Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Happy Mother's Day! — Trump's longtime friends urge 'huge reboot' — How Google conquered the classroom — Big change in most popular baby names
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 07:17:11 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by Koch Industries:

Happy Mother's Day! — Trump's longtime friends urge 'huge reboot= — How Google conquered the classroom — Big change in most=popular baby names

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Presented By Koch Industries

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 14, 2017

Good Sunday morning, and happy Mother's Day =o my Mom, Barbara, out in Oregon; to all the mothers of our Axios family; =nd to all the moms and expectant moms who're reading AM before enjoying th=s amazing day. I always tell my Mom: "I'm glad you're a m=ther!" Thanks to all of you who made us who we are.

for the graduation of Evan Al=en, the oldest of my three siblings' 11 kids, from the University of North=Carolina. Last night, we celebrated with his friends in the heart of the b=r district, at the Dead Mule Club. Many of you have met Evan during his D.=. trips over the years, or at the conventions. It's been 18 fun years of f=otball and lacrosse games, business classes, and late nights / early morni=gs around the background fire pit. His Grandma still has her "LAX GRAM" ke=chain.

​1 big thing: The Trump staff dump

At the urging of longtime friends and outside advisers,=most of whom he consults after dark, President Trump is considering a "hug= reboot" that could take out everyone from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a=d chief strategist Steve Bannon, to counsel Don McGahn and press secretary=Sean Spicer, White House sources tell me.

Trump is also irr=tated with several Cabinet members, the sources said.

=strong>"He's frustrated, and angry at everyone," said one of the =onfidants.

The conversations intensified this week =s the aftermath of the Comey firing pushed the White House from chaos into=crisis. Trump's friends are telling him that many of his top aides don't k=ow how to work with him, and point out that his approval ratings aren't ri=ing, but the leaks are.

"The advice he's getting =s to go big — that he has nothing to lose," the confidant said. "T=e question now is how big and how bold. I'm not sure he knows the answer t= that yet."

If Trump follows through, his innermo=t White House circle would shrink from a loop to a straight line of mid-30= family members with scant governing experience: Jared and Ivanka. So whil= the fighting and leaking might ease, the problems may not because it's th= president, not the staff, calling the shots.

One note of ca=tion: Trump often talks about firing people when things go south =nd does not follow through on it. So it's possible these conversations are=his way of venting, and seeking reassurance.

And it all coul= take a while: Trump heads out on his first international trip at=the end of the week. Also, there's an internal argument for minimizing dra=a by cutting people out of the information flow rather than booting them. =o the existing structure may get "one more college try," a trusted adviser=said.

Friends say that if Trump goes with a grand=shakeup, his implicit message would be: "I get it. I'm moving on. I get th=t I can do a better job." A top aide added: "He's never going to say he di= a bad job."

The sources say Trump feels ill-serv=d by not just his staff but also by several of his Cabinet officials. Trum= has two complaints about Cabinet members: Either they're tooting their ow= horns too much, or they're insufficiently effusive in praising him as a b=illiant diplomat, etc. Among the cross-currents:

His =riend Wilbur Ross at Commerce this week took what was perceived a= a victory lap on a China trade announcement that does little new in actua=ity.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a big an=ouncement about increasing prison sentences, at the same time that Jared i= working on criminal-justice reform.

HHS Secretary Tom Pr=ce shares the blame for the gla=ial pace of health-care legislation.

No Cabinet member=/strong> is expected to go this soon, but a West Wing shuffle looks likely= One obstacle to recruiting new top aides is finding people who would have=real clout with a president not prone to enforced order.

One=of the few top officials winning Trump's praise is SecState Rex T=llerson, who's on "Meet The Press" this morning (taped yesterday in Texas)=defending his boss.

2. "Fury" as North Korea provokes, again

After North Korea tested another ballistic missile (a dud, a=ain), the White House issued a statement ratcheting up pressure: "With the=missile impacting so close to Russian soil — in fact, closer to Ru=sia than to Japan — the President cannot imagine that Russia is pl=ased.

BBC: "The nature of the launch is still being determined, but analysts ha=e said the test could suggest a longer range than previously tested device=."

The White House: "North Korea has been a flagr=nt menace for far too long. ... Let this latest provocation serve as a cal= for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea."=/li>
Why it matters: The launch seemed aimed at testin= both Trump and the new South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, who took offi=e on Wednesday.

3. "A hardening portrait of sheer disarray"

"Trump is in some ways like a pilot opting to fly a pla=e through heavy turbulence then blaming the flight attendants when the pas=engers get jittery," according to a juicy WashPost front-pager by Phil Rucker, "White Hou=e 'systems failed' with Comey firing, but Trump pushed the buttons":

"One GOP figure cl=se to the White House mused privately about whether Trump was 'in the grip=of some kind of paranoid delusion.'"

"White House aides have felt bewildered and alarmed by how Trump arrives at his decisio=s — often on impulse and emotion and sometimes by rejecting the co=nsel of those around him."

"Trump did not inform =White House press secretary Sean] Spicer and [Communications Director Mike= Dubke of his decision until about an hour before it was announced, keepin= them and other senior aides out of the loop because he feared the news mi=ht leak."

"Some of Trump's allies said they are w=rried that the president views the Comey episode entirely as a public-rela=ions crisis ... and has not been judicious about protecting himself from l=gal exposure."

"When Trump sat down for the inter=iew with NBC anchor Lester Holt, his aides were not certain what he might =ay. The president improvised, essentially."

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4. Zeitgeist: "a grave abuse of Presidential power"

Jeffrey Toobin, in the lead "Talk of the Town" item in =he forthcoming issue of The New Yorker:

In these perilous and unpredictable times, =/strong>it's worth pausing to consider how Trump's recklessness might mani=est itself in a national-security emergency. His default response to confl=ct has always been to lash out, which can be entertaining on a reality-tel=vision show and effective in a political debate. But, as the President of =he United States, who commands a nuclear-armed military, Trump is playing =or incalculably higher stakes.

5. "The road less traveled"

Trump with Liberty University's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., in front o= a choir during commencement ceremonies yesterday / AP's Steve Helber

From Trump's first commencement address as preside=t, at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va:

"[B]e tota=ly unafraid to challenge entrenched interests and failed power st=uctures. Does that sound familiar, by the way?"

"Relish th= opportunity to be an outsider. Embrace that label — bein= an outsider is fine, embrace the label — because it's the outside=s who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference. The mor= that a broken system tells you that you're wrong, the more certain you sh=uld be that you must keep pushing ahead, you must keep pushing forward."

6. Article of the day

Cultivating generations of future customers ... The fas=inating, provocative lead story of the N.Y. Times is "Ho= Google Conquered The American Classroom: Schools Transformed by Tech =iant May Be Giving More Than They're Getting," by tech reporter Natasha Si=ger:

"[M]ore than half the nation's primary- =nd secondary-school students — more than 30 million children �=80� use Google education apps like Gmail and Docs ... Chromebooks, Googl=-powered laptops that initially struggled to find a purpose, ... account f=r more than half the mobile devices shipped to schools."

W=y it matters: "Google is helping to drive a philosophical change =n public education — prioritizing training children in skills like=teamwork and problem-solving while de-emphasizing the teaching of traditio=al academic knowledge, like math formulas."

50,000 feet: "It puts Google, and the tech economy, at the center of one of the =reat debates that has raged in American education for more than a century:=whether the purpose of public schools is to turn out knowledgeable citizen= or skilled workers."

"Every year, s=veral million American students graduate from high school. And not only do=s Google make it easy for those who have school Google accounts to upload =heir trove of school Gmail, Docs and other files to regular Google consume= accounts — but schools encourage them to do so."

=[S]ome parents ... warn that Google could profit by using persona= details from their children's school email to build more powerful marketi=g profiles of them as young adults."

7. Papal preview

With the great dateline "Aboard the Papal Plane," AP's =icole Winfield previews the Pope's plans when he holds an audience with Pr=sident Trump on May 24:

"Pope Francis says he=won't try to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to soften his policies o= immigration and the environment when they meet this month, but wants inst=ad to find common ground and work for peace."

His holiness= "I never make a judgment about a person without hearing him out.=

"Peace is artisanal. You do it every day."
<=i>Asked specifically if he would try to soft=n Trump's policies, Francis said: "That is a political calculation that I =on't allow myself to make. Also in the religious sphere: I don't proselyti=e."

8. Minimalist

This accidental tweet by Trump yesterday, quickly delet=d, gave the Twitters a day of fun filling out the rest of it for him.

=strong>One of the best, from author Eric Shaffer: "@realDonaldTrump was about to tweet out =ome shade and Kellyanne/Reince pulled the phone away just in time. #We."

9. "Michael" falls from grace

Sorry, Mom! "Parents Don't Want to Name Their Kids Mike=Anymore: The number of baby boys named Michael fell last year to the lowes= level since 1940," per the Wall Street Journal's Janet Adamy:

"Michael had been one of the most popular male=monikers in American history, having held the No. 1 spot on the federal li=t of top baby names for 43 out of 44 years, the longest boys reign of the =0th century. New federal figures released Friday show Michael losing fashi=n, with fewer than 14,000 U.S. baby boys getting the name last year, the l=west level on record since 1940."

Th= Social Security Administration has interactive tools that le= you check out the popularity list by year, going back to 1880, or put in = name and see how its popularity has changed over time.

10. 1 fun thing

NBC

Melissa McCarthy, as "Spicey," travels first to Trump T=wer and then to "A Golf Course in New Jersey" in a quest to implore "Mr. T=ump" to remain as press secretary: "I can't go back to the Navy. = can't swim!"

See the =ideo.

Cold open of Alec Baldwin with "Lester Holt."

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