Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Day 50 of President Trump: The known knowns — Pope ponders married priests — Where millennials shop — Who should star in "Game Change III"?
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2017 06:37:15 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Walmart:

Day 50 of President Trump: The known knowns — Pope ponders marri=d priests — Where millennials shop — Who should star in "G=me Change III"?

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Mar 10, 2017

You're invited ... Axios events launch in D.=. next week:

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1 big thing ... Trump at 50 days: The known knowns

Lazaro Gamio /Axios

Today is Day 50 of the Trump presidency — =alfway to the fabled hundred days. As our halftime report, here are a half=dozen "kn=wn knowns" Jim VandeHei and I have learned since the inauguration:

Trump is Trump. A wise friend told me that =he one guy who's not changing is a 70-year-old billionaire with h=s name on the building. Think about the arc of claiming 6 years ago that P=esident Obama wasn't a U.S. citizen, to claiming Saturday that Obama wiret=pped Trump Tower. Trump might surprise, but he will never change.

=strong>He's a media junkie. For all his anti-media tirades, we ha=e never had a president this obsessed with the media. This has been a real=ty for Trump since the 1980s and will never change. So, brace yourself for=twitchy Twitter responses to Fox, the N.Y. Times and "Morning Joe" until t=is presidency ends.

The Trump show will always be=improv. His advisers can make all the plans and give all the advice they w=nt. Trump always has, and always will, go with his gut — usually b=sed on the last person who got him jazzed.

Trump is transa=tional. He wants to claim wins on creating American jobs, undoing=Obamacare and cutting taxes. He likes working people face-to-face or on hi= cell. And the details are always negotiable.

Chaos isn't = theory — it's a governing reality. Competing factions, w=despread insecurity and rivalry promise many more months and years of real=ty show-worthy stories and governing. The truth is: Trump likes the commot=on.

Whether it's smoke, fire or a bit of both, Ru=sia's a problem that won't go away. You have all the ingredients for an en=less investigation: multiple, mysterious meetings between Trump officials =nd Russia; some elements of the intelligence community clearly out for pay=ack; congressional probes launched; and the opposition party smelling bloo=. Ask Bill Clinton how long these dramas drag on.

P.S. "FBI investigation continues =nto 'odd' computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization," by C=N's Pamela Brown and Jose Pagliery: "Internet data shows that last summer,=a computer server owned by Russia-based Alfa Bank repeatedly looked up the=contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organiza=ion — far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all l=okups to the Trump server."

2. The tao of Trump

"Behind the political lexicon
"[A] senior admin=stration official who [sounds an awful lot like Steve Bannon] ...=said that the rhetoric of the Trump administration is designed 'to be neit=er left nor right but a common-sense approach that shines light on a very =ut-of-touch small group of people in a few big cities who have been the bi= winners and who try to portray the mainstream of America as being abnorma=.'"

"A lot of the language you're seeing is about one question: Are we reindustrializing America =r deindustrializing America? ... Sometimes the language falls into a left =ucket and sometimes a right bucket, but the consistent theme is that the p=oper role of the American nation-state is to create more prosperity for Am=rican citizens."

​3. Pope open to married men as priests

Pope Francis says the church must study whether it's po=sible to ordain married men to minister in remote communities facing pries= shortages, AP reports from Berlin:

"In an interview published Thursday with Ge=many's Die Zeit, Francis stressed that removing the celibacy rule is not t=e answer to the Catholic Church's priest shortage. But he expressed an ope=ness to studying whether so-called 'vireo probati' — or married me= of proven faith — could be ordained."

His Holiness: "Then we must determine what tasks t=ey can perform, for example, in remote communities."

A message from Walmart

220,000 new promotions

Last year, Walmart proudly announced the promotion of 220,000 associates= Of those associates promoted, 11,000 were hourly associates who earned ne= salaried manager positions. Read more.

4. Stat du jour

"Bottled water overtakes soda in US" — AP: "Research and consultin= firm Beverage Marketing Corp. says Americans drank an average of 39.3 gal=ons of bottled water in 2016, and 38.5 gallons of carbonated soft drinks. =n 2015, bottled waterwas at 36.5 gallons while soda was at 39 gallons."

5. Trump's first Hill test

David Brooks column in N.Y. Times, "The G.O.P. Health C=re Crackup":

"This thing probably won't pass,
"It will also point the way to a new era. ... [Y]ou=ve got millions of people growing up in social and cultural chaos and not =etting the skills they need to thrive in a technological society. This is =ot a problem you can solve with tax cuts."

"A=d if you don't solve this problem, voters around the world have d=monstrated that they're quite willing to destroy market mechanisms to get =he security they crave. They will trash free trade, cut legal skilled immi=ration, attack modern finance."

"New social c=ises transform party philosophies. We're in the middle of a trans=ormation. But to get there we've got to live through this final health car= debacle first."

Shot ... Brookings study,
Chaser ... Speaker Ryan, in a shirt-sleeve= PowerPoint talk carried live on cable news: "Our goal here ... is thi=: lower costs, more choices, patients in control, universal access to care="

6. Locked in the Cabinet II

Trump passes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he leaves his address t= Congress on Feb. 28 / AP's Alex Brandon

David Ignatius column in WashPost, "Tillerson's painfully slow start at State" ponders the former Exxo= CEO's puzzling "idle gear these past two months":

Se=retary of State Tillerson "doesn't have a deputy or other top aid=s. His spokesman can't give guidance on key issues, because decisions have='t yet been made. Tillerson didn't attend important meetings with foreign =eaders."

"Tillerson's future impact at State depe=ds on his relationship with President Trump, but so far, that has seemed l=kewarm.

"The dilemma for Tillerson, the methodica= engineer, is how to connect with the mercurial tweeter in chief."
"Trump's business pragmatism may be the best hope for a c=herent foreign policy that avoids Bannon's often-proclaimed goal of challe=ging globalization and the international order."

Andre= Mitchell to Brian Williams on MSNBC's "The 11th Hour," on Tiller=on's plan for an Asian trip with no press aboard: "It's not about about ..= It's about the diplomacy of the United States. ... The Secretary of State=is going to Japan, South Korea and China next week and not taking=the press, which has always covered the Secretary of State ... go=ng back on trips to Henry Kissinger and before."

7. Trump's first jobs day looks bullish

Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

The Labor Department announces its estimate for the nu=ber of jobs created in February at 8:30. Axios' Chris Matthews writes=that economists are expecting 200,000 new jobs and for the unemployment ra=e to fall to 4.7%.

What bears say: The preside=t, and some economists, have argued that the falling unemployment rate was=not the result of an improving economy, but folks giving up looking for wo=k altogether. Indeed, if the labor force participation rate of 2008 were i= effect today, the unemployment rate would be 9.6% rather than 4.8%.
<=i>What bulls say: They expect higher wages and higher inf=ation because the pool of actually available workers is quite small. As Re=ublicans take responsibility for the labor market, expect them to increasi=gly emphasize this view.

8. Hot employers

Fortune's 20th annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," highlighting "champions and co=porate culture that have made fairness, employee engagement and talent dev=lopment top priorities":

Google (Alphabet) (Mountain View, Cali=.) — #1 for sixth year in a row

Wegmans Food =arkets (Rochester, N.Y/)

Boston Consulting Group (Boston)

=span>Baird — financial services; employee-owned (Milwaukee)=/li>
Edward Jones — investments (St. Louis)
Genetech — biotech (San Francisco)

Ultimate =oftware (Weston, Fla.)

Salesforce (San Francisco)

Acuity I=surance (Sheboygan, Wis.)

Quicken Loans (Detroit)

9. Happy-hour helper

"Millennials buy more clothes on Amazon than any other =ebsite" — Recode's Jason Del Rey: "A=azon registered the most apparel sales in 2016 of any online retailer in t=e U.S. for shoppers aged 18 to 34."

Amazon "accounted for nearly 17 percent of all online clothin= sales to this demographic last year, more than doubling the market share =f the No. 2 seller, Nordstrom. Old Navy, J. Crew and Victoria's Secret rou=ded out the Top 5."

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10. 1 fun thing: Who should star in "Game Change III"?

Simultaneous announcements by Penguin Press ...="Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are teaming up again for the th=rd installment of their heralded Game Change series of campaign b=oks, which will cover Donald Trump's dramatic and improbable victory over =illary Clinton ... to be published in early 2018."

... and H=O: The book will be made into a miniseries, directed by Jay Roach= with Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman as executive producers. The e=rlier "Game Change" was executive produced by Goetzman and Hanks, directed=and executive produced by Roach, and starred Julianne Moore (Sarah Palin),=Woody Harrelson (Steve Schmidt) and Ed Harris (John McCain).

in starring roles for the 2016 drama?

Send your ideas to mike@axios.=om, and we'll share the best/consensus ideas.

A message from Walmart

An investment in better training, education and hig=er wages

Since Walmart announced a $2.7B investment in training, education and hi=her wages, the starting pay has increased for 1.2M associates and 70 new W=lmart Training Academies have opened to help workers build new retail skil=s. Learn more.

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