Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — The bake-off — The Yes Men — Ailes' last wish — Self-driving jobs
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2017 06:42:09 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by The Boeing Company:

The bake-off — The Yes Men — Ailes' last wish — =elf-driving jobs

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Presented By The Boeing Company

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 31, 2017

1 big thing: The bake-off

Journalists listen to Sean Spicer yesterday / AP's Andrew Harnik

As a long-expected shake-up begins in the West Wing, Pr=sident Trump has been asking key Republicans for their opinions about two =ossible replacements as White House chief of staff: Gary Cohn, a moderate =oice who's his current economic adviser; and David Urban, a Republican lobbyist now on the outside.=/p>
In true reality-TV style, the conversations are set=ing up a bake-off between the two men — at least in the minds of t=ose whose opinions Trump is soliciting (and, of course, some of them yap).=That's feeding uncertainty for his current chief, Reince Priebus, and ever=one who works for him.

The backstory: Trump fr=quently consults longtime New York friends, many of them Democrats, about =ersonnel and other matters. And going back to his days as a real-estate mo=ul, Trump has made decisions in part by calling around and asking associat=s to weigh in. For months now, such conversations have helped fuel rumors =bout coming changes.

What's different this ti=e: The president seems to be seeking out Republicans, recognizing how vital their support is at a time when his administrat=on is struggling.

The result: That's weighing his=most recent feedback in favor of Urban, a burly West Point graduate who wa= awarded the Bronze Star Medal during combat against Iraq in Operation Des=rt Storm.

The palace intrigue: Cohn =s one of the most powerful members of the current senior staff, which has =ade some colleagues wonder whether he might depart if Urban were brought i= above him.

What we're hearing: Cohn, who'd l=ve the job as chief, is nonetheless rightly wary of that particular promot=on, and instead is keeping his eye on an even grander prize.

Friends say that after his current=gig, Cohn would love to be named ... chair of the Federal Reserve.

=strong>P.S. N.Y. Times p. A14, "Challenge fo= Trump In Shaking Up Staff: Finding Replacements," by Peter Baker and =aggie Haberman: David "Bossie, a former deputy campaign manager, signaled =hat he does not plan to join the staff, citing family concerns."

Another decision for Trump's long li=t: "Trump ... must decide by [tomorrow] whether to move the Ameri=an Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as he promised during the campaign, or =ign a new six-month waiver delaying such a move while he tries to negotiat= Middle East peace."

2. The Yes Men

Trump addresses U.S. military troops and their families at the Sigonella=Naval Air Station, in Italy on Saturday / AP's Luca Bruno

Some White House officials are deeply troubled by the m=st likely outcome of ongoing staff changes: an infusion of Yes Men. Or, pu= differently, the striking absence of advisers with the guts and gumption =o say something is dumb, wrong or undoable.

And Trump likes it that way.

Among those most likely to ge= new roles, on the inside or in allied positions outside, are several quin=essential Yes Men. And among those inside now, most have huge incentives not to stand up to the boss:

Chief of Staff Rein=e Priebus: He doesn't carry himself with much swagger, in general= In this setting, he's downright timid and dutiful, knowing he could lose =is job any moment.

Chief Strategist Steve Bannon:=Despite his status as an undeniable alpha male, Bannon rarely offers his o=inion in meetings with the boss, until specifically called on. He knows th= family, Jared Kushner in particular, will seize on any weakness he shows.=And Bannon has proven to be a canny survivor.

Jared Kushne=: The senior adviser has a soft touch to begin with, and rarely c=nfronts his father in law head-on — Jared is more likely to subtly=organize unseen campaigns to influence Trump through who visits or who tal=s to him. With the spotlight increasing on Kushner because of Russia issue=, he's even less likely to make waves.

Gary C=hn: The economic adviser is the one of the few people up top who =peaks his mind and challenges Trump. But he's careful to never overdo it. =emember: Cohn is a top candidate to be the next chief of staff, and he kno=s how to play the long game and soothe POTUS.

This is an interesting o=e to watch. We hear Trump has cooled on McMaster because he's not sufficie=tly deferential. One source told us Trump pines for the days of the booted=Mike Flynn as head of the National Security Council. (I know!

Counsel Don McGahn: Fairly o= not, some of his colleagues consider him a Trump enabler, in a job where =e needs to be the brakes.

3. Ailes' last wish: Out-foxing Fox

Before Roger Ailes' death on May 18, he expressed a fin=l wish to some of his few remaining confidants: to get back in the game, w=th a conservative network that would position itself to the right of Fox N=ws, as his baby became more moderate under the next generation of Murdoch =eadership.

In his final days, Ailes sent a message =o Steve Bannon in the White House that he'd love to team up on a new conse=vative media powerhouse.

What we hear: Bannon,=who otherwise would have been intrigued by the notion, had no desire to le=ve the White House. So Ailes' last big idea remained just that.

=p>P.S. The well-wired Michael Wolff reported in The Hollywood Reporter earlier this mo=th that the departure of Sean Hannity, the last man standing among the lon=time prime-time stars, is "almost inevitable."

What we hear: That's still true, although it's u=clear whether the impetus would come from Hannnity or from Fox. Either way= the drama could take months to play out.

A scenario: As Wolff pointed out, a possible future home for Hannity (reunited=with Bill O'Reilly?) might be Sinclair Broadcast Group, a newly muscu=ar chain of local TV stations that shows an unabashed bend to the right. <=li>

A message from The Boeing Company

Equipped with experience

Thousands of veterans like Felipe are continuing their mission at Boeing= where military experience translates to leadership skills that are used o= the job every day.

Learn=more about Felipe and other veterans who make Boeing better.<=p>

4. Covering the future

Self-driving cars have induced a lot of anxiety about a=resulting loss of jobs. But Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreesse= argued yesterday at Recode's annual Code Conference=/a> in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., that they'll actually put a lot m=re people to work. Axios' Kia Kokalitc=eva reports:

Andreessen: "The jobs crisis=we have in the U.S. is that we don't have enough workers."

With the country increasingly discussing the pote=tial impact of automation and technology on the jobs, many are worried tha= "the robots" will take their jobs and displace millions of workers. Manag=ng this fear and retraining workers are becoming high priority topics for =awmakers.

The backdrop: When cars first came alon=, people were worried they'd result in the mass unemployment of those taki=g care of horses — like blacksmiths. Instead, cars created million= of new jobs to manufacture and maintain them. And automobiles gave rise t= new activities and industries.

Self-driving cars=will have the same effect, says Andreessen.

But, but, but =.. "[T]he transitions can be very painful," said LinkedIn co-foun=er and investor Reid Hoffman, who was on stage with Andreessen. "Let's try=to make it work out in a way that's more humane."

5. Thought leaders

Frank Bruni's column in the N.Y. =imes, "How We Really Die," previews the annual report of Bloomberg Philant=ropies:

The big idea: "The developing world t=rned a corner — thanks to medical advances, rising wealth and more=— and communicable diseases like malaria and AIDS now kill fewer o= its people than noncommunicable ones like heart disease, strokes, respira=ory ailments and diabetes do."

Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg's stunner: "Bloomberg, an independent who oppo=ed Donald Trump, said that Democrats never found the right message. ... Th=y're still searching for the right issues and words, he said, and too many=have visions of 2020 dancing in their heads. 'They'll step on each other a=d re-elect Donald Trump,' he told me, estimating 'a 55 percent cha=ce he gets re-elected.'"

6. The talk of business

Bethany McLean in the forthcoming issue of Vanity Fair,="How Wells Fargo's cutthroat corporate culture allegedly drove banker= to fraud":

"Gaming," ... =/strong>was defined in the Wells Fargo Code of Ethics as "the manipulation=and/or misrepresentation of sales or referrals . . . in an attempt to rece=ve compensation or to meet sales goals" ...

Gaming was so widespread that it had even s=awned related terms, such as "pinning," which meant assigning customers pe=sonal-identification numbers, or PINs, without their knowledge in order to=impersonate them on Wells Fargo computers and enroll them in various produ=ts without their knowledge. The fraud was not only big, but blatant, with =93,000 non-employee accounts opened between 2011 and 2015 for which the on=y e-mail domain name listed was @wellsfargo.com, according to the Los Ange=es city attorney's office.

[T]he story ... tells an uncomfortable tale of how business, =ot just the business of banking, but all business, all too often works in =he modern era.

7. The talk of tech

Uber has been dismissing problematic m=nagers as its internal review unfolds, a trend over the past 3.5 months:

Lead s=ory of Wall Street Journal, "Uber Fires Executive At Center o= Suit," by Jack Nicas: "Uber Technologies Inc. fired its top driverless-ca= executive Anthony Levandowski, nine months after buying his startup for $=80 million, in a bid to contain a spiraling legal battle with Google paren= Alphabet Inc."

Business Ins=der: Josh Mohrer, who built Uber in New York City from the ti=e when it was a black car service, announced yesterday he was leaving to j=in Tusk Ventures, which helped Uber lobby to stay in the city.

WSJ: "Uber fi=ed [Susan] Fowler Rigetti's engineering supervisor about five months after=her initial complaints" that Uber had ignored multiple complaints of sexua= harassment and sexism by managers.

8. Innovations

Per WashPost's Hamza Shaban: <=strong>"Google co-founder Sergey Brin is spending more than $100 milli=n to build the world's largest airship, a blimp with a rigid structure des=gned to both deliver supplies abroad for humanitarian projects and ferry B=in's family and friends around the globe."

"The project is the latest example of Silicon Valley a=tempting to reshape how goods and people are moved. But it also, some say,=underscores a penchant for tech moguls to color their projects with seemin=ly virtuous ambition."

9. NBC's high hopes for Megyn Kelly

"Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly," which debuts this Sund=y at 7 p.m., will be the first test of a big gamble for both NBC and Kelly= who bolted Fox News for a shot at broadcast network stardom, the L.A. Times' Stephen Battaglio reports:

"=BC is banking heavily on on Kelly, who is said to be making $17 m=llion annually at the network, to become an even bigger star than she was =t Fox News."

"In addition to her pri=e-time [Sunday] show, NBC is counting on Kelly to carry her own 9 a.m. tal= show, which will break up the network's four-hour block of 'Today' in the=fall."

"Kelly ... did not bite when =sked about the addition of ... Winfrey as a '60 Minutes' contributor next =eason."

"Kelly will have some questi=n time with [a] head of state on her first show: Russian President Vladimi= Putin, who will appear on a panel she is moderating Friday at the annual =t. Petersburg International Economic Forum. ... [T]he news division is sti=l hoping for a one-on-one interview with Putin while Kelly is in Russia."<=li>

P.S. Per N.Y. Post Page Six=s Oli Coleman and Emily Smith: "Scott Pelley is out at 'CBS Evening Ne=s' ... [His] office was being cleared out ... while the anchor was away on=an assignment ... [H]e's being shifted permanently to '60 Minutes.'"

10. 1 phone thing

"raises security concerns," by AP'= Vivian Salama:

"Trump has urge= leaders of Canada and Mexico to reach him on his cellphone ... T=ump also exchanged numbers with French President Emmanuel Macron ...
<= style="margin-left: 20px;">"[I]n the diplomatic arena,
"Presiden=s generally place calls on one of several secure phone lines, inc=uding those in the White House Situation Room, the Oval Office or the pres=dential limousine. Even if Trump uses his government-issued cellphone, his=calls are vulnerable to eavesdropping, particularly from foreign governmen=s, national security experts say."

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