Subject: ?Axios AM: Mike's Top 6 — Trump's next campaign — What if Apple bought HBO? — The 'grocery apocalypse' — 1 fun thing: Who would Pence pick as veep?
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2017 09:30:11 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by Forcepoint:

Trump's next campaign — What if Apple bought H=O? — The 'grocery apocalypse' — 1 fun thing: Who would P=nce pick as veep?

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Presented By Forcepoint

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jun 17, 2017

Good Saturday morning (Father's Day tomorrow!). Situational awareness: T=ump, accompanied by the first lady, heads to Camp David this morning for t=e first time. ... U.S. and Japanese vessels, aircraft search for 7 America= sailors missing after their Navy destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, colli=es with a container ship four times its size off the coast of Japan.

1 big thing: Trump's next campaign

A milestone, on Day 148 of the Trump presidency … Amid all the bluster and bellyaching, President Trump is acknowledging f=r the first time — with both public and private actions — =hat he's fighting to save his presidency.

It's his next =ampaign, long before he would have to formally gear up for 2020. =his is a big reason nearly every action — and reaction — i= aimed at shoring up his base.

In moments of clarity amid his fits of rage, Trump knows he boxed himself in politically and le=ally by firing FBI Director Jim Comey, triggering what he thought he could=avoid: an all-consuming investigation focusing on him.

Paus= for a moment to soak in that the President of United States conf=rmed on the record via Twitter that Mueller is gunning for hi=. And attacked his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein (who now mi=ht resign or recuse himself).

The arsenal: Facing special counsel Robert Mueller's still-growing team of 13 prosecutorial killers, Trump is=building his own arsenal. The president's personal legal team added the in=imidating John Dowd, who represent=d Sen. John McCain in the Keating Five banking scandal, and whose Dowd Report for Major League Baseball=got Pete Rose banished for life for gambling.

Dowd, 76, joins longtime Trump lawyer Marc Kasowit=; Jay Sekulow, the TV face of the team, who's doing a "full Gins=urg" blitz of tomorrow's =unday shows; and Mark Corallo, a Justice Department alumnus who was Rep. Bob=Livingston's press secretary during the Clinton impeachment.

Reuters reports: "Another well-known white-collar Washington lawyer will likely jo=n the team shortly."

Be smart: Trump, notorious for=his litigiousness in New York, is playing an inside-outside game: stockpil=ng talent to protect him legally, while publicly trying to discredit the i=vestigators and whatever they might eventually say or do.

A problem for Trump: Those things are at odds. Everything Trum= says now, Bob Mueller will use against him.

2. Behind the curtain

AP's Julie Pace and Jonathan Lemire: "Trump advisers and co=fidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigatio=, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying =overage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit �=94 and potentially end — his presidency."

"Some of his ire is aimed at Rosenstein and inv=stigative special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom the president belie=es are biased against him, associates say."

"Russia probe ca=ses tension among top officials at Justice Department," by CNN Justice Correspondent Evan Perez:

"Officials ... describe friction on the=Justice Department's fourth and fifth floors, home to the suite of offices=belonging to the deputy attorney general and the attorney general, respect=vely, in part because of Rosenstein's handling of the Russia matter."
=li>"Sessions learned of the Mueller appointment at about =he same time that the press was told, according to people briefed on the m=tter.

"The attorney general was at = White House meeting when the notification came from Rosenstein, p=ompting the enraged President to scold the attorney general.""Trump had viewed Sessions' recusal as u=necessary, even though Justice Department regulations made it almost impos=ible to avoid."

P.S. CNN's Tom LoBianco: "House Russia investigat=rs are planning to call on Brad Parscale, the digital director of Presiden= Donald Trump's campaign, as the congressional and federal probes dig into=any possible connections between the Trump digital operation and Russian o=eratives."

3. Silicon Valley's targets aren't just in tech anymore

How to think about Amazo='s announcement that it's buying upmarket Whole Foods: new danger for lega=y brands ... new clarity on the epic scale of Amazon's ambitions ... and a=new sign of tech companies spreading=their tentacles to remake the physical landscape.

Two w=rthy reads, to help get your head around the massive implications=for business and society:

L.A. Times A1, "Silicon Valley is lookin= beyond tech for acquisition targets, setting the stage for a major role r=versal," by Paresh Dave:

"As struggling retailers, banks and automakers weigh buying technology to catch up to the smart=hone age, the likes of Amazon, Google and Facebook may find it simpler to =escue the hobbled."

"Netflix=could target a fancy theater chain. Alphabet could match Amazon b= making room for a grocery chain or delivery company. Tech observers have =reamed of Apple purchasing HBO or Tesla Motors."

Why it ma=ters: "This group of tech industry giants [Facebook, Microsoft, A=phabet, Amazon, Apple] has more than $500 billion in cash to burn ... Thei= shares are hitting record highs, outpacing growth in the broader stock ma=ket."

"Is This a Grocery Apocalypse? The surp=ise acquisition might not be so big, but the implications for grocers are =taggering," Barron's' Alex Eule and Andrew Bary (free link for Axios readers):

"On paper, it's just a midsize merger. If Amaz=n.com's $13.7 billion deal for Whole Foods Market goes through unchanged, =t will rank as the No. 4 U.S. retail deal, according to Thomson Reuters, b=hind an uninspiring list that includes Supervalu-Albertsons, Walgreens-Rit=-Aid, and Kmart-Sears."

"But Wall Street [was= doing a rapid assessment of retail's future. Shares of companies=seen as suddenly more vulnerable to the Amazon juggernaut got hammered. ..= [I]nvestors feared [Kroger, Costco, Target, Walgreen and Walmart] had bec=me direct Amazon competition overnight."

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Bonus: Bottom of WashPost front page, 2 years ago today

Trump's announcement wasn't even mentioned on the front=page of The Denver Post ... It was the 22nd (and penultimate) bullet in th= "What's News" column on the cover of The Wall Street Journal, teasing to = story on page A4 ("Trump Vows to Disrupt Crowded GOP Field") ... And the =.Y. Times stuffed it on p. A16, promoted with the third tease at the botto= of A1, "Trump Joins G.O.P. Field."

4. Stats du jour

From Bret Stephens col=mn in N.Y. Times on "Americans whose families have been in th=s country for a few generations" — a Cato study that looks at nonimmigrants:

"Educational achievement? Just 17 percent of the finalists in the 2016 Intel Science Talent S=arch — often called the 'Junior Nobel Prize' — were the ch=ldren of United States-born parents. At the Rochester Institute of Technol=gy, just 9.5 percent of graduate students in electrical engineering were n=nimmigrants."

5. Collision of business, tech

"The Tech Stock Rally Will Be Right Back," per the Barr=n's cover ... "Yes, Tech stocks will continue to rally: Robust earnings gr=wth could power tech stocks to new highs after their recent rout," by Ben =evisohn:

"Dr=ving growth, particularly in consumer-facing tech names, are new =roducts, services, and users. ... A low-growth economy favors companies wh=se fortunes don't depend on cyclical forces." (Subscription)

P.S. Top of Was=Post Sunday Business front, "Uber's big problem: Attracting talent — Recruiters =ind a wall of resistance from women they try to hire," by Elizabeth Dworki= and Todd Frankel:

"Silicon Va=ley recruiters, tech workers and analysts agree that it will cont=nue to be challenging for Uber to rehabilitate its reputation in the tech =ndustry and return to the days when the company enjoyed almost unfettered =ccess to the region's talent pipeline. ... These are perhaps the darkest d=ys in the eight-year history of the company."

6. 1 fun thing: ​Pence parlor game

One of the parlor games Republicans are playing in the =hadows of the Russia investigation is this: Who would President Pence pick=as his vice president?

Quick refresher: If a president leaves offices for any reason, the sitting Vice President =akes over and picks his number two, subject to majority vote in the House =nd Senate.

Quick stipulation: Yes, thi= is premature and highly speculative and premised solely on Trump leaving =ffice for whatever reason.

The various theories=/strong> being tossed around:

Return to normal: Pick a conventional, mainstream Republican to usher back in pre-Trump =onservativism. Think Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney. (Romney more likely, because you wouldn't want to disrupt a second b=anch of government.) Or Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to t=e U.N., and former South Carolina governor.

=eassurance: Pick someone who helps ease the nerves of an anxious =ation. Think Bob Gates. Or Mitch Daniels, for Hoosier supremacy? John Boehner?

Ca=m the country: Pick someone who sends a clear signal that anythin= approximating the status quo of Trump or even pre-Trump won't cut it. Thi=k Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg. The ch=ttering class would go ga-ga!

Double Down: Pick s=meone who can keep the spirit of America First Trumpism alive. The problem=is it's thin pickings: Jeff Sessions? Rudy Giuliani? Newt Gingrich?

Who'd we forget? Just reply to this email, or shoot =e a note at [email-masked]. We'll share any astute or clever ideas.

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Cyberthreats: you’re officially outnumbered=/span>

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