Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 6 — Branding the enemy — 'Not under investigation' — Tech summit tomorrow — CEO setbacks — Fidget extortion
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2017 09:30:10 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by Raytheon:

Branding the enemy — 'Not under investigation' — Tech su=mit tomorrow — CEO setbacks — Fidget extortion

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Presented By Raytheon

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jun 18, 2017

Good Sunday morning, and happy Father's Day!

1 big thing: Branding the enemy

Trump, the First Lady and Barron walk to Marine One yesterday, en route =amp David (AP's Carolyn Kaster)

Little Marco. Crooked Hillary. Crazy Bernie. Lyin' Ted.=Low-energy Jeb. Goofy Elizabeth Warren. And now ... "The Witch Hunt."
<=>Trump, forced into campaign mode by his own actions and =ndiscretions, has officially branded the investigation by his own Justice =epartment.

His pair of tweets this morning from Ca=p David:

"The MAKE AMERICA GRE=T AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm, ... m=ssive regulation cuts, 36 new legislative bills signed, great new S.C.Just=ce, and Infrastructure, Healthcare and Tax Cuts in works!"

"=itch Hunt" with caps is a Trump signature. He also capped it on M=y 31, and twice on Friday. One variation there that we're likely to see/he=r again: "phony Witch Hunt."

The day before, the all-caps: "You are witnessing the single great=st WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and con=licted people!"

Longtime Trump aides tell us that d=ring the campaign, the lifelong branding expert workshopped his nicknames,=kicking around possibilities on the plane before settling on the catchiest=and most subversive.

He first tweeted "witch hunt,"<=>Be smart: Trump's brio, branding and bombas= can't mask the glum reality, reflected in an increasingly fatalistic mood=in Trumpworld.

"There are no go=d days," said a confidant to the inner circle. "They are caught i= the endless cycle of the off-message tweets and leaks."

Dive deeper ... "Meet Bob Mueller's team tackling th= Russia investigation" ... N=Y. Times, top of col. 1, "Flynn's Disdain For Limits Led To a=Legal Mire."

2. Sunday circuit: "not afraid of the investigation"

Jay Sekulow — the TV face of T=ump's personal legal team, an experienced Supreme Court advocate, and chie= counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice — to Chuck To=d on NBC's "Meet the Press":

"[=]he president is not under investigation by the special counsel. =he tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources =hat were purportedly leaking information to The Washington Post a=out a potential investigation of the president. But the president, as Jame= Comey said in his testimony and as we know as of today, the president has=not been and is not under investigation."

Todd: "If the president is innocent, why is he afraid o= this investigation?"

Sekulow:<=strong> "He's not afraid of the investigation. There is no investi=ation. I want to be clear here."

3. Tomorrow's tech summit at White House

"Some 300 business leaders have met with Mr. Trump sinc= he took office promising the nation's top executives a direct line to the=Oval Office ... But corporate leaders are learning about the limits of the=r clout," The Wall Street Journal's Vanessa Fuhrmans and Peter Nicholas write:

Gains for CEOs: Dodd-Frank ... EPA=... China ... Trade ... Nafta.

Setbacks for CEOs:=Travel ban ... H-1B ... Tax reform ... Paris.

"Tech indust=y executives gather at the White House [tomorrow], brainstorming =ays ... for making government 'operate like a modern technology enterprise='"

"For Tech CEOs, Not Attending White House Summit I= Greater Risk," by Wall Street Journal's Yoree Koh:

"[R]epresentatives from Apple Inc., Amazon.co= Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, companies that have opp=sed his policies, are expected to make the cross-country trip ... Also exp=cted to attend are Intel Corp. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich, Oracle Corp= co-CEO Safra Katz, a member of Mr. Trump's transition team, and Cisco ...=Chief Executive Chuck Robbins."

A message from Raytheon

Seeking cybersecurity, companies turn to the milita=y

Under siege by hackers, spies, organized crime rings and others, businesses=and military agencies face a common cyber enemy – and work togethe= to counter the threat. Learn more.

Bonus: Tweet du jour

And they did, with a 5--4, com=-from-behind win over Florida State in their opening game of the Colle=e World Series.

4. "Hiring haunts White House"

"Republicans say they are turning down job offers to wo=k for a chief executive whose volatile temperament makes them nervous" and="are asking head-hunters if their reputations could suffer permanent damag=," according to the WashPost lead story, by Lisa Rein and Abby Phllip, "H=lp wanted: Why Republicans won't work for the Trump administration":
<=l>
"The White House picked up the hiring pace in May =nd the first half of June ... It has advanced 92 candidates for Senate co=firmation, compared with 59 between Trump's inauguration and the end of Ap=il. But the Senate has just 25 working days until it breaks for the August=recess."

"Trump has 43 confirmed appointees to se=ior posts, compared with the 151 top political appointees confirmed by mid=June in President Barack Obama's first term and the 130 under President Ge=rge W. Bush, according to ... the ... Partnership for Public Service's Cen=er for Presidential Transition."

A White House official said about 200 people are being vetted=for senior-level posts.

White House press sec=etary Sean Spicer: "I have people knocking down my door to talk t= the presidential personnel office ... There is a huge demand to join this=administration."

P.S. Dan Balz "The Sunday Take" column on WashPost A2, "Trump's contradictory coaliti=n roils elections in Va., Ga.":

"The Virginia and Georgia elections offer two angles from which =o examine the impact of Trump's presidency on the politics of both parties= In Virginia, it is the story of a GOP coalition at odds with itself. In G=orgia, it is Trump's capacity to unite otherwise fractious Democrats as he=unnerves many of the well-educated Republican voters."

5. Industrial Revolution: machines can lower wages

Axios' Alexi McCammond found this pic: 100 factory workers, probably bet=een 1910 and 1920, in front of a 100-ton crane they built at Illinois Stee= Company's South Works Machine Shop (AP Photo/Arcadia Publishing)

The Industrial Revolution, while ultimately unleashing =rosperity, inflicted pain at first, per The Economist<=a>: "Inventions like the power loom displaced artisans, and increased the =elative demand for unskilled labour. Craftsmen whose skills took years to =one suddenly found themselves being replaced by machines operated by worke=s with just a few months' training."

"One study has found that the share of unskilled workers ros= from 20% of the labour force in England in 1700 to 39% in 1850. The ratio=of craftsmen's wages to labourers' started to fall in the early 1800s, and=did not recover until 1960."

Why it ma=ters: "[A]rtificial intelligence [will start] taking jobs away fr=m white-collar workers. Projections from America's Bureau of Labour Statis=ics show that four of the five fastest-growing occupations in the country =nvolve personal care; none of those jobs requires a bachelor's degree."

6. To tell your kids

via AP

"Fidget spinner fa=tories demand 'bags of cash' from suppliers," by N.Y. Post's =isa Fickenscher:

"As demand for the whirling contraptions continues to spiral, companies scrambl=ng to keep them on shelves claim they're being hit with extortionary pract=ces at the overseas factories that make them.

"The ball-bearing weights that cause the spinners t= move are in short supply — and some charge that Asian manufacture=s are hoarding them and asking ... 50 percent to 200 percent more."

=strong>P.S. Tracking power (a.k.a., What Bob Costa is reading) ... "LI=COLNVILLE, Maine (AP) — The drummer for the jam band Phish has bee= elected to his Maine town's Board of Selectmen. Jon Fishman will take a p=ace on Lincolnville's five-seat board after winning Tuesday's nonpartisan =lection."

A message from Raytheon

How Wall Street and the Pentagon collaborate on cyb=r

Businesses and military agencies have similar needs when it comes to cybers=curity, especially in an era when both are battling attacks from spies, or=anized crime rings and other bad actors. Learn more.

Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 200, Arlington VA 22201

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