Subject: Axios AM: Mike’s Top 10 -- President Trump looks to 2020, N.Y. Times holds back on Russia connection
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2017 10:20:06 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Bank of America:

Trump address 58% nationalist * Making "dystopian" great * NYT draft get= shelved

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Presented By Bank of America

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jan 21, 2017

The 1 thing: Trump's 2020 speech

The new president's 16-minute address tipped his hand — in ways =oth subtle, and stunningly blunt — about his political plan for th= coming years. Yes, he plans to pound his America-first, Washington-sucks =essage that the establishment and media hate. But it was telling how much =ime he spent talking about infrastructure and jobs for ALL Americans, twic= sounding racially inclusive notes.

Stephen Miller, the speech's pri=cipal writer, and Steve Bannon, whose worldview dominated and who helped w=th the prose , see a huge infrastructure bill as a way to attract voters, =specially minorities, who opposed Trump in 2016. They argue privately they=will shake up voting coalitions if they run new roads, repair tunnels and =rovide web access to other classes or regions of forgotten Americans. They=also believe tariffs and bullying of corporate-outsourcers will change som= minds, too.

The coastal bubbles hated the speech. But, like the cam=aign, it wasn't aimed at them.

Bannon told Bob Costa the addre=s was "an unvarnished declaration of the basic principles of his populist =nd kind of nationalist movement. … I don't think we've had a speec= like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House."

Between the lines: Bannon is usually press-shy, so it's importa=t and telling that he went public to not just defend the speech, but doubl= down and contrast it with Xi's speech at Davos.

Banno= suggested: "I think it'd be good if people compare Xi's speech .=. and President Trump's speech in his inaugural. Axios' enterprising Jonat=an Swan did just that, and you can see his findings in the Axios STREAM.=

Why it matters: Trump advisers see confrontat=on with China over trade, territory and now the merits of globalism as a f=ght they WANT to define their presidency.

What's next? We have a fair idea of how Trump's nationalism will affect immigratio= and trade policy. But something that's brewing under the surface �=94 and seriously troubling business leaders — is the extent to whi=h Trump will interfere in corporate America (think mergers, regulations) i= what he believes is the service of the American worker. In other words: H=w Bernie will Donald get?

Speech first ...

Framer for Steves Miller and Bannon … Vi= WashPost, "Words Do=ald Trump said for the first time in any U.S. inaugural address": blee= … carnage … depletion … disagreements … d=srepair … flush … infrastructure … Islamic �=A6 lady … landscape … overseas … ripped … =usted … sad … solidarity … sprawl … steali=g … stolen … subsidized … tombstones … tra=ped … trillions … tunnel … unrealized … un=toppable … urban … wind-swept.

Breakdown o= speech topics, per WSJ: 58% n=tionalist themes … 16% role of government … 15% U.S. role =n world … 9% equality.

2. The world Trump inherits

Russia signed an agreement yesterday giving it a much greater abili=y to deploy military forces in Syria for at least the next HALF CENTURY.
The winner: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has slaughtered hu=dreds of thousands of his people during the six-year war to hold power.
"As the clock wound down on Barack Obama's presidency, a= Air Force B-52 bomber carried out a punishing airstrike against a trainin= camp of al Qaeda in Syria, the Pentagon said Friday. "T=e attack, which took place west of Aleppo, killed more than 100 fighters."=

British Prime Minister Theresa May, the first leader Trump mentio=ed in our interview when asked about his top allies, told the Financial Times she wo=ld be very frank about the need for a strong NATO and EU when she visits h=m in D.C., as early as Thursday. Trump has very critical of both.

​3. Media agog

The address made "dark and dystopian" great again …

<=trong>Business Insider's Josh Barro: "Trump just set a very hig= bar for himself … Trump is making big promises and will suffer if=he does not keep them."

Chuck Todd: "I thought it shockin=ly divisive. … I was surprised, because i thought it was unnecessa=ily divisive. … What's interesting here is that this was intention=l … It was a call to arms to his supporters … The message =as we're going to be a little bit of a confrontational presidency. We were=a confrontational campaign — that's what populist campaigns are =E2�� He … at points insulted almost every living president tha= was there to witness his inaugural … This is a risk. He has got D=PTH of support. He did not go for any breadth today."

Tom Brokaw: "Short on elegance; long on bombast. �=A6 It didn't have the poetry."

Jake Tapper: "I think it's fair to s=y this is one of the most RADICAL inaugural speeches we've ever heard. �=80� It attacked Washington while standing inside the center of Washingto=, D.C., surrounded by Washington insiders. There was nothing really partic=larly conservative about this Republican president's speech. It was pure p=pulism."

Clickers:

Split screen compares Mall =rowd for Trump and Obama inaugurals.

Full text of address, with NYTimes annotations.=

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​4. Bleak house

One of the underpinnings of the Trump team's plans is the notion that th= quislings in the establishment fail to see the world as it actually is. T=is is nasty, brutish and short, applied to governing. There's plenty of de=usion among the establishment, but Trump's speech overcorrects. An =P Fact Check ticks off three ways he overshot:

"The Ame=ican economy is a lot healthier than the wreck Trump describes. Jobs have =ncreased for a record 75 straight months. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4=7 percent in December, close to a nine-year low and to what economists con=ider full employment."

"The U.S. military … r=mains the world's most advanced, expensive and far-flung fighting force. A=erican military spending is nearly three times that of second-place China.=

"Quelling radical Islamic terrorism worldwide is a h=avy lift in which the U.S. has been engaged for years, and Trump has offer=d no plan for how he will deliver on" the promise in his speech to "unite =he civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradic=te completely from the face of the Earth."

​5. Good gets: Reporting tidbits

ABC's Jon Karl said on "World News" that Trump will visit major age=cies, with the CIA one of the first stops.

Maggie and Glenn: "[S]=me [aides] are urging him to forgo his personal Twitter account … =o use only the official @POTUS handle created by Mr. Obama's team and cont=olled by staff members. Mr. Trump is resisting it, the friend said.".

NBC's Cynthia McFadden in the second half hour of an extended "Nightly N=ws": "Surveillance drones and armed aircraft will be added to the mix when=[Trump] is in New York."

​6. Day 1

In the Oval Office, Trump signs a poster-sized executive order roll=ng back Obamacare. An Axios AM reader notes that on the new White House we=site, "there's no health or ACA section in the issues section, … i=dicating they're still at square one on the replacement plan.

Obam= and Bush 43 each had seven nominees confirmed on Day 1. Trump had two, both retired gener=ls: Defense Secretary James "Maddog" Mattis, who was sworn in by Pence jus= ahead of last night's balls, and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. =/li>

​7. Sneak peek

AP

Kellyanne Conway (seen above in what she calls "Trump revolutionary wear=" with Hope Hicks and Steve Bannon) to Willie Geist on "Sunday Today," abo=t SNL's spoof of her: "If you're going to be mocked it might as well be th=t affectionately. It was adorable."

YouTube of our fave of the many "SNL" Kellyanne portrayals: "'A =ay Off' with Kellyanne Conway"

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​8. Both sides will feast on this

Usually the N.Y. Times Public Editor opines, but Liz Spayd broke news yesterday afternoon while the parade was linin= up: Times reporters last fall prepared a story delving into evidence of "= covert connection … between Donald Trump and Russian officials tr=ing to influence an American election." But the draft "never saw daylight"=because of internal "doubts about the material and with the F.B.I. discour=ging publication."

Reporting is sure to continue on=this part: "The most damning claim was that Trump was aware of Ru=sia's efforts to hack Democratic computers, an allegation with implication= of treason. Reporters Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers led the effort,=aided by others."

Liz's bold conclusion: "I have =poken privately with several journalists involved in the reporting last fa=l, and I believe a strong case can be made that The Times was too timid in=its decisions not to publish the material it had."

Executive Editor Dean Baquet, who made the call, claims to h=ve no second thoughts: "We heard about the back-channel communications bet=een the Russians and Trump. … We reported it, and found no evidenc= that it was true. We wrote everything we knew — and we wrote a lo=. Anybody that thinks we sat on stuff is outrageous. It's just false."

​9. Obama's third term

AP

GQ's Jason Zengerle quotes Obama alumni who hope he "will break with the=tradition of deference and support that outgoing presidents typically offe= their successors": "Obama, who was grateful to George W. Bush for retreat=ng from the public arena and not commenting positively or negatively on hi= actions, recognizes that with Trump as his successor, he will likely not =ave the luxury of standing on custom."

An Obama Whi=e House staffer: "Barack Obama today is the most popular politici=n in America, on either side of the aisle … He has standing. He ha= vehicles to communicate."

Dan Pfeiffer: "Barack =bama will hold the biggest and most influential megaphone in the world, ev=n when Donald Trump is president, because his popularity at home and abroa= will be much greater than Trump's."

Anita Du=n: "The last time he faced this momentous a choice … was =hen he was deciding whether or not to run for president." http://www.gq.com/story/barack-obama-preparing-f=r-third-term

​10. 1 fun thing to tell your kids

Rory Smith, N.Y. Times chief soccer correspondent, in England is more sophisticated tha= that of the Premier League's giants: "Matches involving 8- and 9-year-old=players are scouted [by the clubs] … While smaller-scale players o= the scene — such as Puma, Under Armour and New Balance — =till prefer to focus on securing contracts with established stars, Adidas =nd Nike both have established talent identification departments, an approa=h they have honed in America in … basketball and football."
WHAT DID YOU THINK of the inauguration? Just reply to =his email to send your insights, leaks and links.

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