Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Trumpression — Russia targets influencers' social streams — What Twitter thinks about you — New Schoolhouse Rock
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2017 06:40:18 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by BP:

Trumpression — Russia targets influencers' social streams �=94 What Twitter thinks about you — New Schoolhouse Rock

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 18, 2017

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1 big thing: Trump's long-term peril

Mueller in 2013 / AP's Evan Vucci

President Trump gets a Russia respite — at the =rice of long-term peril.

The surprise appointment of straight-arrow =ormer FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel ("to oversee the prev=ously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influen=e the 2016 presidential election and related matters") lets the White Hous= and Hill try to get traction on other topics.

But Yahoo's M=chael Isikoff, steeped in federal law enforcement, told Greta Van=Susteren on MSNBC that the selection was the "worst possible choice for th= White House ... dangerous." Mueller is by-the-book, focused on making cas=s, viewed as impervious to outside influence.

Mueller also h=ppens to be friends with the spurned Jim Comey, another reason th=t the choice — announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstei=, who apparently was irate that the Comey firing was initially pinned on h=m by the White House — is worrisome for the West Wing.

The capital chaos finally took its toll in market=, which had their worst day of 2017. The trend c=ntinued today in Europe and Asia, on growing nerves about the future o= Trump's agenda. (Dow down 383, or 1.78% ... Worst NASDAQ day since Brexit=vote 11 months ago ... Wall Street Journal front-pager: "Stocks, =ollar Sink on Washington Turmoil" ... N.Y. Times A1, "Capital Drama Ratt=es Wall St. And Stocks Dive.")

Chris Krueger of=Cowen Washington Research Group emails us about what he's hearing from his=Wall Street clients: "Very anxious ... No one knows what to make o= anything ... Markets strive and thrive with certainty and nothin= about this is certain ... The D.C. Dumpster fire rages."

Wh=t it means: The markets, and White House, are right to be=skittish. Here's the big picture, from the forthcoming edition of=The Economist (which loves to patronize the ex-colonies) under the headlin=, "Deep breath, America":

"The dismay Americans felt at their governing system's previo=s round of tribalism and dysfunction fuelled the rise of Mr Trump. There i= no reason to suppose this cycle will lead to anything better."

2. A new syndrome

I'm not a doctor. But I have
Its symptoms include not only anger or Twitter rage, but a genuine concern for the health o= our democracy. This is not a Democratic or media condition.

I see it the eyes of people I have known for years, who now w=rk in the White House. For readers who love Trump, you probably love the s=ock and change. But the accompanying Trumpression is like nothing I have s=en in 30 years of doing this.

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3. "Putin defends Trump"

That's a headline on the cover of this morning's Times =f London, and a worthy plot twist for today's episode of "The Trump Show."=Reuters p=cks up the story:

"Vladimir Putin said ... T=ump had not divulged any secrets during a meeting in Washington with Russi=n officials and offered to prove it by supplying Congress with a t=anscript." (Axios AM asks: Why not? The Russians supplied the=pictures!)

Putin deployed his trademark sarc=sm: "I'll be forced to issue him [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] =ith a reprimand because he did not share these secrets with us. Not with m=, nor with representatives of Russia's intelligence services. It was very =ad of him."

"A Kremlin aide ... late= told reporters that Moscow had a written record of the conversation, not =n audio recording."

P.S. What Trump divulged, front-pager by Tom Vanden Brook= ISIS operatives "have determined how to implant and mask=an explosive inside the battery of a laptop computer, inc=easing the likelihood that a bomb can be slipped past screeners onto an ai=plane."

"The battery w=th the explosive charge still functions enough to allow airport security o=ficials to power up the laptop, a standard test to determ=ne if the machine is safe."

A message from BP

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BP invests more in the U.S. than anywhere else, and over the past 10 yea=s no energy company has invested more in America.

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4. Quick history lesson ...

... from John Yoo, a leading thinker on executive power=who was a George W. Bush deputy assistant attorney general in the aftermat= of 9/11, and is now a Berkeley law professor. In a N.Y. Times Op-Ed, "F=rget Watergate. Think Iran-Contra," Yoo writes:

Trump's comments [in the Comey notes] com= close to obstruction of justice but don't clearly cross the line. ... Whi=e he set out his favorable opinion of Mr. Flynn, he stopped short of order=ng Mr. Comey to drop the investigation. Mr. Trump's words carried an impli=it recognition that Mr. Comey would make the final call. ...

Unlike in the Watergate case, there is no evidence that the president ordered witnesses to lie, destro=ed evidence or tried to block F.B.I. agents from doing their job. At least= no evidence yet. ... [P]ursuing the president for obstruction of justice =s likely to fail ...

=rump should look to the example of ... Ronald Reagan. The Iran-co=tra scandal nearly destroyed Reagan's presidency and could have led to his=impeachment. After the revelations [in 1986] that his national security staff had =raded arms for hostages held by Iran and transferred funds to the Nicaragu=n contras, Reagan cleaned house and agreed to reforms of governmen= oversight of covert action. After that, his presidency not only =urvived but also thrived.

5. "Swear to God"

A crazy story that posted right after the Mueller annou=cement (adding to the feeling that, per a tweet quoted by CNN's=Brian Stelter, this is "The Longest Week in the History of American Po=itics"):

A WashPost front-pager, "Ryan swore Republicans =o secrecy," by Adam Entous, quotes House Majority Leader Kevin McCart=y as telling fellow GOP leaders in a recorded conversation on June 15, 201=: "There's two people I think Putin pays: [Rep. Dana] Rohrabacher [R-Calif=] and Trump. ... Swear to God."

Speaker Ryan interjected= "This is an off the record." The Post adds: "Some lawmakers laug=ed at that."

A Ryan spokesman called MCarthy's rema=k "clearly an attempt at humor," and McCarthy's spokesman called it "a fai=ed attempt at humor."

Entous told Chris Matthews o= "Hardball": "I listened to it very carefully. ... [H]e said it very serio=sly."

Why it matters: Whatever McCarthy's inte=t (and he's inclined to leaven a serious moment with humor), this shows ho= long Trump and Russia have been fodder for speculation, even by close all=es like McCarthy.

6. Arrests of immigrants soar

"Federal immigration agents are arresting more than 400=immigrants a day, a sharp leap from last year," reports a WashPost front=pager by immigration reporter Maria Sacchetti:

"In =rump's first 100 days, ... Immigration and Customs Enforcement ar=ested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year."<=li>
"Almost 3 out of 4 of those arrested have criminal=records, including gang members and fugitives wanted for murder. But the b=ggest increase by far is among immigrants with no criminal records."

"[=]eportations have fallen ... attributed to a severe backlog in fe=eral immigration courts."

7. Russia targets influencers' social streams

In the new issue of TIME=strong>, Massimo Calabresi on Russia's social media war on Americ=:

"Russia created a fake Facebook account to s=read stories on hot-button political issues like refugee resettlement to t=rgeted reporters they believed were susceptible to influence."

"Moscow's agents bought ads on Facebook to target specific po=ulations with propaganda."

Senior intelligence official on how Russian agents apply new social media operations on key membe=s of Congress and aides: "The Russians started using it on the Hill with s=affers to see who is more susceptible."

Senior intelligenc= official on how Russia used algorithmic techniques to target soc=al-media accounts of particular reporters and "influencers" during the ele=tion: "It's not necessarily the journal or the newspaper or the TV show. I='s the specific reporter that they find who might be a little bit slanted =owards believing things, and they'll hit him" with a flood of fake news st=ries.

8. Hot click

Per Recode's Kurt Wagner: "You can now see wha= 'interests'=Twitter thinks you have, and that it uses to decide which ads and cont=nt to show you in your timeline. ... Twitter will also show you 'interests from partn=rs,' or categories that advertisers have put you into based on data th=y collect off Twitter."

It's all he=e: Click "Your Twitter data," down the left column.

<=iv>

=/a>

9. Inside Apple's new mothership

"Apple's New Campus: An Exclusive Look Inside the Mothership= in Mountain View, Calif., by Wired's Steven Levy:

From planes descending to SFO, and even =rom drones that buzz the building from a hundred feet above it, the Ring l=oks like an ominous icon, an expression of corporate power, and a what-the=[heck] oddity among the malls, highways, and more mundane office parks of =uburban Silicon Valley.

As with any Apple product, its shape would be determined by its =unction. This would be a workplace where people were open to each other an= open to nature, and the key to that would be modular sections, known as p=ds, for work or collaboration.

[Steve] Jobs' idea was to repeat those pods ove= and over: pod for office work, pod for teamwork, pod for socializing, lik= a piano roll playing a Philip Glass composition. They would be distribute= democratically. Not even the CEO would get a suite or a similar incongrui=y.

And while the comp=ny has long been notorious for internal secrecy, compartmentalizi=g its projects on a need-to-know basis, Jobs seemed to be proposing a more=porous structure where ideas would be more freely shared across common spa=es. Not totally open, of course — [Jonathan] Ive's design=studio, for instance, would be shrouded by translucent glass — but=more open than Infinite Loop.

10. 1 fun thing

YouTube: How a lie becomes a f=ct ... Jimmy Kimmel's update of the Schoolhouse Rock classic,="How a Bill Becomes a Law."

Bonus fun thing ... "Jimmy Fa=lon Was on Top of the World. Then Came Trump," by N.Y. Times' Dave Itz=off:

He is weathering the most tumultuous period in his tenure there — a predicament =or which he has himself to thank, and one that raises the question of whet=er the multitalented but apolitical Mr. Fallon can ride out the current er= of politicized, choose-your-side entertainment, when he =ust wants to have a good time."

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A message from BP

How is BP contributing to America?

BP invests more in the U.S. than anywhere else, and over the past 10 yea=s no energy company has invested more in America.

=earn more about our U.S. impact.

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