Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 -- An intervention * Trump's beauties * Which hockey stick? * Zuck manifesto
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 06:45:11 -0500 (EST)

Presented by JPMorgan Chase & Co.:

An intervention * Trump's beauties * Which hockey stick? * Zuck manifest=

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Presented By JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Feb 17, 2017

Coming Sunday evening: the debut of Jonathan=Swan's new week-ahead newsletter, Sneak Peek: what's coming on both ends o= Pennsylvania Avenue, plus Sunday-show keepers.
Click here and your email address will automatically be=added to this Sunday's Sneak Peek.

1 big thing: A Republican intervention

Top Republicans tell us they're as rattled as ever by P=esident Trump and his White House -- and want an intervention. Their grave=t long-term concern (beyond the Russia scandal): Trump's devil-may-care ef=ort to run the free world in the same improvisational, family-focused styl= that worked so well with for his campaign and business.

Candidate Trump, with hardly any staff and prep, was agile and a=thentic. Key Republicans think President Trump, with hardly any staff and =rep, seems small or lost. A strategist who works closely with the administ=ation said: "The entire West Wing staff sat in an unplanned press conferen=e in the middle of a Thursday. Every time I turn on cable news, I see lite=ally everybody from the chief of staff on down sitting in the president's =ress events like interns trying to get into the background of a photo shoo=."

Candidate Trump electrified crowds and inocula=ed himself from criticism by blaming the "dishonest" media for every misha=. President Trump seems a little unhinged tweeting his mornings away and w=ining about "fake news" as his legislative priorities flounder. "These guy= have a golden opportunity to make massive change, and they're squandering=it with all this silliness," said one of Washington's top lobbyists. "Beca=se at the end of the day, it's all about him."

Candidate Trump stoked his base with relentless attacks on estab=ishment Republican like John McCain. Now, the McCains of the world have th= power to strike back, rhetorically and substantively. It's no secret Trum= has very few authentic admirers among Senate Republicans. This could bite=him badly when it comes to the Flynn/Russia investigation.

=/span>But, but, but ... Like the campaign, Trump has zero=interest in changing any of this and firmly believes he's off to a strong,=if not stellar, start.

Parallel Universe: winning bigl= ... To Trump, this will feel laughably familiar to the Republica= establishment whining when he announced, when he won the nomination, when=he stumbled in debates, when he surely couldn't win the presidency. He tr=ly believes this had been the best start to a presidency in history, and n= one around would ever disagree to his face.

The stoc= market is soaring: You need to go back to LBJ to see a spike lik= during the first month in office.

His polls looks good, <=strong>some even great, to his eyes. Drudge had Rassmuseen's 55 percent ap=roval rating leading his site yesterday, and several other polls showed Tr=mp near 50. Even the worst polls -- Pew has him at 39 -- show his support =ith Republicans exceeds Reagan or the Bushes.

And he can s=ill sell out The Show. Every network cut in to show his press-bas=ing press conference, and Floridians will pack an airport hangar in Melbou=ne with Trump-loving on Saturday at 5 p.m. for his first post-election ral=y -- 1,354 days before th= 2020 election.

Why this matters: Why do you =hink? He won't change.

New communications director, per CNN: Mike Dubke -- a found=r of Crossroads Media, a media-placement firm in Alexandria, serving Ameri=an Crossroads, other Republican groups, and corporations -- is expected to=be named White House communications director.

Dubke is a=founding partner at the Black Rock Group, a graduate of Hamilton College, =nd a Buffalo Bills season ticket holder.

2. Trump's 10 beauties

April Ryan follows up.

Choice cuts from yesterday's East Room presser (1 hour, 18 minutes -- 12:55 p.=. to 2:13 p.m. -- transcript runs 14,300 words):

"I tu=n on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos. Cha=s! Yet, it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fi=e-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my Cabinet approved, an= they're outstanding people."

"There's zero chaos.
"[T]he leaks =re absolutely real. The news is fake, because so much of the news is fake.=

"I watched this morning a couple of the networks= and I have to say 'Fox & Friends' in the morning, they're very honora=le people. They're very -- not because they're good, because they hit me a=so when I do something wrong. But they have the most honest morning show. =hat's all I can say. It's the most honest."

When Jon Sopel=identifies himself as being from the BBC: "OK. Here's another bea=ty."

To April Ryan, an African Ameri=an and longtime White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Network=, when she asks if he's going to include the Congressional Black Caucus an= Congressional Hispanic Caucus in conversations on his urban agenda: "I tell you what: Do you want to set up the meeting? Do you want to=set up the meeting? ... Are they friends of yours? ... No, go ahead, set=up the meeting."

"I am havi=g a good time. Tomorrow they will say, 'Donald Trump rants and ra=es at the press.' I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you, you're=dishonest people. But -- but I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm =aving a good time doing it. But tomorrow the headlines are going to be: 'D=nald Trump Rants and Raves.' I'm not ranting and raving."

=Now, tomorrow you'll say, 'Donald Trump wants to get along with R=ssia, this is terrible.' It's not terrible -- it's good."

=Nobody mentions that Hillary received the questions to the debate=. Can you imagine -- seriously, can you imagine if I received the question=? It would be the electric chair, OK? 'He should be put in the electric ch=ir.' You would even call for the reinstitution of the death penalty, OK?"<=li>
"I will say that I never get phone calls from the=media. How do they write a story like that in The Wall Street Journal with=ut asking me? Or how do they write a story in The New York Times, put it o= front page? That was like that story they wrote about the women and me --=front page. Big massive story. And it was nasty."

3. Truest column words written this morning

Front row of presser, from left: Priebus, Pence, Kushner, Bannon / AP's =ablo Martinez Monsivais

David Brooks column, "Wha= a Failed Trump Administration Looks Like" (in the paper: "When Government=Breaks Down"): "Bannon has a coherent worldview, which is a huge advantage=when all is chaos. It's interesting how many of Bannon's rivals have woken=up with knives in their backs."

"Michael Flynn is gone.=/strong> Reince Priebus has been unmanned by a thousand White House leaks.=Rex Tillerson had the potential to be an effective secretary of state, but=Bannon neutered him last week by denying him the ability to even select hi= own deputy."

"Bannon looms. With each passing da=, Trump talks more like Bannon without the background reading."

<= style="margin-left: 20px;">Sentence of the day: "Judgi=g by his Thursday press conference, President Trump's mental state is like=a train that long ago left freewheeling and iconoclastic, has raced throug= indulgent, chaotic and unnerving, and is now careening past unhinged, unm=ored and unglued."

Runner-up: "We're about to enter a moment in which U.S. economic and military =ight is strong but U.S. political might is weak. Imagine the Roman Empire =overned by Monaco."

A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

5M U.S. jobs need workers; can high schools help?

The number of high school graduates unprepared to succeed is more than a=moral failure – it’s a threat to businesses that need to f=ll jobs. That’s why JPMorgan Chase launched New Skills for Youth. =a href="http://link.axios.com/click/8895425.32201/aHR0cDovL2Jldm8tdXMtZW=zdC0xLmFkc25hdGl2ZS5jb20vY2s_dXJsPWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmpwbW9yZ2FuY2hhc2UuY29tL=NvcnBvcmF0ZS9uZXdzL3N0b3JpZXMvbnNmeS1hLXdvcmtpbmctZWR1Y2F0aW9uLmh0bSZkYXRh=U9UUTNaVFl3TlRoak9XUmlNMk5tTXpNeVlUUm1PRGhtWlRNeU16YzROVFZpTVRZME1tTTFOVFZ=TlRoaVl6UTRORE16WW1FMllXTXdNR1JpWmpCa05Ua3habUpsT0RkalpXRTVZemc1T1RCalpERm=OekpqTnpFME5EYzJZVFF6WWpSa05XRmhaVEZqWWpBell6WmxNakU1WVRka1pXWmxaalJtTnpka=5tUXlNMlEyWmpSaVkyUmpNV05qTmpZM05XRTNZelU0TkRFM01HWXpNVE14TjJSbU5XRmtPVFUw=TJaaFpHSXpaRE0xWW1WaE16VTJPRFprTldKbU1HUTVaREJqTkRaa05XWTROV1V3Wm1Vd01qVmx=REZoTWpBeU1qaGlOems1TURZM016SXpOams0WldJME1URXhOekU1WlRRNE5ERmpNekV6TVdSaE=UaG1ObU15T0dVMU1tVTVOR1kyWXpSbU56Y3daVGd5TnpsaU5tWTFNRGd3TlRreVptVTBZVFUzT=1Nek1UTTNZVEUzTlROak1UTTBPV0k1TUdWa016Z3pOekklM0Qmc2lkPTIyNmZhYzc1ZjJlNDRl=mQ5ODZmMGU3NmM5YWVkYmRjX2EyN2JiOTFjJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWV=aXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2F4aW9zYW0/5871993924c17c54d7=a8b8cBe4d8c7fc" target=”_blank” class="adLink">Learn a=out the $75M initiative here.

4. Axios interview: Secretary DeVos

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos met Jonathan Swan a week into her job:

O= the federal education budget: "There's clearly an opportunity to=slim down the department in some ways. I don't know if that will ultimatel= significantly reduce the overall expenditure, but it may, it may help inc=ntivize states in other ways."

On changes in schools durin= her tenure: "I expect there will be more public charter schools.=I expect there will be more private schools. I expect there will be more v=rtual schools. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven'= even been invented yet."

In her ideal world, the=federal government has any a role in education? "It would be fine with me =o have myself worked out of a job, but I'm not sure that — I'm not=sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that."
<=ul>

5. Slumping agenda: Which hockey stick?

It's not just health reform that's floundering ...
=p>"Meager Gains for Republicans On Bold Legislative To-Do=List" -- N.Y. Times A1, above fold, by Jennifer Steinhauer: "The inactivit= stems from a lack of clear policy guidance — and, just as often, =ontradictory messages — from the Trump administration, which does =ot appear to have spent the campaign and transition periods forming a legi=lative wish list."

Chris Krueger of Cowen Washingto= Research Group, in his D.C. Download, "Tax Reform in Jeopardy": "The legislative year could well be a hockey-stick -- nothing and t=en everything in late Q4. It could also be an inverted hockey-stick -- not=ing and then shutdowns and debt ceiling fights with nothing on taxes."
=

Fareed Zakaria WashPost column, "A circus with lots of noise, litt=e action": "For many people, the bargain of the Trump presidency was that they would put up with the freak show in order to get tax =eform, infrastructure projects and deregulation. That may still happen, bu= for now at least, reality TV is in overdrive, and not much is happening i= the realm of serious policy."

6. The conversation: "The deep state"

The postgame stars are drinking in the new torrent of leaks.

Longtime Washington watchers are talking a lot about th= beast Trump is rousing, partly unwittingly -- the bureaucracy, the intell=gence services, and all the hidden powers of permanent Washington. A =reat piece on this in The Times this morning as a "The Interpreter" co=umn by Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, "Echoes of a 'Deep State' as a Culture =f Conflict Gains New Intensity."

Using the decapitation of =lynn as a case study, the authors point to "growing reliance on l=aks and other tools of bureaucratic resistance":

"=his risks entrenching a culture of bureaucratic warfare that is a=versarial and dysfunctional by default — not quite a Turkish-style=deep state, but not a healthy democracy either."

"Though t=e deep state is sometimes discussed as a shadowy conspiracy, it h=lps to think of it instead as a political conflict between a nation's lead=r and its governing institutions."

"That can be deeply des=abilizing, leading both sides to wield state powers like the secu=ity services or courts against one another, corrupting those institutions =n the process."

7. Zuck's manifesto

Mark Zuckerberg posted a 5,700-word manifesto, "Buildin= Global Community," saying the wo most discussed concerns this past year "=ere about diversity of viewpoints we see (filter bubbles) and accuracy of =nformation (fake news)."

Recode's Kara Swisher Kurt Wagner call it his "letter addressing fak= news and saving the world" -- using Facebook "to help fix everything from=polarization to terrorist attacks":

"A number of his visions include the use of artificial intell=gence technology to monitor what is happening on Facebook, which should at=ract some level of scrutiny from privacy advocates. ... Zuckerberg mention=d bullying and harassment and even a suicide that was livestreamed on the =acebook platform — which he said in an interview disturbed him gre=tly — as the types of things he thinks AI can help prevent.
"'Right now, we're starting =o explore ways to use AI to tell the difference between news stories about=terrorism and actual terrorist propaganda so we can quickly remove anyone =rying to use our services to recruit for a terrorist organization,' he wro=e. 'This is technically difficult as it requires building AI that can read=and understand news, but we need to work on this to help fight terrorism w=rldwide.'"

8. Trending ...

Big in business ... "Buy American" i= back, per Axios' Chris Matthews: The UAW is resurrecting its "Buy America=" campaign, with UAW leader Dennis Williams telling the Detr=it Free Press: "No company … can survive without the market of=the United States of America."

=ut the problem of identifying what is exactly "American" is hasn'= gotten any easier since the 1980s, during the campaign's heyday. Foreign =utomakers build much of what they sell in the U.S. here, while American fi=ms are often using Mexican labor for part of their supply chains.

Tops in tech ... "Why [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions =cares tech companies," by Axios' Kim Hart: "Sessions has gone after the te=h industry for hiring high-skilled foreign workers and resisting law enfor=ement surveillance requests. Pile on Donald Trump's populist disdain for b=g companies and suspicion of some dominant tech platforms, and antitrust e=perts ... say Silicon Valley has reason to be worried."

"Companies are struggling to =igure out Snapchat," by Axios' Sara Fischer: "Snap ads could very well be =ore effective than third-party studies give them credit for, but ad buyers=don't have confidence in the data."

9. 1 weird thing

The cover story of the new Economist says we=might soon make babies without sex! "The world may soon face the possibili=y of eggs and sperm made from putative parents' body cells (probably their=skin) rather than in their ovaries and testes. Such methods separate sexua= intercourse from reproduction."

When I int=rviewed Walter Isaacson on Monday for Axios' forthcoming "Smarter= Faster" video series, gene editing was one of the first topics he mention=d when I asked the big ideas he's obsessed with Four key points from the Economist cover story on reproductive tech:

"The first gene editing will eliminate genetic diseases in a w=y that now requires embryo selection—an advance many would applaud="

"[B]reeding babies with new traits and cloning other people rais=s questions of equality and of whether it is ever right to use other peopl='s tissues without their consent."

"Should be=eaved parents be able to clone a lost child? Or a widow her depar=ed husband? Should the wealthy be able to pay for their children to be int=lligent and diligent, if nobody else can afford to do so?"

<=span>"Commissions of experts will need to search for answ=rs; and courts will need to apply the rules—to protect the interes=s of the unborn. They will be able to draw on precedents, such as identica= twins."

10. 1 fun thing

Jeff Lipsky / ABC

Jimmy Kimmel -- hosting the Oscars a w=ek from Sunday (Feb. 26) -- talks to Elizabeth Leonard in the new issue of PE=PLE:

How will you deal with=politics?

"I haven't dec=ded exactly how much I will dwell on that. A lot of it depends on what hap=ens that week. There are one, sometimes three, new interesting stories com=ng out of the White House every day it seems — so who knows what w=ll be happening? ... I just hope whatever is happening is light."

What are you doing after the show?

"I will probably go to a pa=ty or two, unless it's some kind of disaster, and then I'll go to the hosp=tal. I'll either go to Vanity Fair or Cedars-Sinai."

A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“One of the greatest moral and economic ine=uities of our time”

So said JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, on the number of yo=ng people who graduate without the skills to compete.

That is why J=Morgan Chase invested $75 million in New Skills for Youth, a global initia=ive designed to create new pathways to opportunity, to “align with=the needs of growing industries,” says Dimon, “and give yo=ng people a chance to succeed.” Learn more.

Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 200, Arlington VA 22201

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