Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Trump's wild weekends — A scary trend you can't put down — What Trump's reading — D.C.'s new see-and-be-seen — Best jokes from Gridiron
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2017 08:45:10 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Walmart:

Trump's wild weekends — A scary trend you can't put down �=94 What Trump's reading — D.C.'s new see-and-be-seen — Be=t jokes from Gridiron

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Mar 05, 2017

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1 big thing: Not fake news

Carl Bernstein (second from left) and Bob Woodward (third from left) wit= Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford at "All the President's Men" premiere =n 1976 / AP

Six weeks ( 44 days) into his presidency, Donald Trump,=when left alone because Jared and Ivanka are observing the Sabbath, still =angs out tweets (with episodic misspellings) making wild accusations based=on flimsy or nonexistent evidence. And not a single word you just read is =isputable. Let that sink in.

Here's why even y=u Trump fans and White House officials should worry: The weekend tweetstor=s have hit the courts, intelligence agencies and the media. One day soon, =he president will need the public to trust the very institutions he's tryi=g to discredit.

Joe Scarborough first noticed that =any of Trump's wilder tweets (including the "so-called judge") cluster on =aturday mornings. Click here for a jaw-dropping roundup of the Saturd=y tweets, by Axios' Stef Kight: "Once upon a time, Saturdays were devoid o= news beyond the boring presidential radio address. Now, they are wild aff=irs, featuring Trump Twitter tantrums."

This time, = Trumper tantrum started with Attorney General Sessions' recusal, apparent=y escalated in a huddle with top aides before the president left for Mar-a=Lago: He went "ballistic," per ABC's Jon Karl and Chris Vlasto. CNN has video, shot through a White House window=

Trump, furious about the cave by Sessions, left Ba=non and Priebus back in D.C. And with the adults away, POTUS just had to p=ay.

2. Megatrend

Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

Why pols will be focusing more on the opiate epidemic .=. Axios' Shannon Vavra plunges into a CDC report and=discovers that the rate of drug-overdose fatalities is now higher =han the rate for death by suicides, car accidents or guns.
Why this matters: Opioids killed more than 33,000 peo=le in 2015 — more than ever before. Synthetic opioids can be 50 to=100 times more potent than heroin, which puts emergency rooms at risk of r=nning out of antidotes to treat overdoses

Trump country hi= hard: States that Trump won like West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oh=o were hardest hit by fatal drug overdoses in 2015. Trump held a meeting i= Feb. on how to respond to the opioid epidemic.

3. Is screen time the new smoking?

Cover of WashPost Outlook, "You need to put your phone down. Here's why you can't" �=94 A book review of "Irresistible: The Rise of Addic=ive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked," by Adam Alter, a pr=fessor of psychology and marketing at NYU — Review by Tim Wu, auth=r of "The Attention Merchants":

"Thirty years=ago, we accepted secondhand smoke, sugary sodas for kids and tann=ng salons as simple facts of life. What will we think is crazy 30 years fr=m now? That we lived without enough sleep? Treated animals so badly? ... [=]he answer may be our use of addictive technologies."

The =uthor "includes not just the more obvious addictive technologies =uch as slot machines and video games, but the whole sweep of social media,=dating apps, online shopping and other binge-inducing programs. He takes i= everything whose business model depends on being irresistible (which toda= is most things).

"If he's right, most of us are =ursing at least a few minor 'behavioral addictions' and perhaps a major on= ... [Y]ou may be convinced ... to seriously rethink the behavioral addict=ons in your life."

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Operating with companies that share a comittment to domestic manufacturi=g is vital. That's why Walmart is proud to work with local companies like =ishpeople in Ilwaco, Washington to invest in U.S. products and create new =obs. Read more.

4. Fun fact du jour

N.Y. Times Public Editor Liz Spayd, "The Declining Fortunes of Women at The Times":

"Maggie Haberman['s] byline, I'= told, drew more page views last year than any other reporter at The Times=— an eye-popping 141 million."

5. What Trump is reading

Reuters' Jonathan Ernst

At Trump's office suite in Trump Tower, he loves to sho= visitors a conference table stacked with magazine covers of himself. As y=u walk into Mar-A-Lago, you see framed newsmag covers of Trump. Now, there=s another one for the collection. This Reuters photo from Thursday shows T=ump's longtime security director, Keith Schiller, now Dir=ctor of Oval Office Operations, carrying a copy of Fortune with Trump on t=e cover as he deplanes Air Force One at Andrews with Sean Spicer. (Check the snazzy jacket lining.)

So what was Trump=reading on the plane (if he got past the cover)? The cover of the March 1 issue features "THE PROMISE of the Trump Economy" and "THE PERIL=/a> of the Trump Economy," by Shawn Tully:

"The market =ally assumes that the Trump administration can make good on its e=rly promises to raise America's annual growth rate by gigantic proportions="

"The biggest risk is ... a global trade war."
"His harsh anti-immigration stance is another downer for growth — with the potential to drive away =r deport millions of workers who are the bedrock of the farming and constr=ction industries, as well as to surrender the U.S.'s dominant position in =he global talent wars by restricting visas for engineers and programmers w=o help power America's R&D."

6. See and be seen

The $200 million Trump International Hotel, in the federally owned Old P=st Office Building on Pennsylvania Ave. / AP's Alex Brandon

"Trump hotel may be pol=tical capital of the nation's capital," by AP's Julie Bykowicz:
"Trump can see his hotel from the White House. When a=["Fox & Friends"] interviewer mentioned that to him recently, Trump re=ponded, 'Isn't that beautiful?' But while the interviewer pointed out that=he can see the property from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said, 'I'm=so focused on what I'm doing here that I don't even think about it.'"
=li>"[O]n a mid-February evening, you could bump into Trum= television personality Katrina Pierson having cocktails =ith Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive w=o's now working at [HUD]. Trump campaign and inauguration hands To= Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks."

"Rooms start at above $500 most nights ... That's=up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened, not long before E=ection Day."

Treasury Secretary Steve "Mnuchi= is one of the New Yorkers working in Washington who call it home=during the week. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn i= another. Linda McMahon, who heads the Small Business Adm=nistration, also has been staying there."

7. A nation on edge

Middlebury students turn their backs on Charles Murray, who they call a =hite nationalist / AP's Lisa Rathke

Boston Globe front page, "Middlebury=College reels after attack on speaker: Menacing crowd harassed racial =heorist Charles Murray," by Laura Krantz in Middlebury, Vt.: "Students and=professors at Middlebury College were ashamed and embarrassed after an exp=osive protest Thursday night that has forced the school to reconsider what=it means to embrace free speech."

Per AP: "Hundreds of college students ... pr=tested the lecture, forcing the college to move his talk to an undisclosed=campus location from which it was live-streamed to the original venue but =ouldn't be heard above protesters' chants, feet stamping and occasional sm=ke alarms."

Back to the Globe: "Many on campus, i=cluding the college president and leaders of the student organization who =nvited him, disagree vehemently with Murray's views on social welfare prog=ams and race, but on Saturday they said the campus failed in its duty to e=emplify how to debate unpopular ideas with civility."

"Tru=p's presidency formed the backdrop for the protest, students said= The election has made people on campus dig their heels in ideologically."=/li>

"Violence breaks out at pro-Tru=p rally in Berkeley," by L.A. Times' Peter King and Ruben Vives: "At least=some of the counter-protesters appeared to be members of the so-called bla=k bloc, a group that UC Berkeley officials blamed for many of the problems=on campus last month. The self-described anarchists or anti-fascists have =eft school and law enforcement officials struggling to cope with their tac=ics."

8. Hot companies

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, slated to carry two paying tourists to the mo=n next year on a private flight / SpaceX 2015, via AP

Houston Chronicle, top of front page, "SpaceX sen=s a message to NASA: Private company pushes limits with moonshot plan" (on=ine: "Elon Musk's urgent moon=hot"), by Mike Tolson and Kevin Diaz:

"Some will dismi=s the private moonshot as a stunt, a wild hare of an idea from th= mind of a man obsessed with colonizing Mars. ... [But t]here's a new pres=dent in town with a preference for the private sector, and patience is not=his MO."

"Musk's announcement [that he has downpa=ments from two private individuals for a trip around the moon in 2018], co=ing a day before President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session=of Congress, was widely seen as a shot across the bow of the old aerospace=companies and the government agency that has helped keep them in business =or decades."

"If SpaceX can demonstr=te prowess as far away as the moon, and if it can do so cheaper than the c=mpetition, as it has with satellite launches, who's to rule out a new sort=of space race in which aerospace behemoths and relative newcomers jockey f=r important assignments?"

Scoop by The Information ... "Uber CEO, Facing Multiple =ontroversies, Seeks No. 2 Exec," by Amir Efrati and Alfred Lee: "Uber CEO =ravis Kalanick's ability to share power will be tested shortly, once the e=ecutive finds a number two executive to serve alongside him. The proposed =ppointment appears aimed at calming critics of the company, enmeshed in mu=tiple controversies over its culture and business tactics."

9. Wall Street trends

Bullish ... "Investors bet Trump-fueled tech rally far from ov=r," by Reuters' Noel Randewich in S.F.: Investors are "expecting a wav= of capital expenditures by U.S. corporations. Corporate tax cuts and redu=ed regulations planned by ... Trump will give companies reason to spend mo=e on cloud computing, factory automation and smart connectivity."

=li>"Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment=Management: "The tax cuts are going to promote business investment across =ll industries, and the business investment is largely going to be in techn=logy."

"Strong performances from big names including Apple ... and Facebook ... have helped make t=chnology the strongest S&P 500 sector ... this year, surging 10% compa=ed to the broader index's 6% rise."

Bearish ... "U.S. en=rgy stocks, darlings last year, stumble in 2017," by Jessica Resnick-=ult and Lewis Krauskopf in N.Y.: "[E]nergy shares have been weak after pea=ing in mid-December, and are the worst-performing of the Standard & Po=r's 11 stock sectors in 2017."

"In 2017, energ= is down 5%, compared with a 6% climb for the overall S&P 500."
Oil companies "may see profits rise as the economy stren=thens and oil prices increase. Increased power demand and defense spending= — the defense sector is a big energy consumer — could al=o propel demand."

10. 1 fun thing: Best of last night's Gridiron dinner

Vice President Pence, wearing a black tow tie: "[T]he e=d of the week was a little embarrassingfor me. Not that I had a personal e=ail account when I was Governor, [but] to have millions of Americans learn=that I'm one of the few people in this country who still has an AOL accoun=. I guess it was good for my image, though. Now America knows I'm not stuc= in the 1950s — just the 1990s."

The president and I support the freedom of the p=ess, enshrined in the First Amendment. For my part, I've long be=n an advocate of a free and independent press — I worked as a comm=ntator in the '90s; I co-founded the World Press Freedom Caucus with Congr=ssman Adam Schiff, who's here tonight; and I authored the federal Media Sh=eld statute.

"But =et me say, respectfully: With freedom comes responsibility. In th=s day and age, of a breathless news cycle, we sure could use more responsi=le, considered journalism in America."

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Io=a): "It's great to see the vice president here. Do you realize he=is just a heartbeat away from being second in command to Steve Bannon? ...=Hillary refused to come here. She must think this is Wisconsin. ... Nate S=lver isn't here. He said there was a 92% chance I wouldn't say his name. W=ong again!"

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi: "Vice =resident Pence, it's good to see you this evening. Does the president know=you're here, laughing it up with the enemies of the American people? It's =K, Mr. Vice President: People here can keep a secret. This isn't the White=House."

"This White House has more drama among rich people than a Jane Austen novel. In fact, I'm=told the Secret Service code names for President Trump and Bannon are 'Pri=e' and 'Prejudice.'"

"President=Trump is considering a new plan for the First Amendment. It's cal=ed 'repeal and replace.'"

=/a>

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