Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Trump playing chess or "Trivial Pursuit"? — Liberal groups extorted by Russian hackers — Charities' million-dollar paydays — Letterman on viral media
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2017 06:47:09 -0500 (EST)

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Trump playing chess or "Trivial Pursuit"? — Li=eral groups extorted by Russian hackers — Charit=es' million-dollar paydays — Letterman on viral media

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Mar 06, 2017

1 big thing: Trump' great gamble

Saudi newspaper Al Watan, via @BazziNYU (h/t WashPost WorldView newslett=r)

I have learned that some — though definitely no= all — members of President Trump's inner circle share his belief =hat the Obama administration tapped his Trump Tower phones in October. And=a White House official told me President Trump not only doesn't regret thi= weekend's fracas despite the lack of evidence for his astonishing claim, =e is "absolutely convinced" he'll be vindicated.

"The presid=nt just has a great nose for these things," the official said. "I='s the bureaucratic leaks — the deep state — that bother h=m most. Even if it turns out not to be true that they surveilled Trump Tow=r, he will have a very good point to make about the level of sabotage comi=g from Obama holdovers."

Those facts help explain T=ump's high-stakes decision to ask Congress to add Obama abuse of "executiv= branch investigative powers" to its Russia investigation. For Trump spoke=people, it's a handy punt: Now they don't have to defend or explain Trump'= tweets, and just refer questioners to Congress.

But the ris= is that there'll be a day of reckoning — perhaps after d=cuments are subpoenaed and testimony demanded — when a Republican =ongress embarrasses the White House by saying the president was flat wrong=when he accused his predecessor of a crime.

Towergate is a fascinating test of Trump's great gamble that he can do the job of =resident in a totally new way: largely improvisational, driven by whims, m=ods and obsessessions; thinly staffed, like his campaign, and with poorly =nforced process, not taking advantage of the massive safety net available =o him; heavily reliant on family; and unconstrained by manners, rituals or=precedent.

FBI Director Comey reportedly turned on =rump and asked the Justice Department to reject the tapping claim. And Sen. Mar=o Rubio expressed skepticism on Sunday shows.

But some well-=nown Republicans are willing to wage the debate on Trump's terms.=One establishment grandee asked in an email: Did Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch "approve this??? That is the big Q" — =kipping over whether "this" is real.

A Democratic theory is that if Trump believes problematic transcripts of recorded calls =ith Russians may dribble or gush out, why not discredit them in advance as=a political dirty trick? Then when they emerge, you can say "Aha!" rather =han being on the defensive.

But a Republican close =o the White House said that's overthinking it: That "view is quite plausib=e. But I do not believe they are playing chess. I think they are playing T=ivial Pursuit."

2. Liberal groups get ransom demands

"=strong>Russian Hackers Said to Seek Hush Money From Liberal U=S. Groups ... Post-election crime wave by attackers demanding bitcoins — Center for American Progress said to be among vict=ms," by Bloomberg's Michael Riley:

"At least a dozen gr=ups have faced extortion attempts since the U.S. presidential ele=tion."

"The ransom demands are accompanied by sam=les of sensitive data in the hackers' possession. In one case, a non-profi= group and a prominent liberal donor discussed how to use grant money to c=ver some costs for anti-Trump protesters."

"At least some =roups have paid the ransoms even though there is little guarantee=the documents won't be made public anyway. Demands have ranged from about =30,000 to $150,000, payable in untraceable bitcoins."

"The Center for American Progress, a Was=ington think tank with strong links to both the Clinton and Obama administ=ations, and Arabella Advisors, which guides liberal donors who want to inv=st in progressive causes, have been asked to pay ransoms."

3. Sentence of the day

Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, in a N.Y. Times front-pager, "Conspiracy Theory's Journey From Tal= Radio to Oval Office": "Previous presidents usually measured their words =o avoid a media feeding frenzy, but Mr. Trump showed again over the weeken= that he feeds off the frenzy."

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4. Tidbit of the day

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus arrives for a meeting between =rump and the National Governors Association last week / AP's Evan Vucci

From a WashPost front-pager, "A furious Trump rages at leaks and accusa=ions," by Phi Rucker, Bob Costa and Ashley Parker:

"As reporters began to hear about [Trump's Ov=l Office tirade about Sessions' decision to cave and recuse himself, which=the president thought the White House staff should have fought harder], [W=ite House Chief of Staff Reince ]Priebus interrupted his Friday afternoon =chedule to dedicate more than an hour to calling reporters off the record =o deny that the outburst had actually happened, according to a senior Whit= House official.

"'Every time there's a palace intrigue story or negative story about Reince, the=whole West Wing shuts down,' the official said."

That revela=ion is further evidence of Politico's headline, "Knives are =ut for Reince," by Alex Isenstadt and Josh Dawsey:

Trump aides and allies "described a micro=manager who sprints from one West Wing meeting to another, inserting himse=f into conversations big and small and leaving many staffers feeling as if=he's trying to block their access to Trump. They vented about his determin=tion to fill the administration with his political allies.

"And they expressed alarm at what the= say are directionless morning staff meetings Priebus oversees that could =therwise be used to rigorously set the day's agenda and counterbalance the=president's own unpredictability."

Kellyanne Conway=took up for Reince, saying that his Hill relationships will pay off in com=ng negotiations over the agenda: "Reince is doing a great job. He's chief =f staff to a president who's taking action and disrupting the bureaucracy =n a way that no one's ever seen."

And the N.Y. Times defends=Conway, with a front-pager by Susan Chira, "=nother Powerful Woman. Same Sexist Attacks": "Ironies abound. Ms. Conway i= loathed by many Clinton aides as the architect of a presidential campaign=that they felt used overtly and implicitly sexist messages."

5. The Deconstruction Project

Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, t=ld Jim VandeHei and me last week that under Trump, the oil and natural-g=s industry wants a reexamination of 145 proposed or new r=gulations from the Obama administration that potentially stymie "the very =ctivity many of them were talking about or taking credit for."

He's not the only one with a wish list. A N.Y. Times front-pager, "Regulatory Leashes Coming Off Wall St., Gun =ellers and More," by Eric Lipton and Binyamin Applebaum, finds that in six=weeks of Trump, federal agencies and the Republican-controlled Congress "d=layed, suspended or reversed" more than 90 regs:

"Socia= Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to bl=ck individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, n=r will hunters be banned from using lead-based bullets."

W=ste cleanup at mines, drinking-water protection and stream protec=ion.

Rules to protect investors and prevent finan=ial collapse.

6. Trending in tech

Trump and tech already had a hot-and-cold relationship.=On the day when Trump is expected to unveil his revised executive order on=migrant travel, Axios tech editor Kim Hart digs into = hallmark of his immigration policy that may complicate things further=

Trump's interest in merit-based green cards i= widely seen as a win for the tech industry by putting more emphasis on hi=her-skilled workers.

The twist: Trump has critici=ed some companies for using the program to undercut American workers and s=ggested he'll overhaul the program.

What to watch: How merit-based green cards play out in Silicon Valley — where ma=y founders and CEOs are immigrants — depends on who is sidelined. = move to cut back family-based visas may clash with Silicon Valley's progr=ssive social values.

7. Two Americas

Workaday stalwarts at the nation's non-profits won't en=oy Wall Street Journal front-=ager, "Million-Dollar Paydays Jump For Officials At Charities," by And=ea Fuller:

"About 2,700 people had seven-figu=e pay packages at the nonprofits in 2014, a number that was up a third in =hree years, newly searchable IRS data show."

"Many of the =1 million-or-more packages ... included deferred-compensation con=ributions or payouts. In about a quarter the base pay was $1 million or mo=e."

"About three-fourths of the charities that pr=vided million-dollar compensation packages in 2014 were involved in health=care. About 10% were private colleges."

"The biggest 2014 =ackage went to Anthony Tersigni, president and chief executive of=Missouri-based Ascension, one of the largest hospital operators ... His co=pensation totaled $17.6 million [including] a $10.2 million bonus."

8. French Trump declares war against "savage globalization"

On "60 Minutes," Marine Le Pen, the nationalist leader =unning to be the next president of France, tells Anderson Cooper: "Globali=ation has become an ideology with no constraints. Now nations are forcing =hemselves back into the debate. Nations with borders that we control with =eal economies, not Wall Street economies, but rather factories and farmers= This goes against unregulated globalization, a wild, savage globalization= Wild globalization has benefited some, but it's been a catastrophe for mo=t."

Key quotes ... See the CBS News video, transcript.

9. Pence quietly becoming foreign-policy power player

10. 1 fun thing

and the Man He Calls Trump=," by David Marchese ...

On la=e-night shows becoming vehicles for social media: "I knew it was =appening, and I recognized that it was a good idea, but I didn't know how =o do it. When people around me would come up with ideas, I felt like, =his is exploitation beyond the pale. We're just going to produce some=little precious moment here and put it up on the internet? But nobody want= to sit through an eight-minute interview with fill-in-the-blank. So these=things are useful.

"But the ide= of Twitter: Trumpy — my son, Harry, and I call him 'Trum=y' — has really got something with it. Rather than a laughable exp=ession of ego run amok, it could be a useful tool. ... So — I'm lo=ely, I can't stop talking."

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