckerberg did not have a great pitch." Thiel: "Confi=m. He was 19 years old. He was totally introverted, didn't say much. You d=sperately need a good pitch when you have a bad company. When you have a g=eat company, you don't need a great pitch."

D=wd: "There's no job you would take in the Trump administration." =strong>Thiel: "Confirm. I want to stay involved in Silicon Valley=and help Mr. Trump as I can without a full-time position."

<=span>Dowd: "You think the stock market is a giant bubble =ight now." Thiel: "Confirm."

​7. Tops in tech

Apple AirPods have already co=nered over 40% of the wireless headphone market, according to Quartz: =The wireless headphone market is starting to look a lot like the early sma=tphone market."

D.C. and L.A. outperformed Silicon Valley in rise =f V.C. funding last year, per FT =rite-up of a report from PWC and CBInsights: "The DC area posted a 26 =er cent increase in fundraising totals year on year, buoyed by a $1.2bn fu=ding round for satellite company One Web, while Snapchat … helped =L.A.'s] 'Silicon Beach' achieve a 13 per cent increase."

BUT: "Start-ups based in Silicon Valley still receive =ore venture capital than any other region, with about a quarter of global =unding flowing there, almost double that of the next region, New York, and=more than the whole of Europe."

Top five U.S. regions for venture capital: 1)=Silicon Valley 2) N.Y. 3) D.C. 4) New England 5) L.A./Orange County. Top s=ates for venture: 1) California 2) New York 3) Virginia.

​8. Tops in media trends

"Instagram's shameless Snapchat knockoff is doing marvelously well," accor=ing to Quartz: Facebook-owned "Instagram announced that Instagram Stor=es, a feature it launched in August 2016, … has accumulated 150 mi=lion daily active users. That's exactly how many users Snapchat had as of =une 2016." The power of the Facebook: Instagram Stories took four months t= get the same number users that took Snapchat over four years.

​9. Trending in business

Wall Street firms' Q4 reports are expected to show the =est year since '09, according to Bloombe=g: "The question analysts have for bank executives is whether the four=h quarter heralds a return for bond trading -- traditionally the biggest d=iver of Wall Street profits -- or a false dawn created by Donald Trump's s=rprise victory in the U.S. presidential election

"The coming ye=r could be the first since 2012 that both trading and dealmaking revenue i=creases, Barclays Plc analysts led by Jason Goldberg wrote in a note this =onth."

While nationalism spreads, China goes =lobal: Xi Jinping will be the first Chinese president in history to attend=Davos. He will discuss the Chinese plan for "inclusive globalization," des=ite his government's long history of protectionist policies that protect i=s exporting dominance. Axios' Christopher Matthews points out:

Be smart: For all the chatt=r about Russia, Trump insiders see conflict with China over currency and t=ade as the dominant flash point of next year.

​10. 1 fun thing

Taco Bell will go national Jan. 26 with a taco shell made of fried chicken= the Naked Chicken Chalupa. Tested well in Bakersfield and Kansas City=

WHAT'D I MISS? Click here to shoot me your leaks, thoughts and suggestions.<=p>

A Message From Bank of America

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At Bank of America, we have a responsibility to grow by improving our cu=tomers’ financial lives and having a positive, lasting impact on our=communities. We call this “Responsible Growth,” and it means we are:

Driving the economy in real and sustainable ways

Helping create jobs, develop communities, foster economic mobility and =ddress society’s biggest challenges

Managing risk and providing a positive return to our customers, clients=and our business

From being the leader in clean energy financing to increasing our small =usiness loans by 12% year over year, we are growing responsibly and creati=g tangible value for our customers and for our communities. To learn more,=visit bankofamerica.com/responsiblegrowth.

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