Subject: Axios AM: Mike’s Top 10 — Trump to push Congress to probe voter fraud, Sneak peek at Roger Stone’s book, POTUS compares himself to Peyton
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2017 06:54:06 -0500 (EST)

Presented by BP:

Inside Roger Stone's book * Lay's in the White House * Trump and Peyton =anning

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Presented By BP

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jan 26, 2017

​1 big thing: Roger Stone book

Roger Stone, in his Upper East Side home

Sneak peek ... Roger Stone, the flamboyant Republican o=erative known for light suits and dark arts, met President Trump in 1979, =hen they were introduced by Roy Cohn, one-time counsel to Joseph McCarthy.=Stone, an alumnus of Nixon and Reagan campaigns, was a top adviser to Trum= in the early months of this presidential campaign, then departed amid per=onality conflicts in August, 2015, with each side claiming to have fired t=e other. Stone stayed in touch with Trump, and kept notes on the advice he=quietly gave Trump Tower throughout the campaign (some solicited, some not=.

Stone will be out Jan. 31 with a campaign memoir, "The Making =f the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution" �=94 the title cheekily echoing the Teddy White classics. A copy of the book=was "leaked" to Axios AM. Among the memorable passages:

A 17-y=ar quest: "It was mid-September 1999 and the two of us just sat in his off=ce on the twenty-sixth floor at Trump Tower ... I sat there and waited as =e pored over the morning newspapers. ... 'I'm pretty sure it's going to be=Bush and Gore … They are both absolutely terrible—just ter=ible. What's going on in this country?"

"He looked me squarely in =he eyes and, with a hint of a smile, said: 'Roger, I want to take the next=step. I want to see if Donald Trump can win the White House. Is this count=y ready for President Trump? The one thing I do know is that I'm better th=n any of those assholes who are running.'"

"Drudge le= the charge, posting a top center headline and photograph on June 16, 2015= the day Trump declared his candidacy, proclaiming 'Donald Goes for White =ouse.'"

"On the Friday before Easter [2016], Trump ca=led me at my south Florida home. 'Can they really steal this thing from me=' ... What should I do?' 'Call my former partner, Paul Manafort.' ... Trum= asked for Manafort's cell phone number and I provided it."

=/span>"[I]n the final phase, Trump found Steve Bannon had genius ability t= get his messages packed into the powerful mantras the thousands attending=rallies planned on chanting, while Kellyanne Conway displayed equal acumen=in keeping Trump's temperament level through the long airplane rides." Amazon pre-order: $19.49

​2. How Stone sees Trump

Stone is rightly controversial, reviled on the left and even by some on =he right. But he has worked for the Trump Organization, the Trump Shuttle,=Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, and several Trump political exploration=. So in the current rush to understand Trump, Stone stands as a longtime i=sider:

"Donald … has always had an exceptional eye =or female beauty. He has the same eye for architecture, preferring towerin= buildings with clean lines, lots of brass, and always large signage. �=80� Notwithstanding the glitter and gold of his buildings, there really =s nothing fancy or pretentious about Donald Trump. He likes meatloaf, chee=eburgers, and diet coke."

"Trump waged the first mode=n 'all communication' campaign, eschewing polling, expensive television ad=ertising, sophisticated analytics, and all of the traditional tools of a m=dern presidential campaign. At the same time, Trump's campaign was centere= around a 'set piece rally,' just as Richard Nixon's campaign had been."
"Trump … understood that politics is about big =ssues, concepts, and themes, and that the voters didn't really care about =onkish detail. If they had, then Newt Gingrich would have been president."=/li>
"The danger for President Trump is if he fails to rec=gnize the machinations of the establishment-types who didn't support his c=ndidacy but now kiss his ass while they seek appointments and other favors= They are not committed to a reform agenda and will do their best to derai= his."

​3. Doubts on tax reform?

Important gossip on Capitol Hill: Some conservative law=akers are worried that tax reform might NOT get done this year, because Ob=macare repeal plus Supreme Court fight will take way more time than the Tr=mp White House anticipates -- plus paying for it will be more contentious =han supporters think. Some fear Mitch McConnell will move too slow in Sena=e. Others warn this is much more complicated than Trump thinks. Still, GOP=leadership insiders say Paul Ryan's obsession with it will help jam it thr=ugh.

Jonathan Swan reports from the Republican con=ressional retreat in Philadelphia that House Ways and Means chair Kevin Br=dy made a forceful pitch behind closed doors for the border adjustment tax= which boosts taxes on imports and reduces them on exports. The tax could =aise $1 trillion, and Republican leadership believes tax reform depends on=it.

But some members made clear in their questioning that they don't=like it, and a number of advocates are getting wise to the fact that the t=x needs to be rebranded. "Trump is all about the branding," a senior House=member told Axios. This member now calls it a border adjustment "fee." Oth=rs, he says, are calling it a "mechanism."

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​4. The full Trump

The president continues to use his first week in office to plunge into c=ntroversy, relishing the blockback rather than trying to round the edges:<=r>

Trump didn't just order an investigation of voter fraud to t=y to push the issue out of the headlines — he's diving in, and pla=s to make a big deal of the topic when he speaks to the congressional retr=at in Philadelphia this afternoon. "He'd like THEM to investigate, too," A=C's Jon Karl reported on "World News" last night, adding that the White Ho=se plans to have a memo as early as today directing either Justice or Home=and Security to begin an investigation into dead people still on voting ro=ls, and people who are (often accidentally) registered in multiple states.=/li>
When he announced his plan for the Mexican-border wal= yesterday, it was very Trumpian, as described by Axios' Justin Green: "a 1,000 mil= wall, constructed of concrete and steel, between 35-60 feet high. �=A6 Trump says the wall will cost $8-12 billion, but the MIT Technology Rev=ew … predicts between $27-40 billion." Trump's proposal was popula= with congressional Republicans and we're told he'll get the money he need= -- probably a down payment soon, with more money this fall. That's, of co=rse, ahead of any reimbursement from Mexico, which Trump admitted to ABC's=David Muir could be "in … a complicated form."

And is Trump thinking of bringing back CIA "black site" prisons where ter=orism suspects were tortured? It sure sounds like it. The NYT's Mark Mazze=ti got his ha=ds on a draft executive order on detainee policy: "The White House dis=laimed the document, … but three administration officials said the=White House had circulated it among National Security Council staff member= for review on Tuesday morning.

Trump told ABC's David Muir: "I have spoken as recently as 24=hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence, and I asked th=m the question, 'Does it work? Does torture work?' and the answer was, 'Ye=, absolutely.'"

Caveat, from Justin: Trump said that he'd g= along with his Secretary of Defense and CIA Director's belief that the Un=ted States does not torture.

​5. Trump on Peyton Manning

Martin Simon / ABC News

The president to ABC's David Muir yesterday, in his first network interv=ew since the inauguration, on his self-indulgent remarks at the CIA on his=first full day in office: "I got a standing ovation. In fact, they said it=was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the Super Bo=l and they said it was equal. I got a standing ovation. It lasted for a lo=g period of time. … Take out your tape -- you probably ran it live= I know when I do good speeches. I know when I do bad speeches. That speec= was a total home run. They loved it."

Axios' Justin Green =as six bullet points from "Trump's surreal ABC intervie="

Full transcript

Sentence of the day … Peter Baker i= an NYT front-page analysis, "An Itchy Twitter Finger in the Oval Of=ice": "Rarely if ever has a president been as reactive to random inputs as=Mr. Trump."

Maggie Haberman has a phoner with Trump on l=fe in the White House, which he seems to be savoring: "[T]he president �=80� called his press secretary a 'superstar.' … The kitchen has =een stocked with the same types of snacks that Mr. Trump had on his privat= plane, including Lay's potato chips. …

"Trump is in the mea=time pondering his first break away from the White House, a potential trip=to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., possibly the weekend =f Feb. 3."

​6. Tracking Trump heat

Because of his friendship with the president, one of the most powerful C=binet secretaries will be Commerce's Wilbur Ross, a 79-year-old Wall Stree=er who has been put in charge of trade negotiations and policy. Ross is on=the cover of the forthcoming issue of Bloom=erg Businessweek, in a profile by Max Abelson:

"Trump's proposed ca=inet has a net worth of more than $6 billion. Ross is by far the richest, =orth $2.9 billion … Ross is positioned to become the most powerful=Commerce boss in years. … To the extent that the Trump administrat=on is an experiment in government by—and possibly for—the =ltrawealthy, Ross would be its public face."

7. Tops in tech

Bloomberg's Brad Stone — author of the juicy Am=zon book, "The Everything Store" — will be out Jan. 31 with "The U=starts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Vall=y Are Changing the World." Bloomberg Businessweek this morning posts an ex=erpt: "Few companies have altered city life as deeply and as swiftly �=80� Airbnb and Uber, their headquarters only a mile apart in San Francis=o, are among the fastest- growing startups in history by sales, market val=e, and number of employees."

Sound smart: =Together they embody the third phase of internet history, the post-Google,=post-Facebook era of innovation. They've attained these heights, and a com=ined worth of $99 billion." Amazon preorder: $=1.33 ... Excerpt

Axios' Kim Hart has a handy "What to expect" guide to ways =he Trump administration may regulate and try to influence the media: "Ther= is a faction inside the White House, including chief strategist Steve Ban=on, who do not have a romantic view of Silicon Valley and want to find way= to punish companies that create wealth, not jobs, or move too many jobs o=erseas." Check out her easy-to-scan, bulleted piece, "How Trump's media ob=ession could collide with regulation of it."

​8. Trending in business

The paradox of Dow 20,000 … Greg Ip, one of the=smartest thinkers in journalism, nails it in a Wall Street Jo=rnal front-pager: "Britain is leaving the European Union, a protection=st is in the White House, the front-runner in France's presidential electi=n wants out of the euro. Yet paradoxically, investors have concluded the w=rld is getting less risky, not more … It is hard to explain this w=th economic fundamentals … What has changed is how investors asses= the balance between upside and downside risks."

Investors =on't seem too spooled up about populist trends or rising threats to the eu=o and EU.

Instead, they are jazzed about pro-business cabinet and =resident; promises of lower taxes and more infrastructure spending and boo=t to banks, oil producers, and others.

Several stories have ex=mined what it means for Trump to have so many Goldman Sachs alumni in top =ositions. The WashPost today looks through the other end of th= telescope at what it mean for the bank:

"At Goldman Sachs, exe=utives go from 'persona non grata' to White House insiders," by WashPost's=Renae Merl: "After spending the presidential campaign as a punch line for =rogressive groups — and Trump — Goldman Sachs has found it=elf in a tricky position: How to take advantage of a new, less adversarial=attitude towards Wall Street likely to bubble through Washington during Tr=mp's presidency, while not becoming the focus of lingering populist anger =t big banks."

"Already, protesters have spent several nights sleep=ng outside the Goldman's headquarters in New York, waving signs using the =ank's dreaded nickname 'Government Sachs.' … Protesters, who have =lso descended on Goldman offices across the country, say they will return =nce a week during Trump's first 100 days in office."

​9. Tops in media trends

Screen-time shocker: … Bloomberg gets cheeky: "Get off Facebook, Dad. No, =eally, you're spending, like, seven hours a week on there." Don't tell you= kids but, middle-aged men spend more time than millennials on social medi=, according to Nielsen."

​10. 2 fun things

Funny video, "A Bad Lip Readi=g of Donald Trump's Inauguration"

The Wall Street Journal's A-hed is "It's Not You: Hotel Thermostats Really Are Rigge=": "The humble hotel wall thermostat … has become an infrared heat=and motion detector wirelessly networked into building controls that cut c=sts by reducing energy consumption. … Sensors can be fooled by sou=d sleepers and erroneously shut off air in the middle of the night. Hotels=are retrofitting wireless wall thermostats and door switches …The =dvantage is that they can be centrally controlled. Guests may still fiddle=with old knobs, … but it won't get cooler or warmer."

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